''Dickie Dare'' was a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

syndicated by

AP Newsfeatures AP Newsfeatures, aka AP Features, was the cartoon and comic strip division of Associated Press, which syndicated strips from 1930 to the early 1960s. History Origins In February 1930, I. M. Kendrick, executive assistant to AP president Kent ...

. Launched July 31, 1933, it was the first comic strip created by Milton Caniff before he began ''

Terry and the Pirates ''Terry and the Pirates'' is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, ...

''. The strip ended on October 12, 1957.

Publication history

In 1932, Caniff moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to accept an artist position in the Features Service of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

. He did general assignment art for several months, drawing the strips ''Dickie Dare'' and ''The Gay Thirties'',''Current Biography 1944'', p. 83. then inherited a panel cartoon called ''Mister Gilfeather'' in September 1932 when

Al Capp Alfred Gerald Caplin (September 28, 1909 – November 5, 1979), better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip ''Li'l Abner'', which he created in 1934 and continued writing and (wi ...

left the feature. Caniff continued ''Gilfeather'' until the spring of 1933, when it was retired in favor of a generic comedy in a panel cartoon, ''The Gay Thirties'', which he produced until he left AP in the fall of 1934. Caniff left the strip in late 1934 to work on ''Terry and the Pirates'', which followed the same theme of boy hero with two-fisted adult mentor. Caniff's last credited strip ran December 1, 1934.

Subsequent creators

Coulton Waugh Frederick Coulton Waugh (; 10 March 1896 – 23 May 1973) was a cartoonist, painter, teacher and author, best known for his illustration work on the comic strip ''Dickie Dare'' and his book ''The Comics'' (1947), the first major study of the fi ...

began drawing ''Dickie Dare'' in the middle of a story, and drew the strip for almost ten years, ending on February 26, 1944. In 1944, Waugh left to work on another strip, his wife and assistant, Odin Waugh, became the ''Dickie Dare'' illustrator from 1944 to 1948.

Fran Matera Francis A. "Fran" Matera (December 9, 1924 – March 15, 2012) was an American comic strip artist best known for his King Features Syndicate adventure strip '' Steve Roper and Mike Nomad'' from 1984 to 2004. In addition to his extensive experie ...

took over the strip on March 8, 1948, and continued until the strip ended on October 12, 1957. During the 1930s and 1940s, Waugh worked at his studio located in suburban Newburgh, New York.

Characters and story

In July 1933, Caniff began the adventure-fantasy, ''Dickie Dare'', influenced by series such as ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...

'' and ''

Brick Bradford ''Brick Bradford'' is a science fiction comic strip created by writer William Ritt, a journalist based in Cleveland, and artist Clarence Gray. It was first distributed on August 21, 1933 by Central Press Association, a subsidiary of King Features ...

''. The eponymous central character was a 12-year-old who dreamed himself into adventures with such literary and legendary persons as Robin Hood, Robinson Crusoe and

King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...

. In the spring of 1934, Caniff changed the strip from fantasy to reality, adding a new character, Dan Flynn, a freelance writer and friend of Dickie's father. At this juncture, Dickie no longer dreamed his adventures but experienced them while touring the world with "Dynamite Dan" Flynn. The duo shared many adventures during the next couple of decades. After Waugh returned to the strip, he stayed on until it ended in 1957. In the final decade, Dickie aged from a 12-year-old to a Navy Cadet.

References

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External links

''Dickie Dare''

at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on September 9, 2015.
Milton Caniff Collection at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
1933 comics debuts 1957 comics endings Adventure comics Dare, Dickie American comic strips Comics characters introduced in 1933 Dare, Dickie Drama comics Fantasy comics Dare, Dickie