u/Qalyar

Today's big win was a find in the wild. Harry Wood was a cartoonist for the *Kansas City Star* in the early 1900s. His "Intellectual Pup" ran for something like 40 years, beginning as a one-off comic in 1907 and evolving into a now-traditional comic strip of several horizontally-displayed panels. Wood's work is now mostly remembered as an early influence on future cartoonist Walt Disney, who had a paper route in Kansas City delivering the very papers in which the title ran.

Unlike many cartoonists of the era, Wood's work was never syndicated; he allowed the *Star* to hold the copyright to all his cartoons. Beginning in late 1908, the *Star* republished what was widely known as "the Pup" in a series of square beige hardcovers, with one panel printed per page, divided into stories with a sort of title page for each chapter. I have no idea how these were distributed or what their original prices were.

There were at least four volumes of *The Intellectual Pup: Extracts from His Diary* produced.

This is a *fairly* intact copy of Book Three, published in 1913. None of the volumes of this reprint series are common. Most of them don't even appear to have a cover image available online.

Periodically, as I get good candidates, I want to present the stories behind some really obscure indie books. Not to make fun, but because these books were the labors of love for their creators, who not only had ideas, and not only put pen to paper to make them real, but had them printed and stapled and offered out to the world. I'll start with what might be the most obscure book I've ever owned.

Doggie & Jilly is the creation of Drew Boynton. It's sort of a happier, less-pointed take on the Calvin and Hobbes setting. Our young girl protagonist Jilly pointed out a stuffed dog in a toy store while she was a baby and Doggie has remained her constant companion ever since. There's not a lot of time spent wrestling with whether Doggie is truly sentient and ambulatory; he is for Jilly, and these stories and adventures are hers.

Boynton's best known for Doggie & Jilly's appearances in another work, 2001's Friends of Lulu Presents: Storytime, a publication of the then-active nonprofit trying to encourage female comic readers by highlighting women creators or characters. He also ran this property as a webcomic for awhile, although 25 years of domain name swaps, WordPress updates, and general web rot haven't left much of that visible.

Atomic Avenue tells me that there's also a 2002 Doggie & Jilly comic where he worked with another artist for some of the illustration. But they don't have a cover image and I can find nothing else. If you've got one or know more, please drop me a line!

This book predated all of that. It was self-published in 1999. At least at the time, Boynton was in tiny Concordia, Missouri, a town of a little over 2,000 people about halfway between Kansas City and Columbia. I'm sure there have been more rural self-publications, but I think this really stands out as a book that wasn't the product of the art scene in a big (or even medium) city. The Atomic Avenue review of the later book wishes that Boynton could have always worked with someone else to do the illustrations. And looking at this one, I understand that, but think it's a little harsh. The art style here is simplistic but I don't think it's out of place; certainly, this isn't "bad indie comic" art. And that reviewer and I agree that Boynton has a gift for writing this material. It's cute and endearing and fun to read.

I can imagine a world where this book would have sold enough copies to get him more attention than it did. But... that's not this world. In fact, as I write this, this book has literally zero online footprint. No retailer seems to have ever had it in stock. GCD has never heard of it. Image searches do nothing. Even people who have collaborated with Boynton, like Dale Martin (Watusi the Talking Dog) don't seem to have made mention of it. I can only assume it was primarily distributed in Concordia and other small Missouri communities, and that virtually no one else has ever seen or heard of it.

Except now, all of you have.