August 25th, 2015

Those Bodacious Barlows!

by John Rose

Everyone knows that the most famous residents of Hootin’ Holler are the Smith family.  But, there are several other families that also just show up from time to time.  For example, sometimes we’ll see walk-on characters from the Hawkins or Ledbetter families.  But as I was drawing a strip this week that featured Snuffy’s enemy, Hank Barlow, I began to think that, over the years, there have been many, many different characters from the Barlow family.  In fact, they have to be the strip’s most popular walk-on characters.  Today I thought we’d look back at some of the bodacious Barlows that have shown up over the years…

A section of an upcoming strip I’m working on now featuring Snuffy and his arch-enemy, Hank Barlow.

A strip from 1934 by Barney Google and Snuffy Smith’s masterful creator, Billy DeBeck, that features Dan’l Barlow.

A Sunday Page from 1934 featuring Mr. and Miz Zeeke Barlow by my former boss, mentor and friend, the incredible Fred Lasswell.

A fun 1962 strip with Birfday Barlow.

Mayor Barlow appears in this 1965 daily strip.  He is an interesting looking character!

Jughaid’s friend Jamey Barlow, who still appears frequently, hasn’t changed much at all in appearance since this strip in 1968.

What a fun and appropriate name! Barefoot Barlow in 1974.

Cousin Melissy Barlow showed up on this Sunday in 1979.

Wilfert Barlow sure has a lot of hair in this strip from 1980.

Toothpick Barlow–what a bodacious name for this character from 1983!

And lastly, here are the musical Mr. and Miz Twang Barlow from 1990.

I hope you enjoyed this stroll back in time with the Barlows!  Thanks so much to Snuffy Smith fan, Ron from Indiana, with his help in providing me some of these vintage strips!