Bouncing Along With Billy

W. W. Denslow covered a lot of ground in his artistic career. Newspaper artist, poster artist, designer of book covers, theater designer, children's book illustrator, and comic postcards are all among his credits. Another was innovative comic strip artist.

In 1901, Denslow created Billy Bounce. This was an early comic strip that made use of a continuing story line, rather than a simple weekly gag. Denslow played with novel layouts in the early pages, and his designs jumped across the paper.

Here is a later episode, from early in 1902. The complete date is missing as the page has been trimmed and is a bit rough. By this time the strip has become much more standard, in layout and concept, than some of the earlier examples. Denslow quit the comic later that year, but it continued for several more years under another artist.  Some of Denslow's Mother Goose characters are included in this particular episode. (Click on the picture for an enlarged image of the page.)

The strip was popular, even after Denslow gave up drawing it in 1902. Buttons were produced to publicize it, and it even inspired a brand of cigars. Two button designs are known, but it is unclear whether they were drawn by Denslow. The one I'm showing does not appear to be his work.