Bo the dog

By Daughter
Posted on: Mar 19th 2008 at 5:12 PM

Replies: 6

One of my favorite Sunday cartoons when I used to read the Pittsburgh Press on the floor was, I think, called Bo. The characters were mutts, and they were not humanoid (except that they talked to each other). I recall it as being a rather gentle strip in which the dogs were peaceable types that wandered around by themselves pretty much the way most neighborhood dogs did in those days. Does anyone else remember Bo?

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Posted by: Don Markstein

Posted on: 2008-03-20 at 05:29:24 AM

Since I don't know how old you are, I'm not sure how long it's been since you used to read Sunday comics on the floor. I don't know of a character with that name, but there are a couple of Sunday comics that could fit the description.

I'm thinking of one, in particular, that's contemporary, so you can still see it in Suncay papers, possibly even The Philadelphia Press, tho I don't know that paper's line-up. The only thing that keeps me from mentioning the title is, I don't read it myself, so I'm not sure if one of the, uh, "mutts", if you don't mind taking a hint, is named Bo. Eventually, I'll get familiar with it so I can write it up here.

Anyway, what time frame are we talking about?

Quack, Don

Posted by: Daughter

Posted on: 2008-03-20 at 08:03:14 AM

Comics on the floor--Oh, say 1946-1950. Unfortunately, there is no more Pittsburgh Press. I found out that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a strip called Mutts, but the artist is inspired by Snoopy. I looked at the list of 37 comics the PPG published in 2000, when they took a survey, but no Bo. I think he's long gone.

Posted by: Don Markstein

Posted on: 2008-03-21 at 08:11:52 AM

Well, that certainly does let Mutts out. But now that I know the time frame, I did find a listing for a syndicated strip called Bo, which ran from the early 1940s to the mid '50s. The title and cartoonist (Frank H. Beck, who also did features called Gas Buggies, Down the Road and All in a Lifetime before it) are all I have, tho, so I can't say for sure whether or not Bo was a dog.

Sorry I can't give you more help.

Quack, Don

Posted by: Rob Allen

Posted on: 2008-03-21 at 10:09:16 AM

A quick search of the archives of the comic-strip-classics group at Yahoo finds one mention of Bo. In 2002, Allan Holtz wrote, "If I might put in my two cents about dogs in strips I'm surprised that
nobody has mentioned Bo by Frank Beck. Superb (though practically forgotten) cartoonist, very effective strip."

Allan's blog, strippersguide.blogspot.com, doesn't have any examples of Bo, but it does have the press release from the syndicate announcing the strip's debut.

So Bo is not completely forgotten.

Posted by: Daughter

Posted on: 2008-03-22 at 06:04:19 AM

Thank you, Don and Rob! "Bo" is impossible to search for by itself, but once I had the name of the cartoonist I even found some examples. http://lambiek.net/artists/b/beck_fh.htm That's "my" dog!

Posted by: Don Markstein

Posted on: 2008-03-23 at 10:01:04 AM

Thanks, Rob. Allan Holtz (the discoverer of Bobby the Boy Scout, probably the first-ever newspaper adventure comic, by the way) is a very good source for info like this. What he know about about old comic strips is amazing in its comprehensiveness and detail.

And Daughter, I'm glas to hear you got what you needed.

Quack, Don