Judge Parker

A little while ago, one of my comic strip websites added a new vintage strip. Judge Parker. I saw the addition and sighed heavily. My brain has a strict rule that I have to add and follow all the vintage strips that they add. And I had no interest in Judge Parker. I was hoping for something more along the lines of Flash Gordon, Buzz Sawyer, the Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician. All vintage strips I follow voraciously!

But Judge Parker? What can a drama strip like that possibly hold to entertain me?

It DOES bring up an interesting point about genre's and their mediums. In television today, you get to choose between comedy, crime, drama, horror, science fiction, documentary, and (shudder) reality TV. There's even a few western's, I think. And Zombie's.... quickly becoming it's own genre.

In comics of the 1940's and 1950's, the same was true. The different genres of entertainment you can enjoy spanned the full range. Even religious comics and romance comics. Until, decade after decade, almost every other genre was squeezed out in favor of super heroes. By far the reigning subject material of comics. Some genres are making comebacks, but the audiences for comics are so few at this point that it's a struggling industry. Unless you have a seventy-five year old red 'S' on your chest.

The same is true for the comic strips. Decade after decade a wide range of genre's were offered in the newspaper comic pages. But after awhile only the humor strips seemed to have any staying power. Age-old action and drama strips are still hanging around purely because they are 'age-old'. And the few new strips featuring action and science fiction have a decidedly humorous bent.

Judge Parker falls into the drama range. When I was younger, the drama strips made no sense to me. They seemed to move so slow for such a boring story line. But as an adult reading upwards of 25 daily strips, the allure is understood. I follow the story lines so well. In Buzz Sawyer for instance, it feels like I hang on every strip and end up rooting for Buzz for those few moments every day. It's hard to believe I've been reading the strip daily for over five years.

So I buckled up, obeyed my brain, and added Judge Parker to my daily page. What did I find? No explosions or immediate revelations.

This is a character called Sam Driver. He's a lawyer.


As you can see, he's your classic hero type. Cut chin, broad shoulders, widely accepted American leading male haircut, good job.... he's the hero.

...and here are the hippies he's being hired to help.


The strip has started out in August of 1969. Right in the middle of what appears to be a storyline comparing the classic American heroic archetype with the hippie youth culture of the sixties.


Okay... there just might be something for me here after all.

Thanks,
DCD