February 18th, 2014

Barney Google Fer Pres’dent!

by John Rose

In honor of Presidents Day, I looked back in the long history of the Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip. Cartoonist Billy DeBeck was a big celebrity in his day and in 1923 he met President Warren Harding in Seattle, Washington. In the comic strip, I found that Barney Google ran for President of the United States twice, in 1928 and 1932!

This Sunday strip by Billy DeBeck from April 17, 1932 kicked off Barney’s second run for President.

In 1928, the storyline of the strip was that he was nominated at the end of the convention of the Order Of The Brotherhood Of Billy Goats. The Billy Goats formed an independent party and nominated Barney for President. In April of 1932 he ran for President again, this time as the candidate for the Square Deal Party. By the time August rolled around, Barney pretended to go crazy, backed out of the campaign and ended up behind bars. (Source: Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: 75 Years Of An American Legend by Brian Walker)

As I have mentioned before, I enjoy creating comic strips with holiday themes and Presidents Day is no exception.  Below is an example of a Presidents Day Barney Google and Snuffy Smith Sunday comic strip I created in 2009.

A Presidents Day Sunday Page I created in 2009 takes place in a classroom setting.

Will Barney Google (or Snuffy Smith for that matter) ever run for President again?  Who knows?  Only time will tell–but Pres’dent Google has a nice ring to it!  So does Pres’dent Smif!