Wally and The Major. Tenth Edition. An Advertiser Feature [cover title]

Essendon, Printed and Published by Donald Ross Rankin for The Herald and Weekly Times Limited, [1952]. Large oblong octavo, 48 pages with an illustrated foreword and 47 pages of comic strips (plus the wrappers, with advertisements on three sides). Saddle-stapled colour-pictorial title-wrappers; spine very lightly worn; three pairs of staple-holes through the inner margins close to the spine, with slight associated rust-marks to the wrappers (these staples had been added unnecessarily by an early owner, and removed by us); tiny split to the leading edge of eight consecutive leaves; overall, a very good copy. Stanley Cross (1888-1977) 'created perhaps Australia's best-known cartoon, known by its caption "For Gorsake, stop laughing - this is serious". His art portrayed typical Australians, from farmers to jackaroos, doctors and diggers. For The Herald in Melbourne, he created the adventures of Wally and the Major in a comic strip syndicated for decades in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji and celebrated in 18 annual books from 1943 to 1960. His name is perpetuated in the annual Black and White Artists' Club Stanley Awards' (the 'Australian Media Hall of Fame' website). In 1939, 'Cross was asked to create a newly daily strip, and he started his most popular strip, "The Winks" on 20 April 1940. For the first three months, the strip employed a domestic comedy theme and was basically a toned down version of "You & Me". The characters "Mr Wink" reflected the role of Mr Potts, while the tall, thin, long-faced character was similar to "Whalesteeth". In the initial stages, the characters were given their own weekly strip, "Tidley Winks & Wally". "The Winks" was only moderately popular until Cross decided to change the strip's direction and take the main characters into the Army. Mr Winks became Major Winks on 15 July 1940 and the strip was renamed Wally and the Major. Over the next thirty years . readers were able to enjoy the extraordinary, knock-about adventures and lifestyle of Private Wally Higgins, Major Winks, Pudden Bensen, and a company of comedy players - in the army in World War II and, afterwards, on their North Queensland sugarcane plantation' (Wikipedia).…