Current status / schedule Finished Syndicate King Features Syndicate | Launch date January 10, 1932 End date December 12, 1963 | |
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Similar Norb, Trudy, Toots and Casper, Grandma, Reg'lar Fellers | ||
Pete the Tramp was an American comic strip by Clarence D. Russell (1895–1963) which was distributed by King Features Syndicate for more than three decades. Howard Eugene Wilson, in the Harvard Educational Review, described the strip's title character as "a hobo with a gentleman's instincts."
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Russell studied at the Chicago Art Institute and then began working as a freelance artist. During World War I, he went overseas with the American Expeditionary Force. When he returned to America in 1920, he worked for several New York newspapers while also contributing to Judge.
Characters and story
Russell's work for Judge included cartoons of a homeless man who was given the name Pete the Tramp when he was syndicated to newspapers beginning January 10, 1932.
Comic strip historian Don Markstein offered this description of Pete the Tramp:
During its long run, Pete the Tramp had several topper strips, as detailed by comic strip historian Allan Holtz:
The Further Adventures of Pete the Tramp (1944) was a live-action stag film which stole Russell's character and put him in an erotic situation. During World War II, Russell and Otto Soglow drew their characters at kids' bond rallies in Albany, New York and elsewhere. To cheer up soldiers, Russell also did Pete the Tramp drawings in hospitals during World War II.
Pete the Tramp ended December 12, 1963, following Russell's death on October 22 of that year.
Books
The Adventures of Pete the Tramp was published in 1935 by Saalfield. Pete the Tramp was published by John Martin's House in 1945.