''Right Around Home'' was a comic strip by Dudley Fisher that was distributed by King Features Syndicate from January 16, 1938 to May 2, 1965. Fisher drew a suburban setting with a focus on one family in that neighborhood, but what made his Sunday strip unique was the format. He employed an elevated down-angle view showing numerous characters in an immense single panel that completely filled an entire

Sunday page 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 ...

. Fisher drew ''Right Around Home'' until his death on October 6, 1951, after which his assistant, Bob Vittur, managed the strip with assistance from King Features’ bullpen stalwart Stan Randal until its end on May 2, 1965.

Characters and story

The energetic Myrtle and her parents were central figures in the neighborhood. In 1942, King Features asked Fisher to do a daily version of ''Right Around Home'' in a conventional comic strip format, and the daily ''Myrtle'' began that year. Comics historian

Don Markstein 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 ...

described Fisher's family: :Most pages showed the ensemble cast gathered together for a barbecue, a session of ice skating, or some other event where a lot of little things were going on all at once. But when, a few years later, the syndicate suggested Fisher start a daily version, he decided the smaller format called for a narrower focus. Myrtle, which starred one of the neighborhood kids, began in 1942. Myrtle was a high-spirited girl, not as bratty as

Little Iodine ''Little Iodine'' is an American Sunday comic strip, created by Jimmy Hatlo, which was syndicated by King Features and ran from August 15, 1943 until August 14, 1983. The strip was a spin-off of '' They'll Do It Every Time'', an earlier Hatlo c ...

or as nice as Little Dot—about on the order of

Little Lulu ''Little Lulu'' is a comic strip created in 1935 by American author Marjorie Henderson Buell. The character, Lulu Moppet, debuted in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' on February 23, 1935, in a single panel, appearing as a flower girl at a wedding ...

. Her mom and dad, Freddie and Susie in the larger version, were also central players, as were their dog Bingo and her pal Sampson. Other neighbors, including pets, made regular appearances. Even Archie and Alice, a pair of birds that nested in the area and sometimes commented from afar on the Sunday doings, turned up occasionally.

Carl Ed Carl Frank Ludwig Ed (July 16, 1890 – October 10, 1959) was a comic strip artist best known as the creator of '' Harold Teen''. His name is pronounced ''eed''. Born in Moline, Illinois, Ed graduated from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illi ...

(''

Harold Teen ''Harold Teen'' is a discontinued, long-running American comic strip written and drawn by Carl Ed (pronounced "eed"). Publisher Joseph Medill Patterson may have suggested and certainly approved the strip's concept, loosely based on Booth Tarking ...

'') also got at least partial credit from 1943-51. After

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 ...

, the Sunday strip was retitled ''Myrtle—Right Around Home'' and later ''Right Around Home with Myrtle'' (and sometimes simply ''Myrtle''). When Fisher died in 1951, his assistant Bob Vittur drew the strip, which continued until it was dropped in 1964.Lambiek: Dudley Fisher
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Reprints

''Right Around Home'' was reprinted in the first issue (December 2011) of Russ Cochran's ''

The Sunday Funnies ''The Sunday Funnies'' is a publication reprinting vintage Sunday comic strips at a large size (16"x22") in color. The format is similar to that traditionally used by newspapers to publish color comics, yet instead of newsprint, it is printed on ...

''.

References

Sources

* Strickler, Dave. ''Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index.'' Cambria, California: Comics Access, 1995. {{ISBN, 0-9700077-0-1 American comic strips 1938 comics debuts 1965 comics endings Comics about married people Comics characters introduced in 1937 Gag-a-day comics Gag cartoon comics Slice of life comics