Bathless Groggins in Scratchistan

Oops! Sorry about the empty message. Must've clicked the wrong box. What I meant to ask:

When was the country of Scratchistan (capital: Itchopolis) first mentioned in "Abbie & Slats"?

Y'got me, Butch. I'll venture to say it was probably while Al Capp was writing it, before his brother took over (fairly early). But that's just because it sounds like the sort of name Capp (whose country names include the famous Lower Slobbovia) would do.

But it's not quite as characteristic of Capp as the name of "Bathless Groggins" himself -- that one's a dead giveaway. So I could be wrong.

Sorry I can't be of any better help than that. Anyone?

Quack, Don

Wow, thanks for the quick reply! Let me try an easier question: when was the earliest Scratchistan story that you (or others on this board) know of?

The reason for my odd request: The OED recently added an entry for the suffix "-stan" in the following sense:

"Freq. humorous. . . . Used as the second element in fictitious place names with the sense 'the notional realm or domain dominated by or centred around --', 'a world typified or characterized by --'. Sometimes implying resemblance to (aspects of) Asian or Islamic culture."

The OED's examples are "Whitestans" (in S. Africa), "Homostan", "Somewherestan", and "nastystans". Their earliest example is from 1960. I'm sure "Scratchistan" has that beat by at least a decade.

P.S. The name "Nomenallowedistan" just popped into my head. Some kind of Amazon, er, queendom; also from the travels of Bathless Groggins, I'm sure, but probably later than Scratchistan. Anyway, let me broaden my query to include any and all pre-1960 Funnystans.

It embarrasses me to admit it, but I'm not familiar with Scratchistan at all. Abbie & Slats is a pretty good comic strip, but not one that I've paid a lot of attention to. In fact, for all I know, it could be in an easily available reprint volume, which I read years ago, and just didn't retain in my head.

As for the other question, I don't know. The OED is a stupendous dictionary -- I've called it the greatest lexicographic feat of all time, in any language, but what do I know? -- but being descriptive rather than prescriptive, like all good dictionaries, it must necessarily lag behind the language itself. 1960 strikes me as probably a late date for its first example of the usage.

This calls to mind the word "Langtbortistan", which is Danish for something like "far away place". It was writer/translator Erika Fuchs (whose excellent work is largely responsible for the popularity of Carl Barks in Europe) who started using it in Disney comics there, and it's now become standard. I like the sound of it in English, so I've taken to using it in my own English-language Disney work.

Which shows that it's not just English that's adopted that construction for funny place names. And tho I don't know it for sure, I believe her coinage was before 1960. If nothing else, it shows the practice has been standard in many places, for a long time.

Quack, Don