{"id":34718,"date":"2026-01-11T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T09:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34718"},"modified":"2026-01-09T17:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:57:11","slug":"the-definitive-betty-boop-the-classic-comic-strip-collection-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/01\/11\/the-definitive-betty-boop-the-classic-comic-strip-collection-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Definitive Betty Boop: The Classic Comic Strip Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Max Fleischer, Bud Counihan<\/strong>, with Hal Seeger<\/strong> & various (Titan Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-84856-707-8 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Betty Boop<\/strong> is one of the most famous and long-lived fictional media icons on the planet and probably the one who has generated the least amount of narrative creative material – as opposed to simply merchandise – per year since her debut.<\/p>\n

She was created at the Fleischer Cartoon Studios, most likely by either by Max Fleischer himself or top cartoonist and animator Grim Natwick – depending on whomever you\u2019ve just read – and had a bit part in the monochrome animated short feature Dizzy Dishes<\/strong>: the seventh \u201cTalkartoon<\/strong>\u201d release from the studio, screened for the first time on August 9th<\/sup> 1930.<\/p>\n

A calculatedly racy sex-symbol from the start, albeit anthropomorphised into a sexy French Poodle (!!), Betty was primarily based on silent movie star and infamous \u201cIt-Girl\u201d Clara Bow<\/em>. Or, according to some historians, it was far more than just her distinctive sound Betty took from popular contemporary star Helen Kane<\/em>. In those pioneering days of \u201ctalkies\u201d, Betty was voiced by a succession of actresses including Margie Hines, Kate Wright, Ann Rothschild and ultimately Mae Questel, who all mimicked Bow\u2019s soft, seductive (no, really!) Brooklyn accent. Or possibly Kane\u2019s. There\u2019s a court case involved in this history so opinions are hard held and still very divided…<\/p>\n

Although frequently appearing beside early Fleischer Studios stars Bimbo <\/strong>(a homely puppy dog also called Fitz<\/strong>) and Koko the Clown<\/strong> – who both debuted in Fleischer\u2019s earliest screen offerings Out of the Inkwell<\/strong> – Betty had become a fully, if wickedly shaped, human girl by 1932\u2019s Any Rags<\/strong>, and she quickly co-opted and monopolised all the remaining Talkartoons, before graduating to the Screen Songs<\/strong> featurettes. Betty ultimately won her own animated cartoon series to become \u201cThe Queen of the Animated Screen\u201d, reigning until the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

A Jazz Age flapper in the Depression Era, the delectable Boop was probably the first sex-charged teen-rebel of the 20th <\/sup>century, yet remained winningly innocent and knowledgeably chaste throughout her career. Maybe that\u2019s why she became so astoundingly, incredibly popular – although her appeal diminished appreciably once the censorious Hayes Production Code<\/strong> cleaned up all that smut and fun and sophistication oozing out of Hollywood in 1934 – even though the Fleisher Studio was proudly New York born and bred.<\/p>\n

Saucy singer Helen Kane – who had performed in a sexy \u201cBow-esque\u201d Brooklyn accent throughout the 1920s and was billed as \u201cThe Boop-Oop-A-Doop Girl\u201d – famously sued for \u201cdeliberate caricature\u201d in 1932. As well as a renowned actor, she was sharp enough to briefly steal the show and actually become the star of the first Betty newspaper strips…
\n\"\"
\nWhen Kane\u2019s lawsuit failed, Betty took over the paper outlets in her own name, but couldn\u2019t withstand a prolonged assault by the National Legion of Decency<\/strong> and Hayes Code myrmidons. With all innuendo removed, salacious movements restricted and wearing much longer skirts, Betty gained a boyfriend and family, whilst newspaper strip scripts consciously targeted younger audiences. The tabloid feature folded in 1937 and her last animated cartoon stories were released in 1939. The only advantage to Betty\u2019s screen neutering and new wholesome image was that she suddenly became eligible for inclusion on the Funnies pages of family newspapers, alongside the likes of Popeye<\/strong>, Little Orphan Annie<\/strong> and Mickey Mouse<\/strong>….<\/p>\n

