A Compendium of Comic Strip Cameos

Cameos in film and television are common. In comic strips, they're not. One of the challenges is copyright, of course. When the Spirit did an extended appearance in Dick Tracy (site), the current owners of Will Eisner's intellectual property had to clear character treatment and depiction.

The other challenge is the blending of style. Sometimes the artist of the strip can't convincingly duplicate the style of cameo's artist. In the cases that appeared in June 2017 strips, that wasn't a problem. The first example comes from Blondie.

Dean Young''s clean style was a perfect match for Greg and Mort Walker's. Although Blondie is more detailed than Beetle Bailey, the styles were close enough to make Sarge's appearance appear natural.

Mark Tatulli has riffed on Peanuts many times in his strip Lio. His depiction of Charles Shultz's characters is close enough for the gag to work.

In September 2017, Jim Scancarelli sent Joel looking for his sidekick Rufus in an extended Gasoline Alley sequence.

This isn't the first time Gasoline Alley has featured Dick Tracy characters (see The Alley Comes to Tracy). Scancarelli draws Tracy and B.O. Plenty in the style of their creator, Chester Gould. If you're not familiar with the current iteration of Dick Tracy, it works. If you are (as I am), it seems a little off -- almost as if we're looking at an alternate universe, Dick Tracy!

Still, all three strips are good examples of comic strip artists showing they can draw in more than one style.