H'lo mushrat...

A key early strip featuring the return of Simple J. Malarkey, who bore a certain passing resemblance to Senator Joe McCarthy. Many thanks to CAF's Monty Bali for parting with this and several others recently.

Kind of amazing how Kelly can summon a degree of pathos for one of the strip's minor-league villains, Deacon Mushrat. But then, Kelly understood how the deacon, arrogant, hypocritical and reactionary, was motivated by primarily by fear. He's a figure of pity, and Kelly was large-hearted enough to make us feel for him.

Daily, August 18, 1954.