''Our Own Oddities'' is an illustrated panel that ran in the

Sunday comics The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies. The first US newspap ...

section of the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...

'' from September 1, 1940 to February 24, 1991. The feature displayed curiosities submitted by local readers and is often remembered for its drawings of freakish

produce Produce is a generalized term for many farm-produced crops, including fruits and vegetables (grains, oats, etc. are also sometimes considered ''produce''). More specifically, the term ''produce'' often implies that the products are fresh and g ...

, such as a potato that resembled

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

. The style of the panel was very similar to ''

Ripley's Believe it or Not! ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' feat ...

''.

Publication history

When it began September 1, 1940, it was titled ''St. Louis Oddities''. The title changed in the late 1940s. Graczak retired from the newspaper in 1980, but he continued to produce the panel for ten more years in addition to doing a talk show on St. Louis's

KMOX KMOX (1120 AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel station with a non-directional signal. The KMOX studios and offices are on Olive Street at Tucker Bouleva ...

radio.John M. McGuire, "Still Odd after All These Years," ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', June 27, 1990. He died of a heart attack August 3, 1997.

Content

The curiosities, including actual fruits and vegetables, were submitted to ''Post-Dispatch'' illustrator Ralph Graczak (pronounced ''Gray''-zak), who each week selected several items and produced a color illustration to be printed in the Sunday paper. In addition to bizarre produce, ''Our Own Oddities'' featured other peculiar local trivia, such as a local woman who lived at 1919 Montgomery Street and was born at nine o'clock on August 19, 1919. Clever church signs and tombstone epitaphs were popular features.

Anniversary special

In September 2003, the ''Post-Dispatch'' accepted submissions for a 63rd anniversary special of ''Our Own Oddities''. The best submissions, including a duck-shaped cucumber and a woman born on

December 7, 1941 The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

, with the initials W.A.R., were illustrated by ''Post-Dispatch'' artist Dan Martin and featured in the October 6, 2003, edition.Jeff Daniel, "It's Odd That You Should Mention It," ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', October 6, 2003.

Controversy

Despite its quaint illustrated style and typically benign subjects, the feature was the cause of controversy when on May 24, 1988, it included a sign on a truck-repair shop that read "These premises protected by a

pit bull Pit bull is a term used in the United States for a type of dog descended from bulldogs and terriers, while in other countries such as the United Kingdom the term is used as an abbreviation of the American Pit Bull Terrier breed. The term was f ...

with

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

."Sue Ann Wood, "Stab at Humor Is Not Funny," ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', May 29, 1988. The newspaper printed several angry letters. Graczak and the newspaper's features editor expressed regret.

References

{{reflist

External links

Gallery: ''Our Own Oddities''History of ''Our Own Oddities''"Our Own Oddities, the book" ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' (May 14, 2009)
American comic strips 1940 comics debuts 1990 comics endings St. Louis Post-Dispatch Non-fiction comic strips