The date is April 14, 1924 and Washington Tubbs II, a young bumbling store manager makes his comic strip debut. It started life as a daily gag about Tubbs's misadventures, but soon expanded to storylines. Just 12 weeks later the strip was reinvented. Its creator, Roy Crane, moved Tubbs from the comfort of the store to a life in the circus.

Suddenly, Tubbs became a man of adventure and it is often claimed that the former store manager was the precursor to Buck Rogers and Dick Tracy. Bull Dawson, Wash's arch-enemy was introduced in 1926. But Tubbs not being a fighter needed some muscle to deal with him. After a few attempts at finding a suitable character Roy Crane introduced Captain Easy on May 6, 1929. The tough Southerner was exactly what was needed. In fact he eventually stole the show, had himself a Sunday strip and in 1949 the daily was renamed Captain Easy. Luckily we have examples in our Captain Easy section.

Tubbs made infrequent visits to the strip, presumably married life and the birth of twins keeping him busy. In 1988 Captain Easy's strip finished and with it any chance of news of Tubbs.