Please take a moment to remember William Ritt (December 29, 1901 - December 20, 1972). From the Grand Comics Database... [Ritt] was an American sports journalist, columnist, and a writer of American comic strips. Ritt created Brick Bradford, combining his research into the Aztec culture with an Allan Quatermain-like hero. He reportedly submitted his idea to King Features head honcho Joe Connolley at least 3 times [using unknown artists] before hooking up with Clarence Gray and syndicator Central Press Association, all the while continnuing to work as a sports reporter for the Cleveland Press and doing a syndicated column called RITTICISMS. Both Ritts submittals and Bricks actual debut pre-date the more successful FLASH GORDON. The main difference between the two is that Flash had what appears to be an ad hoc trip to another planet to begn his adventures [cashing in on BLUE BOOKs biggest 1933 success, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE] while Brick found a lost world and civilization. Ritt was involved in other strips as well -- he wrote gags for Paul Robinsons ETTA KETT and Wally Bishops MUGS McGINNIS; scriped FRANK MERRIWELL [which ran 1928-36, making the leap from pulp to comic strip before BUCK ROGERS, though Ritts involvement was only 1931-34], CHIP COLLINS [Ritts tenure was 1934-35] and the short lived baseball strip GABBY [1935]. He also pitched a SECRET AGENT X-9 storyline after Alex Raymond announced his departure and failed to sell a strip featuring a young Indian boy named CHIEFIE in 1936 [Chiefie reappeared as Bricks sidekick in the daily DIAMOND DOLL storyline in 1940]. And, of course, he and Gray did the short-lived TIME TOP, which also folded into Brick continuity a few years later. After leaving Brick, he kept busy with another column, YOURE TELLING ME, and sports reporting, in addition to doing fact based articles on Peru and his obsession with native Americans like Incas, various American Indian cultures and Eskimos. But he kept his hand in the comic strip business as well. He pitched JUSTIN WRIGHT, about a medical missionary, with artist Andrew Bradish, and in 1952 did THE STORY OF STALIN for King Features, a close-ended 6-part strip possibly originally prepared in 1939, with Alfred J. Buescher updating Clifton Crittendens drawings IN THE DAYS OF DAVY CROCKETT [as told by an Old Scout] in 1955, again with Buescher, cashes in on the Walt Disney induced obsession with coonskin caps. But is actually interesting by itself. It ran daily for 4 weeks, devoting a week each to the lives of Jim Bowie, Sam Huston, Buck Travis and Andrew Jackson. Ritt and his new partner Buescher hit it big[ish] with an annual Christmas strip that ran for 6 days every December for 12 years, 1951 to 1962. First called ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS EVE, it eventually took the name of its central character, ESKI. [the other main character was a jolly ol soul in a red suit]. Biographical details courtesy of Art Lortie
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 20:54:12 +0000
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