Ernie Bushmiller – Fritzi Ritz Comics from 1949

Fritzi Ritz at carnival kissing booth Ernie Bushmiller comic book scans

Ernie Bushmiller’s Fritzi Ritz comics are a strange mixture of the truly bizarre and completely pedestrian. Fritzi Ritz started as a comic strip about a young single flapper girl from the Jazz Age of the 1920’s, created by Larry Whittington. When Whittington left the strip, Fritzi Ritz was taken over by his young assistant, Ernie Bushmiller.

Fritzi Ritz crooked floors at her farm house Ernie Bushmiller comic book strip scan leaning tower of Pisa

Ernie Bushmiller introduced the character of Phil Fumble, Fritzi’s boyfriend and funnyman. Many of these strips start with a bizarre close-up on Phil as he utters a single line as the launching pad for the rest of the strip. Looking at the pages on this post alone shows him using this technique 75% of the time!! It’s a very artificial (but extremely economical) way of getting a gag rolling.

Here’s very typical opening panel:

Phil Fumble thinks about girlfriend Fritzi Ritz and her farm Ernie Bushmiller cartoon comic book strip.jpg

I love that dopey wall-eyed look on Phil’s face!

Ernie Bushmiller comic book Phil goes to nightclub with Fritzi Ritz complaining that everyone wears sunglasses strip scan

Nancy Ernie Bushmiller cartoon girl with ribbon in her hair

Ernie Bushmiller later added a little girl character to the strip… Fritzi Ritz’s niece, Nancy. Eventually, Nancy and her friend Sluggo took over the strip, and those are the characters that brought long-time fame to cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller.

Phil takes Fritzi Ritz shopping for a washing machine Ernie Bushmiller comic book strip scan

These Fritzi Ritz newspaper strips were later reformatted and published in comic book form. These pager are from Fritzi Ritz Comics #3 from 1949