Gasoline Alley and the Old Comic Strip Challenge 18

In a sequence that began on April 9, 2013, Gasoline Alley centenarian Walt Wallet receives an invitation to the Old Comics Home dinner. Walt has reminisced before about his fellow characters from discontinued comic strips. And since Gasoline Alley began in 1918, there are quite a few of his contemporaries who have been retired.

Day 18 just has two characters: Fearless Fosdick and Uncle Walt.

Fearless Fosdick was a comic strip within the comic strip Li'l Abner. Creator Al Capp parodied Chester Gould's Dick Tracy to an extent Gould felt unwarranted. With the exception of the same crag-like features, the two were mirror images of each other. Capp was quite savage in his satire, and Fearless Fosdick became a popular character in his own right. Interestingly, it seemed to have virtually no impact on the popularity of Dick Tracy. In the 1950's both characters were licensed to advertisers, and often time appeared on the same newspaper comics page.

1. Fearless Fosdick - Li'l Abner (1934-1977) by Al Capp

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