Birmingham Historical Comic Strips -- Birmingham Post-Herald, Original Page

The Post-Herald first saw the light of day on May 15, 1950, as a merger of the two competing morning papers - the Age-Herald and the Post. While there are plenty of market share and national trend reasons that this was likely to happen, one factor seems to have been that the two had become largely indistinguishable in their editorial stances and coverage practices, so there seemed to be fewer reasons to remain separate than there were to merge.

The Post-Herald comics selection was a fairly straightforward merger of the two papers:

They'll Do It Every Time, Jimmy Hatlo, King Features Syndicate
Orphan Annie, Harold Gray, Chicago Tribune
Li'l Abner, Al Capp, United Features Syndicate
Abbie and Slats, Raeburn Van Buren, United Features Syndicate
Jack Armstrong, Bob Schoenka, Register & Tribune Syndicate
Dick Tracy, Chester Gould, Chicago Tribune
Gasoline Alley, King, Chicago Tribune
Terry, George Wunder, News Syndicate
Out Our Way, J. R. Williams, NEA Service
Priscilla's Pop, Al Vermeer, NEA Service
Freckles and His Friends, Merrill Blosser, none listed
Alley Oop, V. T. Hamlin, NEA Service
Vic Flint, Michael O'Malley and Ralph Lane, NEA Service
Bugs Bunny, none, Warner Bros. Cartoons
Boots and Her Buddies, Edgar Martin, NEA Service
Captain Easy, Leslie Turner, NEA Service
Smilin' Jack, Zack Mosley, none listed
Nancy, Ernie Bushmiller, United Features Syndicate
Our Boarding House, none, none listed
Funny Business, Hershberger, NEA Service
Carnival, Dick Turner, NEA Service
Moon Mullins, Willard, Chicago Tribune
Grandma, Charles Kuhn, King Features Syndicate
Side Glances, Galbraith, NEA Service

Three of the panels or strips, all scattered around the paper, hadn't been in either predecessor paper, leading to the assumption that they were added as part of page layout decisions along with their merit. Funny Business was a gag-a-day panel - it wasn't overly hilarious, for the most part, but it made good use of the medium, as most of the gags had nice visual components, such as the first one run here, which featured a pantsless businessman on his office phone letting his wife know he'll be late for dinner as we can see his pants caught in a closed safe door in the background. It's not related, as far as I can tell, with the Roger Bollen Funny Business panel from the late 1970's, which focused more on wordplay. Carnival is a somewhat unfocused panel; it features gags related to a traveling carnival just often enough to justify the name, maybe, but a large portion of the content is just everyday life. Side Glances was a fairly popular, from what I can tell, and definitely long-running panel focused on the perceived upper crust.

For a century or so, the business of comic strips was inextricably intertwined with the business of newspapers, and this newspaper business move was no exception. The following strips or panels which had run in one of the predecessor papers did not run in the initial Post-Herald:

Bruce Gentry
Dixie Dugan
Donald Duck
Dotty Dripple
Gordo
Rip Kirby
The Great American Home
The Neighbors
The Orbits
Time Out!
Willie Dee
Winnie Winkle

On the other hand, the relationship was (always) symbiotic. Page 2 of that first Post-Herald included this article:

Last Updated: December 7, 2022