New Comics Stamps From USPS

Comics Culture, Top Story — July 16, 2010 at 10:19 Share

The United States Postal Service will unveil a new series of comics character stamps on Friday.  The 44 centers will feature Beetle Bailey, Calvin and Hobbes, Archie, Dennis The Menace and  Garfield. Titled the Sunday Funnies Stamps, the collection adds to the postal service’s 1995 Comic Strip Classics commemorative set that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the comic strip.

The Stamford Advocate is reporting:

“It’s an interesting selection,” said Andrew Farago, curator at Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. “Taking Archie’s comic-book history into account, these are definitely among the most popular characters to hit the comics page since 1945.”

Alas, “Mutt and Jeff,” often cited as the first daily comic strip, again was overlooked. There was a ripple of surprise in the comics world when the strip that debuted in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1908 didn’t make the cut in 1995. However, Farago noted there were more than enough great strips left out to fill another 20-stamp set. Snoopy, featured in “Peanuts,” got his own stamp in 2001.

Farago proposes a stamp collection honoring strips’ creators alongside their creations.

“I’d also like to see greater diversity in the creators represented since almost all of the stamps so far feature comics created by white men,” Farago said. “Jackie Ormes’ `Torchy,’ Morrie Turner’s `Wee Pals,’ Hilda Terry’s `Teena’ and Marty Links’ `Bobby Sox,’ and more recent strips such as Lynn Johnston’s `For Better or For Worse’ or Cathy Guisewite’s `Cathy’ would make for a more well-rounded stamp collection.”

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