'Studio Mike'.
Delpo is an early-20th century American comic artist and caricaturist, who created the newspaper gag comic 'Studio Mike' (1932), which ran in Radio Guide. Running for only three months and with no other available information about his identity, Delpo is one of the great mysteries of comic history.
'Studio Mike'.
Studio Mike
During the first few months of 1932, an artist signing with "Delpo" was responsible for the comic strip 'Studio Mike', which appeared in Radio Guide from 2 January through 6 March. Radio Guide, subtitled "the national weekly of programs and personalities", brought the weekly network radio programming schedules, but also articles about the stars, stations and networks. It was published with a variety of regional editions, each showing the major stations in a region of the USA. It was the direct predecessor of TV Guide magazine (launched in 1953). Delpo's comic strip presumably only ran in Radio Guide's Chicago edition. The main character of 'Studio Mike' is a radio host, Mike, whose wisecracks usually get him in trouble.
Airicature of 25 June 1932 and a Radioddity of 11 November 1932, portraying Rudy Vallee, Kate Smith, Frank Luther and Pat Kelly.
Airicatures and Radioddities
Delpo was possibly also responsible for the other cartoony illustrations in Radio Guide magazine, including the 'Studio Gossip' section. He also made regular "Airicatures", of which the readers were to guess which radio star they represented, as well as a series called 'Radioddities' with fun facts about the stars, modelled after Robert L. Ripley's 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not' format. The 'Radioddities' appeared until at least February 1933. A feature with the same name and lay-out by an artist called Jack R. Squier was self-syndicated to newspapers in the 1938-1940 period. Squier additionally made a similar feature with the title 'NewsOddities' (which had a copyright byline to "J.V. Clarke"). It is unknown if there is a relation between Delpo, Squier and Clarke. In 1937, a cartoonist signing with Delpo also contributed saucy drawings to the quarterly Pleasure Magazine.
Cartoon from Pleasure magazine vol.1 issue #1 (1937).