Flash Gordon and Secret Agent X-9 artist Alex Raymond began his detective strip Rip Kirby March 4, 1946, and the strip was scripted by Raymond, Ward Greene, and Fred Dickenson. But Raymond died in a car crash Sept. 6, 1956, and John Prentice took over the art, while Dickenson continued to script the feature. Prentice died in 1999, and the last Rip Kirby strip was June 26, 1999.

When The Cleveland Plain Dealer picked up Rip Kirby on Aug. 24, 1964, the strip was in the middle of an adventure. Solution: The paper provided a summary of what had happened to this point. (By the way, in case you were worried about the resolution to the sampling I've shown here, the strip for Aug. 28 featured Kirby making a hasty exit from the house, accompanied by the thought balloon, "Can't shoot him ... It's his house ...")