What a Guy!
What a Guy! | |
---|---|
Author(s) | Bill Hoest (1987–88) Bunny Hoest (1988–96) |
Illustrator(s) | John Reiner |
Current status/schedule | Discontinued |
Launch date | March 29, 1987 |
End date | 1996 |
Syndicate(s) | King Features Syndicate |
Genre(s) | Humor |
What a Guy! is an American comic strip created by Bill Hoest and Bunny Hoest, the team responsible for The Lockhorns and Agatha Crumm. It began in March 1987, just over a year before Hoest's death in 1988.
The What a Guy!
Characters and story
What a Guy! was created when Bill and Bunny were visiting with Bunny's daughter and her family. Bunny's grandson was an early "latchkey" child. Bill and Bunny were amazed at his very "grown-up" comments and used him as the prototype for Guy Wellington Frothmore, who became the focus of a comic strip.[2] What a Guy! cartoons featured a young boy who "questions life's complexities" and repeats adult concepts overheard from his yuppie parents.[3] The strip was launched into print syndication across the United States and Canada by King Features on March 29, 1987.[3][2] The strip, like many non-topical gag strips, was mailed to the syndicate in batches of four weeks worth of comics at one time, several months ahead of the expected publication date.[4]
Strip historian Allan Holtz described the character:
- The premise is that an elementary school kid named Guy is obsessed with the idea that he's a businessman. He wears a frumpy suit, has a middle-age paunch, worries about ulcers, the whole nine yards. The idea was timely in the go-go 1980s, but Hoest didn't get there first -- the Guy character is strongly reminiscent of Alex P. Keaton from the hit TV sitcom Family Ties. The popularity of the TV show was probably seen as an asset, but it didn't seem to have the desired slingshot effect to propel What a Guy! into newspapers. The feature at first used the tried-and-true model of The Lockhorns for the Sunday page -- a group of panel cartoons that could be rejiggered into many different formats. For unknown reasons this format was dropped in 1988 and the Sunday became a strip feature. From the beginning the daily was in strip form instead of a panel, though the 'strip' was almost always a single panel.[5]
Bill Hoest died on November 8, 1988, from complications of
What a Guy! was one of the comics featured on Morning Funnies cereal boxes in 1988 and 1989,[10] and the strips were collected in What a Guy! What's the Latest? (Tor, 1990).
Reception
Reader reaction to the strip was widely varied. One person wrote in
References
- ^ "Comic creator: Bill Hoest". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
- ^ a b "That Kid: What A Guy! A Young Yuppie Stars In The News Comic Strip By The Creator Of The Lockhorns". Miami Herald. March 28, 1987. p. 1B. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
Sure enough, the little boy evolved into Guy Wellington Frothmore, star of What a Guy.
- ^ a b "New cartoon panel reflects supermarket fun and games". Toronto Star. March 30, 1987. p. A2. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
- ^ a b Ketcham, Diane (May 14, 1989). "See You in the Funny Papers". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
- ^ Holtz, Allen. Stripper's Guide, September 8, 2010.
- ^ a b Mintz, Phil (November 8, 1999). "Cartoonist Bill Hoest, Created 'The Lockhorns'". Newsday. p. 31. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
- ^ DeWan, George (November 15, 1988). "The Laughter Lives On: When new hands take over a cartoon, the challenge is knowing when to alter it and when to leave it alone". Newsday. p. 3. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
- ^ Kalina, Mike (April 2, 1987). "Lockhorns creator takes cartooning seriously". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- ^ "The Lockhorns: About the Cartoonist". King Features. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
- ^ McMath, Robert (October 1, 2003). "A flap over cereal packaging ... again". Brand Packaging. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
- ^ "Comics: Rating the best and worst". The Philadelphia Inquirer. July 22, 1987. p. B02. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
- ^ "Bad comic moves". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. December 25, 1987. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
- ^ "'What A Guy' sorely missed". Lakeland Ledger. August 23, 1988.