Alley Oop

For other uses, see Alley Oop (disambiguation).
Alley Oop

On April 9, 1939, Alley Oop was transported from the Stone Age into the 20th century.
Author(s) V. T. Hamlin (creator)
Jack and Carole Bender
Current status / schedule running
Launch date December 5, 1932
End date —
Syndicate(s) Newspaper Enterprise Association
Publisher(s) Whitman, Dragon Lady Press, Kitchen Sink Press
Genre(s) Humor, adventure, science fiction

Alley Oop is a syndicated comic strip, created in 1932 by American cartoonist V. T. Hamlin, who wrote and drew the popular and influential strip through four decades for Newspaper Enterprise Association. Hamlin introduced an engaging cast of characters, and his story lines entertained with a combination of adventure, fantasy and humor.

Alley Oop, the strip's title character, was a sturdy citizen in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo. He rode his pet dinosaur, Dinny, carried a stone war hammer and wore nothing but a fur loincloth. He would rather fight dinosaurs in the jungle than deal with his fellow countrymen in Moo's capital and sole cave-town. Despite these exotic settings, the stories were often satires of American suburban life.

Characters and story

The first stories took place in the Stone Age and centered on Alley Oop's dealings with his fellow cavemen in the kingdom of Moo. Oop and his pals had occasional skirmishes with the rival kingdom of Lem, ruled by King Tunk. The names Moo and Lem are references to the fabled lost continents of Mu and Lemuria.

On April 5, 1939, Hamlin introduced a new plot device, which greatly expanded his choice of storylines: A time machine, invented by the 20th-century scientist Dr. Elbert Wonmug, who bore a rather suspicious resemblance to the Grand Wizer. The name Wonmug was a bilingual pun on Albert Einstein; "ein" is German for "one", and a "stein" is a form of drinking mug. Oscar Boom, is derived from the words Nobel Prize, Oscar = Prize and Boom after Alfred Nobel (the inventor of dynamite).

Transported to the 20th century by an early test of the machine (in the Sunday strip of April 9, 1939), Oop was hardly upset by the incident and apparently did not find modern society to be any different from his own. He then became Dr. Wonmug's man in the field, embarking on expeditions to various periods and places in history, such as Ancient Egypt, the England of Robin Hood and the American frontier. Oop met such historical or mythical figures as Cleopatra, King Arthur and Ulysses in his adventures. In addition to the time machine, other science fiction devices were introduced. Oop once drove an experimental electric-powered race car, and in the 1940s, he traveled to the Moon. During his adventures he was often accompanied by his girlfriend, Oola, and by the sometimes-villainous, sometimes-heroic G. Oscar Boom (G.O. Boom), Dr. Wonmug's rival and occasional partner. A new laboratory assistant, Ava, joined the cast in recent years.

Syndication history

Alley Oop's name derived from the "let's go" phrase allez, hop!, used as a cue by French gymnasts and trapeze artists.[1] Initially, Alley Oop was a daily strip which had a run from December 5, 1932 to April 26, 1933. Beginning August 7, 1933, the strip was distributed by NEA syndicate, and the early material was reworked for a larger readership. The strip added a full page Sunday strip, on September 9, 1934. It also appeared in half-page, tabloid and half tab formats, which were smaller and/or dropped panels. During World War II, the full page vanished, and newspapers were offered a third of a page version that dropped panels, so more strips could fit on a page.

When Hamlin retired in 1971, Dave Graue, his assistant took over. Graue had been assisting Hamlin since 1950 and had been creating the daily solo since 1966, although co-signed by Hamlin. The last daily signed by Hamlin appeared December 31, 1972, and his last signed Sunday was April 1, 1973. From his North Carolina studio, Graue wrote and drew the strip through the 1970s and 1980s until Jack Bender took over as illustrator in 1991. Graue continued to write the strip until his August 2001 retirement. Four months later, on December 10, 2001, the 75-year-old Graue was killed in Flat Rock, North Carolina when a dump truck hit his car. The current Alley Oop Sunday and daily strips are drawn by Jack Bender and written by his wife Carole Bender.[2]

At its peak, Alley Oop was carried by 800 newspapers. Today, it appears in more than 600 newspapers. The strip and albums were popular in Mexico (under the name Trucutú) and in Brazil (Brucutu). In 1995, Alley Oop was one of 20 strips showcased in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative United States postage stamps.

Licensing and promotion

During the 1970s, Alley Oop was adapted to animation as a segment of Filmation's Saturday morning cartoon series Fabulous Funnies, appearing intermittently alongside other comic strip favorites: The Captain and the Kids, Broom-Hilda, Moon Mullins, Smokey Stover and Nancy.

In 2008, "to celebrate Alley Oop's 75th year," the Benders conducted a contest for "Dinosaur Drawings from Our Young Readers"; the entry Tyrannosaurus Rex holding a banner wishing "Happy Birthday" to Alley Oop, by 12-year-old Erin Holloway of Hammond, Louisiana, was published in the comic strip on 2009 January 17.[3]

In 2002, Dark Horse Comics produced a limited edition figure of the character in a brightly illustrated tin container. Alley Oop was issued as statue #28—part of their line of Classic Comic Characters collectibles.

Popular culture

The long-running success of the strip made the character a pop culture icon referenced in fiction, pop music, dance and sports:

Adventures

Start Date Time Location Summary
Current Prehistoric Moo Upon Alley's return to Moo Tunk attempts to capture Alley using his newly found secret weapon.
07/12/2013 May 1816 Switzerland, France A near-death accident for Alley inspires Mary Shelley to write her famous book Frankenstein. After returning to the 21st century, Alley visits a doctor for his recent accident. The character of Dr. Lambert was based on a real life Alley Oop fan and friend of the Benders, Mark Lambert, who lives in Newton, Iowa. [4]
01/01/2013 Prehistoric Moo Grand Wizard makes trouble for Moo.
06/30/2012 600 A.D. Chichen Itza Doomsday, December 21, 2012; it's up to Alley to find a fix.
12/15/2011 Prehistoric Moo Alley takes Lola back to Moo with him.
02/12/2011 2011 Earth 2 Alley and Oscar make a space trip to a newly discovered planet named Earth 2. Returning to Earth they unknowingly bring back an Ooola look-alike named Lola.
09/09/2010 Prehistoric Moo When King Guz resigns his position, Moo must find a replacement.

Collections and reprints

Many Alley Oop daily strips and a few Sundays have been reprinted by Dragon Lady Press, Comics Revue, Kitchen Sink Press, Manuscript Press and SPEC Books. In 2014, Dark Horse began publishing a series of large-format hardcover books that will purportedly cover the complete series of Sunday pages. The following titles are all by V. T. Hamlin unless otherwise noted:

References

  1. ↑ A.Word.A.Day: alley-oop
  2. ↑ Jennifer Chancellor, "OKC museum chronicles Okie cartoonists", Tulsa World, June 21, 2010.
  3. ↑ Stephanie Schexnayder, "Girl's Art Wins 'Alley Oop' Contest" in Daily Star (Hammond, Louisiana, 2009 January 7; "Girl's Art Featured in 'Alley Oop' Comic Today" in Daily Star (Hammond), 2009 January 17, p. 1 (The strip with the drawing appears on p. 3B of the Daily Star for 2009 January 17).
  4. ↑ Eschliman, Bob. "The Inside Oop: How Newton native became comic strip character". Newton Daily News. Shaw Media. Retrieved 1 May 2014.

Further reading

External links