Point taken. Desperately trying to access B.B. Probably should have looked before opening my mouth. I should point out that my first exposure to Rip Kirby, and to The Phantom, for that matter, was in comics form. In Britain, Rip Kirby appeared in a series in Super Detective Library (pocket sized editions) and The Phantom in imported Australian Frew comics and L. Miller publications. Only much later did I find newspaper reprints of these titles. My first exposure to Jack Kirby was Private Strong, which had a huge effect on me (American comics were almost impossible to find before 1959) and then there was the F.F. And,as I said previously, despite loving it at the time, I don't go back and re-read The F.F or much other early Marvel stuff -apart from Ditko's Spiderman. I do re read and love stuff by all the others I mention and, just to add a touch of foreign to the discussion, also Hugo Pratt. I don't want to confuse anyone so go and have a look at Pratt's work - not only Corto Maltese. Pratt was a world class creator.
JVJ, you also confuse me slightly as comics and newspaper strips are very similar as far as I am concerned. To a great extent, they are both balloon strips, as opposed to text strips which are and were very commom in Britain, Netherlands and Belgium (also at one time in U.S.A.) Is Jesse marsh's work in, say Carter of Mars, closer to a comic than a newspaper strip? Not sure, personally, but keen to hear opinions.
