From The Scoop: Billy Bounce

From the June 30 issue of Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop:
Did you know that the man who illustrated The Wizard of Oz also drew a comic strip for the daily, New York World, at the turn of the 20th century?

W.W. Denslow created Billy Bounce in 1901. A rotund fellow in a cap, knickers, and jacket, Billy kind of resembled a member of MunchkinLand. And that's not where the similarities to the Oz tales ended. A lot of Billy's adventures shared The Wizard of Oz's surrealist quality. Billy took trips to the Moon and conversed with the Man in it. He hung out with anthropomorphic circus bears, and took strolls with zoo animals.

Though the series only ran a couple years (Denslow left it in 1902 and was replaced as illustrator by C.W. Kahles), Billy Bounce was popular enough to appear on cello buttons advertising newspapers like the Philadelphia Press and Washington Times. His stories were also collected into a 1906 hardcover book, which had 15 color plates.

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