Judge Rummy

One of the strips of the character (1920)

Judge Rummy was an American comic strip by Tad Dorgan published from 1910 until 1922. ^[1] It featured an anthropomorphic dog. Between 1918 and 1922 the character was also subject of a series of short animated cartoons.

Fictional biography

Alexander Rumhauser,^[2] better known as Judge Rummy, works as a court judge as his moniker implies. However, he is often seen doing other things like drinking alcohol and having affairs with women despite being married. Whenever he interacts with other characters, the strip often ends with at least one of them (including Judge Rummy) being upside down and showing only the feet (as shown in the strip above).

He had a minor role in an earlier strip in which his best friend was the protagonist, but later strips began focusing on him.

His wife is an obese lady who is four times his size. Whenever Judge Rummy dates a woman other than her or does something she finds unfavorable, the hefty wife would resort to brawling and roughing him up. Unlike other characters in the strip, she calls him either by his real name or sometimes "Alecthander."

Judge Rummy's best friend is a look-alike dog named Silk Hat Harry. Both dogs share similar interests in drinking booze and pursuing ladies.

In film

A scene from A Joy Ride, one of the animated cartoons based on the strip.

Judge Rummy also appears in short films created by the International Film Service and Bray Productions from 1918 to 1922. But unlike the strip, the upside down gag isn't applied.

References