[positronic1]

First let me say that SPARKY WATTS was a wonderful strip, and Boody Rogers is one of the unsung cartooning geniuses of comics' Golden Age. Now my question involves Columbia Comics' reprinting of Boody Rogers' original newspaper strip (which ran in papers from April 29th, 1940 until May 9th, 1942, just about a week more than 2 years) -- I started out reading the strip by noting the publication dates of BIG SHOT COMICS #14-41, SKYMAN #1, THE FACE #1, COLUMBIA COMICS #1, and SPARKY WATTS #1-3, all of which reprinted stories from the original newspaper strip. BUT! ... As it turns out, Columbia editor Vin Sullivan for some reason did not follow the story sequence of the strip exactly in reprinting it in his comic books. The story in SPARKY WATTS #3 actually came from an earlier point in the newspaper continuity than SPARKY WATTS #2, and #2's story actually came from an earlier point in the continuity than SPARKY WATTS #1 -- !! I have figured out that the story in SW #1 continues from the point where the story in BIG SHOT #38 left off, and BIG SHOT #39 picks up the continuity immediately thereafter. Additionally, I detect major breaks in in the strip's continuity somewhere between BIG SHOT #24 and #25 --plus the supporting characters of Yoo Hoo and Sparky's sister Sue show up suddenly in BIG SHOT #35, as if from nowhere, living at Doc Static's house, but they had never appeared in any earlier issues of BIG SHOT (so either SPARKY WATTS #3 or #2, or both, probably fit somewhere in there). I also have no clue where the Boody Rogers reprints that appeared in SKYMAN #1, THE FACE #1 and COLUMBIA COMICS #1 fit in the continuity of the BIG SHOT and SPARKY WATTS reprints. GCDb is no help because while they note which Boody Rogers strips were reprinted from the newspaper continuity, they don't list the actual dates of the original strips. Fortunately, I think it all eventually becomes straightforward after BIG SHOT #41, which reprinted the last newspaper strip (except for those leftover strips they saved to reprint in SPARKY WATTS #2 and 3). Has anyone else here tried to figure out the original strip continuity order? I guess everything would be so much easier if one of those enterprising publishers of newspaper strip reprints would try to reprint The Complete Sparky Watts Dailies. There is too small a sample of the original Sparky Watts newspaper strips posted on ComicBook+ (the last five weeks' worth, plus a short sequence of 9 days from earlier in the continuity) to be of any help in figuring it out. Now none of these concerns usually matter in reading original Golden Age comic books, because mostly the stories were self-contained little episodes that made no reference to stories which had been published earlier. I started out innocently enough, and began reading Sparky Watts in BIG SHOT #14 -- but as I went along, it became obvious that there are some breaks in a couple of places where continuity of the strip is missing, and things begin to get a little confusing. And other than the two obvious breaks I noted (between BS #24-25 and #34-35), there may also have been other gaps that I completely glossed over.

[Robb_K]

I have figured out that the story in SW #1 continues from the point where the story in BIG SHOT #38 left off, and BIG SHOT #39 picks up the continuity immediately thereafter. Additionally, I detect major breaks in in the strip's continuity somewhere between BIG SHOT #24 and #25 --plus the supporting characters of Yoo Hoo and Sparky's sister Sue show up suddenly in BIG SHOT #35, as if from nowhere, living at Doc Static's house, but they had never appeared in any earlier issues of BIG SHOT (so either SPARKY WATTS #3 or #2, or both, probably fit somewhere in there). I also have no clue where the Boody Rogers reprints that appeared in SKYMAN #1, THE FACE #1 and COLUMBIA COMICS #1 fit in the continuity of the BIG SHOT and SPARKY WATTS reprints. GCDb is no help because while they note which Boody Rogers strips were reprinted from the newspaper continuity, they don't list the actual dates of the original strips.  Has anyone else here tried to figure out the original strip continuity order? I guess everything would be so much easier if one of those enterprising publishers of newspaper strip reprints would try to reprint The Complete Sparky Watts Dailies.

Hi Positronic 1,
I've had the same exasperating experience as you've had.  And I've not been able to get any further towards solving it than you have.  Yes, it would be wonderful if a deLuxe hardbound edition of ALL the Sparky Watts stories  (plus any outtake and rejected art and articles on Boody's career history, etc.) would be issued in the near future. But I'm near 80 years old, so they'd better get to it!