Will Eisner and Scrappy

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Every time I’m foolish enough to think I’ve discovered all the important facts about Scrappy, something comes along to remind me how little I really know.

The latest example is a humdinger: I’ve just learned (from comic-strip expert Allan Holtz) that the 1937 Editor & Publisher Yearbook included a listing for a Scrappy comic strip (credited, of course, to Charles Mintz) that was syndicated by Eisner & Iger Associates…the Eisner in question being a very young Will Eisner.

It’s unclear whether this strip ever saw publication–or, in fact, if it was ever actually produced. And we don’t know whether Will himself had a hand in writing and/or drawing it. If I’d learned this a year ago, I would have tracked down Eisner at the San Diego Con and asked him myself; sadly, that’s no longer an option.

Oh, one other thing: This was the second Scrappy newspaper feature. The first, Scrappy Sayings, appeared in small papers in 1935. I haven’t seen that one either. Like I say, I’m humbled by how much there is left to learn in the world of Scrapology…

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