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Concept
Gasoline Alley
Summary
Gasoline Alley is a comic strip created by Frank King and distributed by Tribune Content Agency. It centers on the lives of patriarch Walt Wallet, his family, and residents in the town of Gasoline Alley, with storylines reflecting traditional American values.
The strip debuted on November 24, 1918; as of 2022, it is the longest-running current strip in the United States, and the second-longest running strip of all time in the United States, after The Katzenjammer Kids (which ran for 109 years, 1897–2006). Gasoline Alley has received critical accolades for its influential innovations. In addition to new color and page design concepts, King introduced real-time continuity to comic strips by depicting his characters aging over generations.
The strip originated on the Chicago Tribune'''s black-and-white Sunday page, The Rectangle, where staff artists contributed one-shot panels, continuing plots or themes. One corner of The Rectangle introduced King's Gasoline Alley, where characters Walt, Doc, Avery, and Bill held weekly conversations about automobiles. This panel slowly gained recognition, and the daily comic strip began August 24, 1919, in the New York Daily News.
Some of the early characters were based on people Frank King knew. Skeezix was based on his son Robert Drew King. Walt was based on "jolly" overweight bachelor and Western Union traffic engineer Walter W. Drew, who had "a wisp of unruly hair". Bill and Amy were based on locomotive engineer William D. Gannon and his wife Gertrude.
The early years were dominated by the character Walt Wallet. Tribune editor Joseph Patterson wanted to attract women to the strip by introducing a baby, but Walt was not married. That obstacle was avoided when Walt found a baby on his doorstep, as described by comics historian Don Markstein:
blockquote|After a couple of years, the Tribunes editor, Captain Joseph Patterson, whose influence would later have profound effects on such strips as Terry and the Pirates and Little Orphan Annie, decided the strip should have something to appeal to women, as well, and suggested King add a baby.
Official source
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