Comics

Peck's Bad Boy comic strips ran in a number of newspapers beginning in 1906. Even earlier Peck's Bad Boy stories were published weekly and daily in newspapers.

Joseph B. Bowles in 1906 licensed Peck's Bad Boy to appear in newspaper comics. Bowles already had the copyright for a number of the later Peck's Bad Boy Books including Peck's Bad Boy Abroad, Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus and Peck's Bad Boy with the Cowboys.

Here is an example of a comic book page. It is from the San Francisco Call on September 30, 1906.

An excellent blog gives some of the pertinent information (http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2009/11/obscurity-of-day-adventures-of-pecks.html) about Bowles. This superb blog also has some very nice comic strip pictures.

Because of Bowle's efforts numerous newspapers had a Peck's Bad Boy comic strip. Bowles was a Chicago area editor. He founded the Bowles Syndicate Service which provided "articles by experts". The Peck strip only lasted one year.

Based on the comics that were published in the newspapers, a number of comic books were published. They appeared in two sizes.

There were four small comic books published.

This series was entitled: The Adventures of Peck's Bad Boy and His Country Cousins

1. Their Adventures with the Teddy Bears
2. Their Balloon Trip to the Country
3. With the Teddy Bear Show
4. With the Billy Whiskers Goats

These books are 11 x 5.5 and had 8 pages (16 sides). The illustrations were done by Walt McDougall. Bowles has the 1906 copyright but a later 1907 copyright by Thompson and Thomas, a publishing house in Chicago, is noted. Thompson and Thomas published a number of Peck books between 1900 and 1909.

The strips in these books can also be found in the larger books. Both size comic books may have been published simultaneously.

Title Page:

Copyright Page:

The larger books are mostly 16.5 x 11. These hardcover comics have 15, 16 or 32 pages. There are comic illustrations only on one side of the page. The relative chronology of the books can be determined by the title page imprint. Originally they were priced by Thompson and Thomas at 75 cents each.

Thompson and Thomas (1906-1909)
Charles C. Thompson Co. (1909-1917) (Succeeded Thompson and Thomas in June, 1909)
Stanton and Van Vliet Co. (1917-1920's) (Founded in 1917 as successor to Charles C. Thompson)

Titles of the large comic books:
Adventures of Peck's Bad Boy
Peck's Bad Boy and His Country Cousin Cynthia
Peck's Bad Boy and His Chums

Adventures of Peck's Bad Boy
The two comics shown below have 32 pages each. The top one has the date of 1906 under the Thompson and Thomas imprint on the title page and is the earliest edition. The other book was published sometime between 1906 and 1909. The interiors of the books are identical. Later comic books with this title were published by Charles C. Thompson Co. and Stanton and Van Vliet.

Peck's Bad Boy and His Country Cousin Cynthia
This comic book was copyrighted by Bowles in 1906 and Thompson and Thomas in 1907.

Copies of later editions are shown below. The Charles C. Thompson Company book was published between 1909 and 1917. The Stanton and Van Vliet Co. book was published after 1917.

These books have 15 pages of comics. The 16th page is present in the Stanton and Van Vliet Co. books and has an advertisement for the Peck hardcover books.

Charles C. Thompson Co.

Stanton and Van Vliet Co.

Peck's Bad Boy and His Chums
Thompson and Thomas - First edition in 1908

Two Thompson and Thomas versions of this comic have been seen. Both were copyrighted in 1908. One has red backing and is 32 pages. Note that the title on the title page is in black lettering.

The other comic book (seen below) has blue backing, red title page lettering and 15 pages.

The blue backed volume is the later book. It has an ad from Stanton and Van Vliet Co. in the back of the book. This indicates that Stanton and Van Vliet printed this book no earlier than 1917 (the date of this company's founding). For whatever reason, Stanton and Van Vliet did not put its imprint on the title page.

Charles C. Thompson published this comic book in two formats between 1909 and 1917. Each book has fourteen one sided pages of comics not including the title page. The blue backed book has black lettering on the title page whereas the red backed book has some red lettering on the title page.

The earlier Thompson and Thomas comics have black lettering whereas the later Stanton and Van Vliet have red lettering. It is presumed (but not certain) that the earlier Charles C. Thompson Co. comic is the one with the black lettering on the title page.

Charles C. Thompson Co. (earlier)

Charles C. Thompson Co. (later)

This 15 page book with blue backing book has Stanton and Vliet Company ads on the last page. Thus, even though the imprint is Thompson and Thomas, it clearly was published by Stanton and Van Vliet Company.

This comic has the Stanton and Van Vliet Company imprint. It was published between 1917 and the 1920's.

Here are the original advertisements from the Thompson and Thomas catalogues for these comics.

Painting Book 1919
Walter McDougall illustrated all seven of the comics above. The rarest however of McDougall's Peck's Bad Boy items is the "Painting Book". This book contains the entire contents of two of the smaller comics:

Peck's Bad Boy and His Country Cousins: Their Balloon Trip to the Country
Peck's Bad Boy and His Country Cousins: Their Adventures with the Teddy Bears

The Painting Book has the comic from the original comic book opposite the same line drawn picture without colors. It is up to the "artist" to color the picture.

This Painting Book is 12" x 7.5" as opposed to the 11" x 5.5" dimensions of the smaller comics. In this volume in the back after the Bad Boy comics there are four pages of farm animals to be colored. Their relationship to McDougall or the rest of the book is a mystery.

The painting book was published in 1919 by Stanton and Van Vliet Company and cost 50 cents. There is no evidence that Stanton and Van Vliet ever published the smaller comics but "Their Balloon Trip.." did appear in its entirety in the larger book: Pecks Bad Boy and His Country Cousin Cynthia which Stanton and Van Vliet Company did publish.

No other Peck's Bad Boy comic painting books are known.