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→Characters and story: 'they reintroduced Phil Fumble' - he had not been mentioned at all at this point. |
→Daily strip: 'melodramatic aspects that are almost completely missing from the current version, but were almost non-existent during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s version of the strip' - this sentence needed cleaning up - the 'but' seems contradictory |
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The ''Fritzi Ritz'' daily strip began Monday, October 9, 1922.<ref>{{Cite news | url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1922-10-09/ed-1/seq-28/ |title = The evening world. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, October 09, 1922, Final Edition, Image 28|date = 1922-10-09}}</ref> In the early strips, Fritzi lived with her father and her Aunt Evelyn (who would eventually be retconned into her mother), with her father being the most commonly seen. She had a regular boyfriend, Ted Nichols (who was poor) and fended off the attentions of Bobby Bonds (who was rich). Fritzi began working at Star Studios in April 1923. Most of the 1920s gags took place at work, either in the studio or on [[location shooting]] at the beach, the mountains, in the country, or at a farm. In 1925, Larry Whittington left the strip to create another, ''Mazie the Model'' (syndicated by [[King Features]]).<ref>Holtz, Allan. [https://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2010/09/obscurity-of-day-mazie-model.html "Obscurity of the Day: Mazie the Model,"] ''Stripper's Guide'' (September 10, 2010).</ref> In May of that year, Bushmiller took over the strip, and Fritzi eventually began dating a new regular boyfriend, Wally.<ref name=lam/>
By 1927, her mother had disappeared completely; her father, however, appeared until the mid-1930s. The workplace gags seemed to diminish by the early 1930s, and the strip took place more around the house and neighborhood. During the 1931-32 period, Fritzi's cousin James appeared. He was about ten years old and usually had a mean scowl on his face. Bushmiller was attempting to pair Fritzi with a child, but James did not catch on.
Judging by very extensive examination of ''Fritzi Ritz'' dailies at newspaperarchive.com, Nancy made her first appearance in the January 2, 1933 daily strip as a houseguest. There was never a sequence of episodes exploring Fritzi's adoption of Nancy or what happened to Nancy's parents; she just seemed to appear as Fritzi's niece and gradually was seen more and more often throughout the 1930s. An examination of the very first week of Nancy's appearance in January 1933 has Nancy addressing Fritzi like a sister, not "Aunt" Fritzi. However, very quickly Nancy shows respect to her aunt. Sluggo Smith is introduced in the dailies in January 1938 and at first Fritzi does not get along with him, venting at Nancy over his uncouth manners. Gradually she warms to him and there is never any friction between the two characters after that; in fact, there are not very many scenes involving just Fritzi and Sluggo in the Sunday Nancy comics or the dailies.
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Occasionally, Fritzi's rich Uncle Zack appeared, though he only lasted a few years in the mid-1930s. It was rare for Fritzi's father and her boss to appear together; also rare for her father and uncle to appear together as well.
Bushmiller's dailies during the mid-to-late 1930s and early 1940s involved a lot of continuity, as opposed to the [[gag-a-day]] format that would come to dominate the rest of Bushmiller's run. There is a lot of sight humor but the strip is much wordier with elements involving mystery, pathos, and melodramatic aspects that are almost completely missing from the current version,
In one 1939 daily sequence, it appears as if Fritzi may be getting married. ==Sunday strip==
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