(The word palooka was widely used to mean a lout or an inept fighter). Joe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher, of Wilkes Barre, PA, in 1921. The strip debuted in 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers. In his home town of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Fisher devised the character in 1921 after he met a boxer, Pete Latzo, outside a poolroom. As Fisher explained in an article in Colliers: “ Here, made to order, was the comic strip character I had been looking for—a big, good-natured prize fighter who didnt like to fight; a defender of little guys; a gentle knight. I ran back to the office, drew a set of strips and rushed to the newspaper syndicates. ” However, many rejections followed before Fishers strip was finally syndicated by the McNaught Syndicate after Fisher, while employed as a McNaught salesman, sold it to over 20 newspapers. It debuted April 19, 1930, and by 1948, it was ranked as one of the five most popular newspaper comic strips. In 1980, a mountain in Pennsylvania was named for the character.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 11:03:35 +0000
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