The Katzenjammer Kids, at the hands of various artists and writers, were in newspapers and comic books for 109 years, starting in 1897, until 2006; and they’re still available in reprints.
They were in the Sunday color comics in my Grammy’s paper (but not ours), and I always looked forward to seeing what Hans and Fritz would get up to next. Looking back on it now, I wonder why they were so popular. Really, they weren’t nice at all–in fact, a couple of delinquents. Did they resonate with our sin nature, with some darkness in our souls? I can’t imagine trying to baby-sit for them: you might not live to tell about it.
Then again, perhaps they served a useful purpose, after all–an opportunity to let off steam without doing any harm. Hey, I watch the Three Stooges. That doesn’t mean I go around poking people in the eye and pulling chandeliers down from anybody’s ceiling. It means I laugh when they do it, because it’s so ridiculous. Maybe not as ridiculous as Okashii-yo-Cortez, but certainly more harmless.
I don’t know what I’d give to be at Grammy’s house again, reading the comics in her Sunday paper.
Yeah, those were the days. My Dad would take me to town on Sunday mornings, buy a paper, maybe an ice cream cone for me, and cigarettes for him, and then I could enjoy the funnies when we got home. Comics like these were something that both kids and adults could laugh at together.
I needed something like that, after posting that nooze story.
I always read the comics even before the Sports page on Sundays – hey, he comics were in color! But I didn’t care for the Katzenjammer Kids. I liked Beetle Bailey and Snuffy Smith.