Smitty (comic strip)

Smitty was a newspaper comic strip created in the early 1920s by Walter Berndt. Syndicated nationally by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, it ran from November 27, 1922, to 1974
and brought Berndt a Reuben Award in 1969.

Characters and story

The strip featured young office boy Augustus Smith aka Smitty, his six-year-old brother Herby, his girlfriend Ginny and his dog Scraps. Other characters were Smitty's boss, Mr. Bailey, and the Indian guide, Little Moose. Berndt based the strip on his own experience as an office boy, recalling, "I learned the tricks, shenanigans and schemes of an office boy and became expert at them." Berndt saw his creation as featuring "flashbacks of things you did as a young fellow." As the strip progressed, the teenage Smitty aged to young adulthood and eventually got married.
From January 11, 1938 through 1974, Berndt also produced the comic strip Herby as a topper to Smitty on the Sunday page.

Origins of ''Smitty''

Berndt's first strip, That's Different, drawn for the Bell Syndicate, lasted less than a year. In 1922, he created Smitty, which he continued until 1973. Yet it did not begin without a struggle, as cartoonist Mike Lynch described in a 2005 lecture:

Books and toys

Smitty merchandising included tin toys, Cupples & Leon reprint books, comic books and sheet music for the song "Smitty". The Smitty tin toy is valued at more than $1000.

Awards

Berndt won a Reuben Award in 1969 for Smitty.