Priscilla's Pop
Priscilla's Pop was a comic strip drawn by Al Vermeer. Syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association, it ran from 1946 until 1983.
Characters and story
The strip featured Priscilla Nutchell, a young girl who was obsessed with the idea of owning a horse, and her parents, Hazel and Waldo Nutchell. Other characters in the strip included her older brother, Carlyle, and her dog Oliver, plus her two young friends, Hollyhock and Stuart. Comics historian Don Markstein described the situation:
- The young school-age daughter was, of course, Priscilla. She was, in every possible way, a perfectly normal kid, outrageous only to the extent that most people that age are outrageous. It was only Waldo who got exasperated trying to deal with her. The cast was rounded out by Priscilla's friend, Hollyhock (who liked to read and consequently had a lot of general knowledge swimming around in her head), and Hollyhock's nemesis, Stuart (who doubted most of the factoids Hollyhock expressed).[1]
Two of the constant themes in the strip were Waldo's lunch, which consisted of eating mashed potato sandwiches to help stretch the family budget until the mortgage was paid. The other was, like many little girls of that time, Priscilla's yearning for her very own real horse. Somewhere before the strip ended, the money was found in the family budget to make such a purchase. Waldo, however, still ate his mashed potato sandwiches for lunch.
Edmund R. "Ed" Sullivan drew the strip after Vermeer's retirement in 1976. The strip came to an end on September 11, 1983.