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Bud Fisher - Original Comic Strip Art for Mutt

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Comics Start Price:1.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
Bud Fisher - Original Comic Strip Art for Mutt
Bud Fisher - Original Comic Strip Art for Mutt & Jeff Daily dated 5-4-31 (King Features Syndicate, 1931). An incredibly popular and influential strip, Mutt & Jeff is credited as being the first actual "comic strip" with continuing characters (although its claim to this title is arguable, it was certainly the first successful comic strip). First appearing in The San Francisco Chronicle on November 15, 1907, the strip was originally titled A. Mutt (the "A" stood for Augustus, for all you trivia-hounds), and focused on Mutt's obsession with sports gambling. On March 27, 1908, however, the direction of the strip changed with the introduction of Jeff (the two met in a mental institution, of all places), and comics history was made. Fisher was soon hired away to William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, and the strip was soon distributed to newspapers nationwide. The unlikely pair was also the subject of a number of early animated shorts, the first of which debuted on February 10, 1913. A goldmine for their creator, Fisher enjoyed the fruits of his labors as one of comic's first true superstars. By 1932, artist Al Smith took over the strip as a ghost, only signing his name to the strip after Fisher's death in 1954. Smith stayed on until the feature's cancellation in 1982, when Mutt & Jeff retired after an impressive 75-year run. The piece offered here is classic Fisher, as Mutt turns his hand to a new, and wildly improbable, invention, and a befuddled Jeff looks on. With an image area of approximately 29" x 8.5" and in excellent condition, the strip bears the inscription, "#1 Mutt and Jeff They'll do the workingman a lot of good. By Bud Fisher," across the top margin, presumably in Fisher's own hand. The strip is signed by Fisher in the last panel. Important notice: Heritage usually auctions material at the rate of 200-250 lots per hour. On some occasions eBay Live bid software or the Internet may not be able to keep up with the pace of the auction. We recommend placing a realistic absentee bid now as insurance to avoid disappointment. Occasionally the auctioneer may eliminate or reject an eBay Live bid, and the auctioneer may also reopen a lot after the close of the eBay live bidding (usually because we missed an audience bid), and may reject your bid even if it shows you as the winning bidder. By bidding via eBay Live, you agree that Heritage may award the lot to another bidder at its sole discretion under the circumstances described above or any other reasonable circumstances. Since eBay bids are not shown to us until we open the lot on the floor, we treat those bids just like floor bids. In most cases the floor responds before the eBay bid is presented to us, due to Internet lag time, so for consistency we have made it a policy that floor bids are always considered first over tie eBay live bids. Also please note that all Heritage lots purchased through eBay Live carry a 20% Buyer's Premium. Please make sure you read the Terms and Conditions before you bid.