''Life's Like That'' was a gag panel by

Fred Neher Fred Neher (September 29, 1903 – September 22, 2001) was an American cartoonist best known for his syndicated gag panel, ''Life's Like That'', which offered a humorous look at human nature, with a focus on American society and family life, for ...

which found humor in life's foibles. Spanning five decades -- from October 1, 1934 to August 20, 1977 — the panel was initially distributed by Consolidated News Features, and later by the

Bell-McClure Syndicate The Bell Syndicate, launched in 1916 by editor-publisher John Neville Wheeler, was an American syndicate that distributed columns, fiction, feature articles and comic strips to newspapers for decades. It was located in New York City at 247 West 4 ...

and the

United Feature Syndicate United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along ...

. At its peak, ''Life's Like That'' was published in 500 newspapers. The Sunday format gave several cartoons a free-floating grouping, with variations, including one arrangement similar to

George Lichty George Lichty (May 16, 1905 – July 18, 1983) was an American cartoonist, creator of the daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday cartoon series ''Grin and Bear It''. His work was signed Lichty and often ran without mention of his first name. ...

's ''

Grin and Bear It ''Grin and Bear It'' is a former daily comic panel created by George Lichtenstein under the pen name George Lichty. Lichty created ''Grin and Bear it'' in 1932 and it ran 83 years until 2015, making it the 10th-longest-running comic strip in Ame ...

'', displaying several square-shaped panels with one in a circle.National Cartoonists Society
When Neher died at age 98 in Boulder, Colorado in 2001, Owen S. Good wrote in the ''Rocky Mountain News'':

Publication history

Neher had drawn a comic strip, ''Goofey Movies'', for five years (1925-1930), plus sales of gag cartoons to 42 magazines, including '' Collier's'' and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', when the

Bell Syndicate The Bell Syndicate, launched in 1916 by editor-publisher John Neville Wheeler, was an American syndicate that distributed columns, fiction, feature articles and comic strips to newspapers for decades. It was located in New York City at 247 West 4 ...

signed him on in 1934. ''Life's Like That'' was launched October 1, 1934, and ran until 1941 but disappeared from newspapers during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. As the war concluded, it returned by June 1945, running until 1977, when Neher retired. He stopped doing the Sunday half-page in October 1972. Doug Sweet, of ''The

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', recalled that his newspaper ran ''Life's Like That'' when it carried no other syndicated gag panels or comic strips:

References

{{reflist

External links

Syracuse University: Fred Neher Papers
American comic strips Comic strips set in the United States 1934 comics debuts 1977 comics endings Gag cartoon comics Gag-a-day comics Slice of life comics

Publication history

Archives

References

External links