This superb collection gathers every pre-war iteration associated with Betty Boop – including ones she isn\u2019t in – and is augmented by fond remembrances from Mark Fleischer and Virginia Mahoney in their Foreword \u2018About our grandad, Max Fleischer…\u2019 <\/em>and comes with an informative Introduction tracing Betty\u2019s wild ride of a career. Supplementing his text with candid behind-the-scenes photos and contemporary art as well as advertising items and memorabilia of the time, cartoonist Brian Walker (son of Beetle Bailey<\/strong> and Hi & Lois<\/strong> creator Mort Walker) traces the celluloid and tabloid star\u2019s creation, rise, fall and latter day resurgence in \u2018Made of Pen and Ink, she can win you with a Wink\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There was a brief flurry of renewed activity during the 1980s, which led to a couple of TV specials, a comic book from First Comics (Betty Boop\u2019s Big Break<\/strong>, 1990) and a second newspaper strip. Betty Boop and Felix<\/strong> was crafted by Walker and his brothers Neal, Greg, and Morgan, wherein the glamour queen shared adventures with fellow King Features nostalgia icon Felix the Cat<\/strong>. It ran from July 23rd<\/sup> 1984 – January 31st<\/sup> 1988, but even counting those – and we aren\u2019t here – that\u2019s still a pretty meagre complete comics canon for a lady of Betty\u2019s longevity, pedigree and stature…
\n\"\"
\nConfusion and contention abound in Betty\u2019s print career and that\u2019s mirrored in this book. Her first regular strip was as a daily feature in black-&-white, but you\u2019ll see that last, because the comics experience begins in full colour with an experimental Out of the Inkwell<\/strong> –<\/strong> Koko the Klown<\/strong> Sunday strip starring the manic mime in silent surreal romps that have the cachet of being Fleischer\u2019s first work for King Features Syndicate. They ran from November 25th<\/sup> – December 15th<\/sup> 1934 and are followed by The Original Boop Boop-A-Doop Girl<\/strong>: a Sunday feature spanning August 5th<\/sup> to October 12th<\/sup> 1934. As negotiations between Fleischer and King Features stalled in 1933, Helen Kane approached the Syndicate and offered herself as a straight knock-off for the cartoon star. The resultant domestic comedy strip ran for just 11 weeks, and only in the tabloid New York Sunday Mirror<\/strong>. It was dropped as soon as Fleischer signed with King Features…<\/p>\n

Attributed to Kane and drawn by Ving Fuller, the succession of manic gag pages are basic, innocently racy vaudeville one-liners, but do still evoke a certain nostalgic charm…<\/p>\n

Whilst we\u2019re on a possibly touchy subject: a lot of attitudes to women and visualisations of minorities won\u2019t really pass an earnest examination here, and readers should be aware that these were all created in a different time for far less enlightened audiences. A little patience and forbearance will be your best guides on some pages…<\/em><\/p>\n

Running from November 25th<\/sup> 1934 to November 27th<\/sup> 1937, the full colour Sunday strips starring the original and genuine Betty Boop<\/strong> were drawn by Bud Counihan: a veteran ink-slinger who had created the Little Napoleon<\/strong> strip in the 1920s before becoming Chic Young\u2019s assistant on Blondie<\/strong>. They commenced a few months after the daily feature and might be a little confusing as they encompass a large supporting cast for aspiring starlet Betty as she navigates a tiresome and treacherous career in Hollywood. I\u2019d advise reading the dailies first and ending your reading enjoyment here, but it\u2019s your choice…<\/p>\n

These gag episodes feature the freshly-sanitised, family-oriented heroine of the post-Hayes Code era, but for devotees of the period and comics fans in general, the strip still retains a unique and abiding charm. Counihan\u2019s Betty is still oddly, innocently coquettish yet confidant: a saucy thing with too-short skirts and skimpy apparel. Some outfits – especially bathing costumes – would raise eyebrows even now, and although the bald innuendo that made her a star is absent, these tales of a street-wise young thing trying to \u201cmake it\u201d in Tinseltown are plenty sophisticated when viewed through the knowing, sexually adroit and informed eyes of 21st<\/sup> century readers. Well some of them, anyway…<\/p>\n

Produced as full-page strips, the Sundays are broadly slapstick, with moments of cunning wordplay: single joke stories regarding the weirdness of acting and the travails of fandom. There\u2019s a succession of blandly arrogant romantic leading men (mostly called Van something-or-other<\/em>) but none stick around for long as Betty builds her career, and eventually scenarios change to a western setting as cast and crew begin making Cowboy Pictures, leading to many weeks\u2019 worth of \u201cInjun Jokes\u201d, but ones working delightfully and hilariously counter to expected unpleasant stereotypes of those times. However, the introduction of fearsome lower-class virago Aunt Tillie<\/em> – chaperone, bouncer and sometime comedy movie extra – moves the strip into an unexpected direction and begins Betty\u2019s life as an extra in her own show…<\/p>\n

