''Tim Tyler's Luck'' is an adventure

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 ...

created by

Lyman Young Lyman W. Young (October 20, 1893 – February 12, 1984) was an American cartoonist who created the strip ''Tim Tyler's Luck''. His younger brother, Chic Young, was the creator of '' Blondie''. Like his brother, Lyman Young was encouraged to do ar ...

, elder brother of '' Blondie'' creator

Chic Young Murat Bernard "Chic" Young (January 9, 1901March 14, 1973) was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip ''Blondie (comic strip), Blondie''. His 1919 ''William McKinley High School Yearbook'' cites his nickname as Chicken, source of hi ...

. Distributed by

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...

, the strip ran from August 13, 1928, until August 24, 1996.

Characters and story

When ''Tim Tyler's Luck'' started in 1928, Tyler was living in an orphanage. However, he soon left the orphanage for the outside world. When he teamed with an older sidekick, Spud, they began globe-trotting for a series of international adventures. Many tales took place in Africa, as noted by comic strip historian Don Markstein: :By the time the Sunday version started (July 19, 1931), Tim and Spud were well away from the orphanage, living a life of adventure. At first, their adventures tended to be light and cartoony, but later, with ''

Buck Rogers Buck Rogers is a science fiction adventure hero and feature comic strip created by Philip Francis Nowlan first appearing in daily US newspapers on January 7, 1929, and subsequently appearing in Sunday newspapers, international newspapers, books ...

'', ''

Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...

'' and the like gaining popularity, the strip took a more serious turn. Tim and Spud traveled the world before settling for several years in Africa, where (having grown into their late teens or so) they joined the Ivory Patrol and spent their time chasing after poachers and the like. They returned to America during World War II, where they mostly dealt with spies and saboteurs. Afterward, they went traveling again, eventually returning to Africa, where they remained for good.Markstein, Don. Toonopedia: ''Tim Tyler's Luck''
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Illustrators

Starting March 31, 1935, Young added a topper strip, ''Curley Harper''; it ran until January 14, 1945, and sometimes appeared separately. Young employed several artists, some of whom became famous and successful with their own strips. The illustrators included

Alex Raymond Alexander Gillespie Raymond Jr. (October 2, 1909 – September 6, 1956) was an American cartoonist who was best known for creating the '' Flash Gordon'' comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into m ...

Burne Hogarth Burne Hogarth (born Spinoza Bernard Ginsburg, December 25, 1911 – January 28, 1996) was an American artist and educator, best known for his work on the ''Tarzan'' newspaper comic strip and his series of anatomy books for artists. Early life ...

Clark Haas Clark S. Haas, Jr. (July 21, 1919 – January 18, 1978) was a cartoonist and, from 1957 to 1965, owner of Cambria Studios, which produced the limited animation series ''Clutch Cargo'' (1959). Career Before working professionally in cartoons, ...

Tony DiPreta Anthony Louis "Tony" DiPreta (July 9, 1921 – June 2, 2010) was an American comic book and comic strip artist active from the 1940s Golden Age of comic books. He was the longtime successor artist of the comic strip ''Joe Palooka'' (1959–84 ...

, Nat Edson and Tom Massey. In 1972, Young's son, Bob Young, began sharing credit with his father, and after Lyman Young's death in 1984, Bob completely took over the strip. ''Tim Tyler's Luck'' slowly faded away, and by the time it was canceled in 1996, it was being carried by only a single paper.

Reprints

In 2016,

The Library of American Comics Library of American Comics (abbreviated as LoAC) is an American publisher of classic United States, American comic strips collections and comic history books, founded by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell in 2007. History Background Dean Mullaney ...

reprinted one year of the strip (1933) as an installment in its '' LoAC Essentials'' line.

Film

In 1937, a 12-chapter

movie serial A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

starred

Frankie Thomas Frank Marion Thomas Jr. (April 9, 1921 – May 11, 2006), was an American actor, author and bridge-strategy expert who played both lead and supporting roles on Broadway, in films, in post-World War II radio, and in early television. He was ...

as Tim Tyler. The title of the

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of the ...

novel ''

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana ''The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana'' (original Italian title: ''La Misteriosa Fiamma della Regina Loana'') is a novel by the Italian writer Umberto Eco. It was first published in Italian in 2004, and an English language translation by Geoffrey ...

'' (2004) is taken from the title of a strip episode, in turn inspired by H. Rider Haggard's novel ''

She She most commonly refers to: *She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English. She or S.H.E. may also refer to: Literature and films *'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...

''.

References

External links

Toonopedia: ''Tim Tyler's Luck''
1928 comics debuts 1996 comics endings Adventure comics American comic strips American comics adapted into films Works about orphans {{Comic-strip-stub