'Dotty Dripple'.
Buford Tune was an American newspaper comic artist, best remembered for being the second and final artist to continue the long-running family comic 'Dotty Dripple' (1944-1974). He was additionally the third and final artist of the popular family series 'Doings Of the Duffs' (1928-1931).
Early life and career
Buford Malcolm Tune was born in 1906 in Eastland County, Texas. His father Martin was a jack-of-all-trades. When he passed away, his wife Allie took a job as a telephone operator in order to feed her three children. Tune studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, while sharing an apartment with fellow student and future cartoonist Boody Rogers. In the early 1920s, Tune worked as a messenger for Western Union and by 1925 he was an employee of The Dallas News. In 1927, he moved to New York City. After being in the city for only two days, he was hired by the art editor of the New York Post. For a while, he worked in Philadelphia on loan for the Philadelphia Public Ledger, but returned to New York in 1928.
'Doings of the Duffs' (27 December 1930).
Doings Of The Duffs
On 23 July 1928, Tune revived an old family comic strip for United Feature Syndicate called 'Doings of the Duffs', originally created in 1914 by Walter Allman and taken over by Ben Batsford in 1924. At the time, the 21-year old Tune was believed to be the youngest U.S. cartoonist with a widely syndicated comic strip. He wrote and drew 'Doings of the Duffs' for three years, until 15 August 1931.
On 15 December 1930, Tune married Sylvia "Tibby" Newman, who from then on took care of the financial aspects of his cartooning work. At the time, Tune was drawing one-panel gag cartoons for the Seattle Times, combined with art commissions for Paramount Pictures' advertising department in New York City. He also painted giant balloons for the annual New York Thanksgiving Day Parade. During the 1940s, the couple relocated to Los Angeles, California.
Dotty Dripple
On 26 June 1944, writer Jeff Keate and artist Jim McMenamy had launched a family comic, 'Dotty Dripple', for the Publishers Syndicate. Four months later, McMenamy and Keate quit the series and Tune was asked to continue it, which he did from 16 October on. 'Dotty Dripple' was a family comic whose main characters were clearly based on Chic Young's very popular newspaper comic strip 'Blondie'. All family members were basically the same with Dotty Dripple being just Blondie and her husband Horace the identical twin of Dagwood. Both couples had children about the same age. Blondie and Dagwood's son was named Alexander and their daughter Cookie, while the Dripples had children named Wilbert and Taffy. The families even had similar dogs. Both Daisy in 'Blondie' and Pepper in 'Dotty Dripple' were mongrels with similar expressive reactions. Considering that 'Dotty Dripple' ran for a staggering 40 years, it's amazing that neither the artist nor the syndicate were ever sued for plagiarism.
'Dotty Dripple' (19 July 1950). Notice how Buford Tune's name is misspelled in the header.
At the time, 'Dotty Dripple' was popular enough to be licensed for comic books by Magazine Enterprises, even receiving a title of her own in 1946. In 1952, the title was changed to 'Horace and Dotty Dripple'. Harvey Comics took over the production from the third issue on. Between 1955 and 1958, Dell Comics took over production, issuing several stories in their Four Color Comics series.
Fitting for a family comic, 'Dotty Dripple' was also a family product. Tune's wife helped him out with coloring the Sunday pages and their eldest son Donald did the lettering. From 1949 on, Tune also had assistants, starting with Hi Mankin and then followed in 1951 by artist Jim Westermann and in 1960 by writer Howard Boughner. On 9 June 1974, Buford Tune retired and 'Dotty Dripple' came to an end.
Death
Buford Tune passed away in Santa Ana, Orange County, California, on 21 May 1989. He was 82 years old.
Buford Tune.