Winthrop (comic strip)

{{Infobox comic strip

|title= Winthrop

|image=

|caption=

|author=Dick Cavalli

|website=

|rss=

|atom=

|status= Concluded daily & Sunday strip

|syndicate= Newspaper Enterprise Association

|first=February 27, 1966

|last= May 14, 1994

|genre= comedy, gag-a-day

|rating=

|preceded by= Morty Meekle

}}

Winthrop is an American syndicated newspaper comic strip that was published between 1966 and 1994, created and produced by cartoonist Dick Cavalli.{{cite book |last1=Holtz |first1=Allan |title=American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide |date=2012 |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472117567 |page=415}} The series—which derived its comedy from a group of children's nonchalantly world-wise observations—evolved from Cavalli's 1956-1966 strip, Morty Meekle, which featured adult characters.

Publication history

File:Winthrop comic-strip example 1972.jpg

Gag cartoonist Dick Cavalli—whose work appeared in magazines including The Saturday Evening Post and Collier's—had achieved such popularity by 1956 that Writer's Digest observed he had "risen to the top faster than any other cartoonist in the business."Wepman, Dennis, in {{cite book | editor-last=Horn|editor-first=Maurice|editor-link=Maurice Horn|title= 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics|publisher=Gramercy Books|location= New York City; Avenel, New Jersey]|year= 1996|isbn=978-0-517-12447-5|pages= 395–396, Winthrop (entry)}} On January 9 of that year, Cavalli launched Newspaper Enterprise Association's syndicated comic strip Morty Meekle, featuring the courtship of the title character and his girlfriend, Jill Wortle, as well as Morty's travails at his low-level office job under boss E.G. Boomer.[http://toonopedia.com/meekle.htm Morty Meekle (Winthrop)] at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. [https://archive.today/20150310011035/http://toonopedia.com/meekle.htm Archived] from the original on March 10, 2015. The strip gradually deëmphasized the romance and work aspects in favor of what comics historian Maurice Horn called its "background chorus of snide youngsters with a perceptive take on the human condition." On February 27, 1966, Cavalli removed the adult characters and renamed the strip Winthrop, after Jill's kid brother, the most prominent of the young social critics.

Cavalli's art assistants on the strip included Bob Weber Sr. and Ray Osrin.[https://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/cavalli_dick.htm Dick Cavalli] at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150922134329/https://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/cavalli_dick.htm Archived] from the original on October 13, 2015. After Cavalli had his second heart attack, Sam and Silo cartoonist Jerry Dumas substituted on Winthrop for three months, taking old syndicate-provided strips and writing new dialog and re-lettering them in Cavalli's style.{{cite news| url= http://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/Dumas-A-friend-who-could-write-and-letter-with-338522.php| title= A friend who could write, and letter, with style| first= Jerry| last= Dumas| authorlink= Jerry Dumas| work= Greenwich Time| location= Connecticut| date= January 27, 2010| access-date= October 15, 2015| archive-date= October 15, 2015| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151015220003/http://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/Dumas-A-friend-who-could-write-and-letter-with-338522.php| url-status= bot: unknown}}Additional . The strip ended on May 14, 1994.

Cast

Winthrop Wortle: A little boy.
Mr. Wortle: His father
Spotless McPartland: A germophobe
Chips: the family dog
Nasty McNarf: The neighborhood bully.

Paperback collections

Winthrop: A Strip Coloring Book (Saalfield Publishing Company, Book # 2915 : Akron, Ohio, 1968).{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CCshAQAAIAAJ&q=%22winthrop+coloring+book%22+%22cavalli%2C+dick%22+authorized&pg=PA2500 | page= 1805| title= Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1968: July–December| year= 1971| publisher= US Copyright Office, Library of Congress}} Reprints daily strips originally published 1966–1968.{{cite web| url= http://comics.lib.msu.edu/rri/crri/cav.htm| title= Cavalli, Dick, 1923– > Winthrop : a strip coloring book | publisher=Michigan State University Libraries Special Collections Division: Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection: "Cavagnoli" to "Cavco" | access-date= October 13, 2015| archive-date=March 5, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305145842/http://comics.lib.msu.edu/rri/crri/cav.htm | url-status=live}}

References

External links

{{cite web| url= http://www.reuben.org/ncs/members/memorium/cavalli.jpg | title=Dick Cavalli | publisher= National Cartoonists Society | access-date= October 13, 2015| archive-date= March 4, 2016| first= Dick | last= Cavalli | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060748/http://www.reuben.org/ncs/members/memorium/cavalli.jpg | url-status=live}}