My Scrapbook
The Encyclopedia Brown Comic Strip
(1978-80, Universal Press Syndicate)
I was more of a Hardy Boys and Three Investigators guy myself, but there’s no doubt that for many followers of this site that Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown was their gateway drug to crime and detective fiction. Eventually numbering twenty-nine volumes, the series was a perpetual bestseller, with the first book published in 1963 and the last published posthumously in 2012. In addition to the main books, the series spawned a TV series, several books of puzzles, games and trivia, and, yes! A daily comic strip.
It only lasted a couple of years, from December 1978 to September 1980, with the daily strip serializing a mystery each week, while the more kid-friendly Sunday strip boasted a full-colour standalone mystery.
The comic strip was credited to Sobol, of course, but both the adaptations and original stories were actually scripted by Elliot Caplin, the younger brother of Al “L’il Abner” Capp, with art by Frank Bolle.
COMIC STRIPS
- ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN
(1978-80, Universal Press Syndicate)
Black & white Dailies, full-colour Sundays
First strip: December 3, 1978
Last strip: September 20, 1980
Based on characters created by Donald Sobol
Written by Elliot Caplin
Art by Frank Bolle
COMIC COLLECTIONS
- ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN’S BOOK OF COMIC STRIPS #1 | Buy this book
(1985, Bantam Skylark)
Collects 49 mini-mysteries from the comic strips. - ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN’S BOOK OF COMIC STRIPS #2 | Buy this book
(1985, Bantam Skylark)
Collects 49 more mini-mysteries from the comic strips.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
