The Precursor of Sergeant Preston?

King of the Royal Mounted. Proof Sheets of the Comic Strip.

N.p: Stephen Slesinger, Inc. King Features Syndication, 1935-1938.

Price: $750.00


About the item

103 proof sheets, on heavy glossy paper stock, of weekly episodes of the comic strip for newspaper syndication, mounted with cellotape to slightly larger sheets. Each sheet 14-1/2 x 10-3/4 inches. The Precursor of Sergeant Preston? Oblong format album of stiff card covers, printed label affxed to upper cover. Some staining at edges from cellotape (occaisonally ungihtly but not affecting legibility), most proof sheets loosened. Still very good overall. Provenance: Estate of Zane Grey.

Item #259785

King of the Royal Mounted started as a Sunday King Features Syndicate strip, featuring Dave King as a Royal Mountie who always gets his man. The original artist was Allen Dean, collaborating with Zane Gray; in 1936, the weekly strip was taken over by Zane Grey’s son, Romer, with Stephen Slesinger, who licensed Zane Grey's byline.
The current selection, although incomplete and lacking several numbers (noted in pencil inside the album), is nonetheless full of adventure, plane crashes, violent criminals, logjams on northern rivers, and the Mystery of the Sunken Treasure Ship. It is a substantial collection of the early series as it was transformed by Slesinger in 1936. It soon evolved into a daily strip, and found its way unto the movies when 20th Century Fox released a film in September 1936, starring Robert Kent.
The earliest dated episode in this collection is from December 1, 1935; the last is July 31, 1938.