''Ozark Ike'' is a

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sport ...

comic strip about dumb but likable Ozark Ike McBatt, a youth from a rural area in the mountains. The strip was created by Rufus A. ("Ray") Gotto while he was serving in the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

as an illustrator for Navy instruction manuals. The strip ran from November 12, 1945, to September 14, 1958.

Characters and story

Strong-but-simple Ike McBatt is from a

hillbilly Hillbilly is a term (often derogatory) for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the United States, primarily in southern Appalachia and the Ozarks. The term was later used to refer to people from other rural and mountainous areas west ...

family living in the small backwoods community of Wildweed Run (pop. 49). Ozark Ike is an all-around athlete, playing

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

, football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. Between seasons, he enters the

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

ring. The characters and the baseball park settings are apparently inspired by

Ring Lardner Ringgold Wilmer Lardner (March 6, 1885 – September 25, 1933) was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical writings on sports, marriage, and the theatre. His contemporaries Ernest Hemingway, Virginia ...

's well-known baseball short story "Alibi Ike" (1915), filmed in 1935 as the comedy ''Alibi Ike'', starring Joe E. Brown in the title role and

Olivia de Havilland Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British-American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. ...

in her film debut. Ozark Ike's girlfriend is Dinah Fatfield, whose family has been involved in a feud with the McBatt clan for several generations. As is evident in the names, this background situation was inspired by the Hatfield-McCoy feud.

Personnel

Gotto is famous for using extreme perspectives to achieve great drama and action in sports. As such ''Ozark Ike'' attracted publisher

Stephen Slesinger Stephen Slesinger (December 25, 1901 – December 17, 1953) was an American radio, television and film producer, creator of comic strip characters and the father of the licensing industry. From 1923 to 1953, he created, produced, published, develo ...

's attention. Slesinger also owned ''

Red Ryder Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

'', ''

King of the Royal Mounted ''King of the Royal Mounted'' is an American comics series which debuted February 17, 1935 by Stephen Slesinger, based on popular Western writer Zane Grey's byline and marketed as ''Zane Grey's King of the Royal Mounted''. The series' protagonist i ...

'', US and Canadian rights to ''

Winnie-the-Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character was the book ''Winn ...

'', and had exclusive licensing arrangements for other notable fictional characters including Tarzan and all of the NEA newspaper comics. Slesinger produced the cartoon for distribution through

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...

, and it debuted November 12, 1945. One of the assistants on the strip was Fred Rhoads. Gotto left in 1954 to start his creator-owned baseball strip ''

Cotton Woods Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor p ...

'' syndicated by General Features, but ''Ozark Ike'' continued until 1959 under

Bill Lignante William Gaetano Lignante (March 20, 1925 – February 27, 2018), better known as Bill Lignante, was an American artist notable for his varied career as a comic book illustrator, comic strip artist, animator and television courtroom sketch artist. ...

and

George Olesen George Olesen (December 6, 1924 – October 15, 2013) was an American comic book artist, best known for his work as a penciller on popular comic strip ''The Phantom''. He worked with the character for around forty years, although he did not get ...

. Lignante was also a leading courtroom artist for network television, and is most famous as the artist who created hundreds of drawings of famous patrons that decorate the Palm Restaurants. Gotto eventually went on to design the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major leagu ...

logo. "Ozark Ike" was the nickname of

major league baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

players

Gus Zernial Gus Edward Zernial (June 27, 1923 – January 20, 2011) was an American professional baseball player. He played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball, most notably for the Philadelphia Athletics with whom he remained when they moved west ...

References

External links

Don Markstein's ''Toonopedia'' entryBill Lignante
1945 comics debuts 1958 comics endings American comic strips American football comics Baseball comics Boxing comics Basketball comics Gag-a-day comics Comics characters introduced in 1945 Comics set in the United States Fictional baseball players Fictional basketball players Fictional boxers Fictional players of American football Fictional hillbillies Male characters in comics Sports comics {{comic-strip-stub