flook!

This was a surprise discovery...

So it would seem that from late 1951 until 1959 the Perth Daily News ran a version of Flook, usually called 'Rufus and Flook'. You will recall that in November 2020 I showed you the way Flook started in the USA - using the 6th and 8th panels above - though I don't recall ever seeing Rufus look the way he looks here, ever. Whether this is the actual first three strips ever, compounded, I just don't know though I doubt it. 

Anyway there is a lot more Flook to come, is my main point. I will start grabbing it soon (can you wait till December? If not, just look it up yourself in Trove).

flook 16 october 1954

 

...and, rather bizarrely, this is the point at which Flook stopped running in US / Canadian newspapers. I wonder if there's any way to find out why the run ended. I mean of course there's no point in making a big announcement about a cancellation - it'll only get people upset - but this is a really strange place to end... 

flook 15 october 1954

 

Flook 1 October 1954

Spoiler: we are coming very close to the end of the Flook run in US newspapers, i.e., in a way they are easily accessible to me. So we're going to eke them out by making them daily from hereon. Enjoy...

 

flook in the second half of september 1954

 

flook first half of september 1954

 

I miss the time when the single poem of an undiscovered poet made the news. 

Stay tuned for the rest in a couple of weeks. 

flook august 1954

This is all getting very Daniel Clowes.

It is very irritating that the black boxes (as per above) are basically illegible. I think the one here says 'And so Rufus and Flook promoted to child helps enter upon a new (?) phase in their career but...'

The black box in the second frame above reads 'Later in the nursery'.