Number 1586: Solid, Jackson!

Solid Jackson is a friend of Natch Kilroy, and another funny character from The Kilroys, a popular teenage series from ACG in the late forties and early fifties. Animator Bob Wickersham (“Wick”) did the artwork and Hubie Karp wrote the story.

The phrase, “Solid, Jackson!” was in use during the war years based on this photo.

After the war it was used in hipster-talk. Man, if everything is aw reet, copacetic, then you is solid, Jackson! I’m glad to see that according to the Urban Dictionary the term is still being used, but in reading their definition, maybe more graphically defined than 65 years ago.

From The Kilroys #19 (1949):

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Number 1559: Funny Films funny comic book!

The artists who made up the line-ups for funny animal comics published by ACG were moonlighting animators. It shows in their comic book work, which makes the comics so much fun to read. These two stories are from Funny Films #1 (1949). Detective Whoo-Doodit is a braggart with claims of detecting skills he doesn’t have. That sets up the stories for much slapstick and funny sight gags. Artist Bob Wickersham (who sometimes signed his name “Wick”) was a mainstay of the funny comics at ACG, and does his usual brilliant job with this material.

Funny Films had a run of 29 issues, until 1954. Sadly, Wickersham had a short run of his own; born in 1911, he died in 1962 at age 51.

This photo is identified as Wickersham. Did smoking have something to do with his early demise?*

*My father, Big Pappy, died at age 47 from smoking. Don’t smoke, kids!

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Number 1207: Scooby-Doo's Grandpa Boris

Looking at this funny story from The Kilroys #28 (1950) I was struck by Solid Jackson's dog, Boris. He looks like Scooby-Doo to me, drawn almost twenty years before Scooby-Doo made his debut in 1969. Wickersham, who sometimes signed his name Wick, was a moonlighting animator who drew their teenage comic, The Kilroys, which had a nice run from 1947 to 1955. I've shown a couple of Kilroys stories at various times, including New Year's Day of this year, in Pappy's #1080 and a couple of music-themed stories in Pappy's #831.

Wickersham, born in 1911, worked for most of the major animation studios. I'm a comic book fan, so I don't know a lot about animation, but I do know comic books. To me it's enough that he did such a wonderful job for years on this funny comic. Wickersham died in 1962 at the age of fifty.

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