Soon, a clear and unflinching formula sets in with Bubby<\/em> (see below), Aunt Tillie and her diminutive new beau Hunky Dory<\/em> increasingly edging Betty out of the spotlight and even occasionally off the page entirely. By 1937 the show was over…<\/p>\n

The Betty Boop<\/strong> daily strip began on July 23rd<\/sup> 1934: a raw, raucous comedy gig that ran until March 18th<\/sup> 1935 in an extended sequence of gag-a-day encounters blending into an epic comedy-of-errors. Here Betty\u2019s lawyers do litigious battle with movie directors and producers to arrive at the perfect contract for all parties. That\u2019s clearly a war that still rages to this day and once again it\u2019s happening under the cost restrictions of what is, after all, another Great Depression like the one Betty was a constant momentary antidote to…<\/p>\n

Jokes come thick and fast in the same vein, with lawyers, entourage and all extras providing the bulk of the humour whilst Betty stands in for the Straight Man in her own strip\u2026 Except for a recurring riff about losing weight to honour her contract, which stipulates she cannot be filmed weighing more than 100 pounds! Geez! Her head alone has got to weigh at least… sorry, I know… it\u2019s just a comic…<\/p>\n

Like most modern stars, Betty had a dual career and there\u2019s a lot of recording industry and song jokes as well as fan affrontery and boyfriend woes, as well as the introduction of the first of an extended cast: Betty\u2019s streetwise baby brother Bubby (originally Billy<\/em>). He\u2019s a riotous rapscallion intended to act as a chaotic foil to the star\u2019s affably sweet, knowingly dim complacency, and he\u2019s another celluloid wannabe in waiting…<\/p>\n

By no means a major effort of the Golden Age of Comics Strips, Counihan\u2019s Betty Boop<\/strong> (like most licensed syndicated features the strip was \u201csigned\u201d by the copyright holder, in this case Max Fleischer) remains a hugely effective, engaging and entertaining work, splendidly executed and well worthy of the attentions of fans with a penchant for history or feeling for fashion.<\/p>\n

With the huge merchandising empire built around the effervescent cartoon Gamin\/Houri, (everything from apparel to wallpaper, clocks to drinking paraphernalia) surely there\u2019s room today to address her small brief but potent contributions to the comics arts. If you think so, this book is for you…
\n\"\"
\nBetty Boop \u00a9 2015 King Features Syndicate, Inc.\/Fleischer Studios, Inc. \u2122 & \u00a9 Hearst Holdings, Inc.\/Fleischer Studios, Inc. All rights reserved. Foreword \u00a9 2015 Mark Fleischer & Ginny Mahoney. Introduction \u00a9 2015 Brian Walker.<\/p>\n

Today in 1877, pioneering Swedish cartoonist\/comics creator Oskar Emil <\/strong>\u201cO.A.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d Andersson <\/strong>was born, and in 1911 the amazing Jack Burney<\/strong> (Superman<\/strong>, Batman<\/strong>, Starman<\/strong>) also arrived. In 1957 Belgian star Bernard<\/strong> \u201cYslaire<\/em><\/strong>\u201d Hislaire<\/strong> was born followed a year later by Ms. Tree<\/strong> co-creator Terry Beatty <\/strong>with writer\/editor Bob Harras<\/strong> coming one year later. Sam<\/strong> (Zero Girl<\/strong>, The Maxx<\/strong>, Wolverine<\/strong>) Keith<\/strong>, arrived in 1963.<\/p>\n

Sadly in 1998 we lost astoundingly adept Canadian import Win Mortimer<\/strong> (Superman<\/strong>, Batman<\/strong>, Legion of Super-Heroes<\/strong>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Max Fleischer, Bud Counihan, with Hal Seeger & various (Titan Comics) ISBN: 978-1-84856-707-8 (HB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Betty Boop is one of the most famous and long-lived fictional media icons on the planet and probably the one who has generated the least amount of narrative creative … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Definitive Betty Boop: The Classic Comic Strip Collection”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[280,262,113,119,125,127,99,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-antics","category-anthropomorphic","category-comedy","category-comicsacademic","category-humour","category-nostalgia","category-westerns","category-world-classics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-91Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34723,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34718\/revisions\/34723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}