Saturday marked the final installment of classic caveman comic strip “Alley Oop” from cartoonists Jack and Carole Bender, who announced their retirement last month. Andrews McMeel Syndication, the distributor, said the strip will carry on in reruns “through the end of the year,” and have announced no plans after that.
Created by V.T. Hamlin, “Alley Oop” debuted on December 5, 1932, and followed the adventures of the titular caveman (named for the French phrase allez, hop!), who lived in the kingdom of Moo, but often preferred to ride out on his pet dinosaur Dinny than deal with his fellow countrymen’s problems. On April 5, 1939, Hamlin expanded his strip’s scope by introducing Dr. Elbert Wonmug, who brings Alley Oop to the present following a time travel experiment. Oop then became Wonmug’s man in the field, often traveling to other points in history on his behalf, meeting the likes of Cleopatra, King Arthur, and Ulysses.
Hamlin’s assistant Dave Graue took over the title after his retirement in 1971, and Jack Bender succeeded him in 1991, although Graue continued to write the strip until he retired in 2001. Jack and his wife Carole Bender co-wrote “Alley Oop” until their retirement this year. At the height of its popularity, “Alley Oop” was syndicated in 800 newspapers, and is still published in 600 newspapers today. In 1960, the strip inspired the one-hit wonder “Alley Oop” by The Hollywood Argyles, and in 1978 it became one of the classic comics adapted for the Filmation cartoon Fabulous Funnies.
You can read “Alley Oop” from the start here.
