| Boots and Her Buddies | |
|---|---|
 Edgar Martin'sBoots and Her Buddies (June 8, 1930). From 1926 to 1931, theSunday strip appeared in this abbreviated form as atopper strip, positioned directly aboveGene Ahern'sOur Boarding House. | |
| Author | Edgar Martin |
| Current status/schedule | Concluded daily & Sunday strip |
| Launch date | February 18, 1924 |
| End date | October 6, 1968 |
| Alternate name | Girls |
| Syndicate(s) | Newspaper Enterprise Association |
| Genre(s) | Humor,gag-a-day, satire, adults |
Boots and Her Buddies is an Americancomic strip byEdgar Martin that ran from 1924 to 1968, syndicated by theNewspaper Enterprise Association. Some newspapers presented the strip under the shortened titleBoots. The character of Boots was variously labeled the "Sweetheart of the Comics", the "Sweetheart of America" and "Everybody's Sweetheart".
Martin grew up inMonmouth, Illinois where his father, George Martin, was aMonmouth College biology professor, and he spent three years attending Monmouth College, leaving his junior year to study at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and joining NEA in 1921 as a cartoonist.[1][2] Martin found work in 1921 in the NEA art department, and that same year he launched his strip,Girls, which had a character named Boots.Girls becameBoots and Her Buddies on February 18, 1924, although some newspapers continued to use the first title.[3]
When the strip began, Boots was attending college and boarding at the home of a professor and his wife. The "buddies" in the title originally referred to her college boy friends. The college in the strip was based on Monmouth College; Boots sometimes carried a banner with the letter "M". The town in the strip had numerous parallels with Monmouth, Illinois, occasionally displaying real locations, such as Sandy Mitchell's pool hall.[4]
TheSunday strip began as atopper, positioned aboveOur Boarding House from 1926 to 1931. Because the strip had a large readership of college and high school students, Martin kept Boots in college for a very long time.[1][2] With the strip's emphasis on fashion and beauty, Martin was sometimes invited to judge beauty contests. Paper doll cutouts with fashionable garments were a part of the Sunday pages well into the early 1960s. Associated topper strips wereThe Gooneys,Babe 'n Horace (started March 19, 1939) andBootkins: the Little China Doll (April 26, 1936 to March 13, 1938).[1][2] Interviewed in 1952, Martin gave some background on the strip and the way he felt about his characters:
In 1949,Editor & Publisher summarized situations in the strip:
In addition to keeping Boots in college for years, Martin also delayed her marriage for two decades. After Boots and Rod Ruggles married in 1945, their son Davey was born July 4, 1946. Another central character was Boots' close friend Cora, who was married to Professor Stephen Tutt. In 1937, Boots brought Pug to live with the Tutts after Pug's father, J.X. "Bettem" High mysteriously disappeared. Pug later became a member ofthe Ruggles family. Boots was also friends with Babe and Horace, the characters in theSunday topper strip,Babe 'n Horace.
From the comic strip's inception untilWorld War II, Martin included a black maid character named "Opal," who was depicted as a racistMammy stereotype as shown in the example below.[7] As "mammy" depictions became less socially acceptable in the mid-1940s, Martin replaced Opal with "Dory," a white maid.
The Sunday page forBoots and Her Buddies had several toppers during the run, including:Girls Cut-Outs akaGirls Masquerade (1931 – Sept 2, 1934),Boots Cut-Outs akaBoots Fashion Show (Sept 16, 1934 – Oct 6, 1968),Bootkins - The Little China Doll (April 26, 1936 – March 13, 1938),Babe and Horace (March 19, 1939 – Oct 6, 1968) andThe Gooneys (June 6, 1965 – Oct 6, 1968).[8]
During the 1950s, the strip was written byUniversity of Missouri student and English instructor Thomas B. Harris, who married Mary Martin, Edgar Martin's daughter. Harris submitted story synopses to Martin who passed them on to the syndicate. Not until NEA gave a go-ahead did Harris write the full scripts with dialogue. At the University of Missouri-Columbia, Harris was promoted from administrative assistant to assistant dean to associate dean of the College of Arts and Science (from 1954 until 1984). An advisor to the Provost's Office (1984–1988) until his 1988 retirement, Harris died in 1992.[1]
After Martin died inClearwater, Florida on August 31, 1960, the daily strip was discontinued after October 15, 1960. The Sunday page ran unsigned until June 6, 1965, when the signature of his assistant, Les Carroll, appeared. Carroll drew the strip until October 6, 1968.[1][2][9]
Boots and the Mystery of the Unlucky Vase, a book based on the strip, was published in 1943. Written and illustrated by Martin, the storyline followed Boots' adventures on the homefront duringWorld War II.