Cartoon SNAP: August 2013

Phil Fumble looking at girls in bathing suits on the beach Ernie Bushmiller cartoon Fritzi Ritz comic book strip

Here are some more weirdo gag pages from Ernie Bushmiller’s Fritzi Ritz…circa 1949

If you missed the previous post on Ernie Bushmiller and his Pre- Nancy & Sluggo comic strip star, Fritzi Ritz – click right HERE--
Fritzi Ritz Comic by Bushmiller (part1)

Featuring boyfriend Phil Fumble…the unapologetic super-cad!

I love this silent first panel from the comic page below…

Click on any page for a BIG full-sized
Ernie Bushmiller comic book scan!

More info about Ernie Bushmiller and Fritzi Ritz at:
http://www.toonopedia.com/fritzi.htm
http://lambiek.net/artists/b/bushmiller_e.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_%28comics%29

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BIG online archive of Nancy comic strip scans :
http://ilovecomixnancy.blogspot.com/

Ernie Bushmiller’s Fritzi Ritz comics are a strange mixture of the truly bizarre and completely pedestrian. Fritzi Ritz started as a comic strip about a young single flapper girl from the Jazz Age of the 1920’s, created by Larry Whittington. When Whittington left the strip, Fritzi Ritz was taken over by his young assistant, Ernie Bushmiller.

Ernie Bushmiller introduced the character of Phil Fumble, Fritzi’s boyfriend and funnyman. Many of these strips start with a bizarre close-up on Phil as he utters a single line as the launching pad for the rest of the strip. Looking at the pages on this post alone shows him using this technique 75% of the time!! It’s a very artificial (but extremely economical) way of getting a gag rolling.

Here’s very typical opening panel:

Phil Fumble thinks about girlfriend Fritzi Ritz and her farm Ernie Bushmiller cartoon comic book strip.jpg

I love that dopey wall-eyed look on Phil’s face!

Nancy Ernie Bushmiller cartoon girl with ribbon in her hair

Ernie Bushmiller later added a little girl character to the strip… Fritzi Ritz’s niece, Nancy. Eventually, Nancy and her friend Sluggo took over the strip, and those are the characters that brought long-time fame to cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller.

These Fritzi Ritz newspaper strips were later reformatted and published in comic book form. These pager are from Fritzi Ritz Comics #3 from 1949