Stumble Inn by George Comic

There's a lot of George Herriman's Krazy Kat being reprinted these days, but not so many people are familiar with one of his other newspaper comic strips from the 1920's, Stumble Inn.


Stumble Inn is kind of like Fawlty Towers in that it all takes place in a small hotel with a small cast of regular characters...

The Main characters are:
Uriah Stumble,
Stumble Inn by George Herriman comic strip scan
-- the long-suffering proprietor of the eponymous hotel...


Mr. Owl-Eye,
Mr. Owl-Eye the detective house dick Stumble Inn George Herriman comic strip scan
the "house dick"
(or hotel detective, if you please...)


Mr. Weewee (oui, oui)
Mr. Weewee the French chef who works in the kitchen in George Herriman's Stumble Inn comic strip scan high-resolution
the French chef who works in the kitchen


and Joe Beamish --
cat man asleep in couch chair George Herriman scan
a character who does absolutely nothing but sleep in the soft chairs in the lobby. I gather from the strip that he's not a paying guest, but rather just a lazy local who takes up space. It's amazing how much mileage George Herriman can get out of a character that never so much as opens his eyes!

Oh -- and a never-ending supply of "guests"
A guest at George Herriman's Stumble Inn speaks with Uriah Stumble in this detail from vintage comic strip scan
that can "stumble in" to the strip for added comedy situations.

Okay -- enough intro!
__________________________________

On with today's Stumble Inn comic strip ...

George Herriman Stumble Inn motel interior lobby high resolution hi-res comic strip scan

Joe Beamish asleep in chair wih kitty cat asleep on his lap George Herriman Stumble Inn high resolution hi-res comic strip scan

Uriah Stumble calls upstairs to his wife Ida

Uriah's wife tell him to put the cat outside George Herriman Stumble Inn

Uriah carries the whole chair outside with sleeping Joe Beamish and the cat on his lap

Interior cartoon bedroom 1920's lit by candlelight man takes off his suspenders

Here's the whole Stumble Inn comic strip at 300dpi...

George Herriman Stumble Inn high resolution hi-res comic strip scan

Yes, folks...this giant 6-panel strip is a DAILY comic strip! It measure about 6 inches tall by 12 inches wide. Too big to fit in my scanner. It's bigger than today's Sunday strips! I bought a small run of 26 consecutive comic strips on eBay a few years ago, and every single one of them has just as much love and detail and early 20th century urban funkiness as this one does.

I love when Herriman is drawing in this mode. It reminds me of his illustrations for the Archy and Mehitabel books.
archy and mehitabel comic illustration by George Herriman from book of poems by Don Marquis

His pen strokes are so assured and bouncy, filling his cartoons with vim and vigor!


George Herriman Self Portrait drawing with Krazy Kat

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