Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli for January 14, 2014

R I I I I I I G H T !!!

Now he’s really stringing them along. I’m pretty sure he’s never been to the African jungle. Should make a good story, though.

Safaris are not held in the African jungle, they’re on the Serengeti.

Does anyone know if there was ever a story arc in which Walt actually went to Africa?

Anyone remember the cartoon, Commander McBragg?

Susan Newman

Back when I had my comic shop I stocked the Walt & Skeezix volumes (I only sold one copy of each…to myself). But since you ask, THIS Is coming up…http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Before-Skeezix/dp/1770461418/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389711129&sr=1-4&keywords=gasoline+alley

Walt found an infant on his doorstep, took him in, maned him Skeezix.Walt married Nina a number of years later, they had more children after the wedding.Skeezix proved to be European Aristocracy, from one of the flyspeck countries.

Not trying (too hard) to sound like a know-it-all, but Walt did not marry Nina Clock. He married Phyllis Rumpus Blossom. Nina Clock is Skeezix’ wife.

Walt married Phyllis Rumpus Blossom, not Nina Clock. They were married in 1926, when Skeezix was five. Walt and Phyllis had Corky in 1928 and adopted Judy in 1935 after she was left on the running board of Walt’s car. Phyllis died in 2004. She was posthumously revealed to have been the sister of Skeezix’s birth mother.

Skeezix married Nina Clock, his high-school sweetheart, in 1944 while on leave from his WWII service. They have a son, Chipper, born in 1945, and a daughter, Clovia, born in 1949.

Another volume of “Walt & Skeezix” will be coming out at some point—I asked a rep from Drawn & Quarterly at SPX last fall.

The old Gasoline Alley stories can be found at “I Love Comix Archives.”

Oh, my gosh! My mother’s name was Nina. Too bad the newspapers in our area didn’t run Gasoline Alley. She would have thought it was funny even though her last name was not Clock.

“Gasoline Alley” grew up somewhat spontaneously, starting as a simple one-panel about guys hanging out and talking about cars. Back then, when cars were new, most people who didn’t have farms didn’t have barns or stables or mews that could be converted to garages, so garages had to be built as extra structures on the back of the lot, and, for a time, it wasn’t unusual for the houses on a block to share an alley going to the garages from a side street, instead of each house building a driveway to its own garage from the street front.

Eventually, four main characters emerged. Walt, Doc, Avery, and Bill. Three of them were married with children, but Walt was a happy bachelor; his catchphrase was, “I know when I’m well off!”. The title did well, and turned into a full-length daily strip, but the head of the syndicate complained that, although it was a hit with men, most women were paying it no mind. And so that order came down from on high, “Put a baby in the strip. Chicks dig babies.” Frank King (the writer/artist) figured that one more baby in one of the existing families wouldn’t be interesting, and so, on Valentine’s Day, 1921, Walt Wallet heard a noise at his door, and, when he went to see what it was, found a baby in a basket. (This was probably the most famous individual comic strip of all time.) At that moment, the continuing-story comic, the real-time comic, and, according to some, the soap opera (not just soap-opera comics, but soap opera itself) were born.

For a time, “Gasoline Alley” was quite strictly real time, with each strip happening on a successive day. Of course, this led to many strips beginning with a character saying, “Remember that conversation we were having yesterday? I was just thinking that….”

Both Skeezix’ biological father, Colonel Henri Coda (actually, the deposed Grand Duke of Glovania) and his biological mother, Madame Octave (world-famous opera singer), tried to get Skeezix back, both by law and by outright abduction. After a few years, Col. Coda was (apparently) lost on a trans-Atlantic flight. Mme. Octave showed up one last time at Skeezix’ wedding.

Glovania is on the Adriatic Coast, and the few words we have heard of Glovanian suggest that it is an Eastern Romance language, something like Istro-Romanian (not the same as Romanian) or Dalmatian. That would put Glovania in the neighborhood of Croatia in the real world.

I always thought there was a missed opportunity in Gasoline Alley around 1990. When Communism fell, there was serious talk in a few countries about going back to their ancient monarchies. It would have been interesting to have Glovania offer the crown to Skeezix (whose birth name, incidentally, is Allison).

As far as I know, apart from some vague acknowledgements that Walt served in WW1 in the USN (or was it the USCG?), we know very little of his early life, before, his enlistment up, he returned to civilian life.

Her sister was Ada Clock

circa 1921, gasoline alley was about a group of guys working on old flivvers in an alley.