Ripley's Believe it or Not

Andy Madura's Comics & Paper Collectibles

Andrew Madura, 1265 Fran Mar Ct, Clermont, FL 34711

e-mail: am@Oldsundaycomics.com

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Ripley's Believe it or Not  by Robert Ripley (1220-) (1st Named daily October 1919) - Sources claim that Ripley's Believe it or Not originates from a strip by Robert Ripley called 'Champs & Chumps' from 1918.  Ripley actually started drawing his sports frames long before that, as early as 1912,  perhaps even earlier.   Robert Ripley was a a single frame artist who happened to have a passion for the exotic.  It was this passion that drove Ripley to transform his sports strip into a frame centered around the unusual sights and facts of the world.  He renamed the strip in 1919 to 'Ripley's Believe it or not'  the signature strip of the odd and unusual.   Ripley hired researchers for much of his content, however by the early 1930's the strip was writing itself thanks to the contributions of thousands of letter-writing fans around the globe.  The strip started in many papers as a black and white daily and sunday.    The sunday strip soon graduated to the front or back page of the magazine section for a few syndicates giving it even more exposure.  It finally reached the color comics section in the later 1930's.   The phenomenon that Ripley created expanded into pop culture through books, magazines, TV and even Themed 'Museums'.    The market for Believe it or Not is actually fairly good.   Offered mostly as halves or smaller, the magazine section-front fulls exist from the 30's and sell at a modest premium.  Other than those,  collectors look for runs where available.    Dailies sell equally well as sundays.   Because of the nature of the strip, these were fodder for quite a few scrapbooks in their day.    If in good condition, those scrapbooks actually retain the loose strip value. (36/19)
Newspaper Comics Links ---> Ripley's Believe it or Not - Sundays Ripley's Believe it or Not - Dailies

Sunday Comics
Item # Date-#-size* Condition* Price Notes
S1220-0034 1932 - 5F BW FR/FR/G $5.00 5 Tab on Full, No reverse (3/13, 4/3-4/17, 5/1)
S1220-0035 1933 - 5F BW G/G/G $5.00 5 Tab on Full, No reverse (7/9, 9/3-9/24)
S1220-0004 1934 - 5F BW G/G/G $5.00 5 Tab on Full, No reverse (5/7-5/28, 11/4)
S1220-0036 1938 - 1F BW G/G/G $1.00 1 Tab on Full, No reverse (1/30)
S1220-0005 1938 - 10H FR-G/FR-G/G $19.00 On reverse Little King(1H) Tippie(7H), Room & Board(1H), Stars & Stripes Contest(1H) (9/11, 10/2, 10/23-11/6, 11/27-12/25)
S1220-0006 1939 - 11H G/FR-G/VG $22.00 On reverse Tippie(7H), Hall of Fame of the Air(1H), Pete the Tramp(1H) (2/5, 2/12, 2/26, 4/2, 7/9, 7/23, 7/30, 8/13, 8/20, 9/10, 112/10)
S1220-0007 1940 - 30H G/G/VG $60.00 On reverse Pete the Tramp(7H), Barney Google(1H), Squirrel Cage(1H), Little King(1H), Toots & Casper(2H), Room & Board(1H), Dinglehoofer(4TH), Hall of Fame of the Air(3H), Little Annie Rooney(4H) (1/14, 1/21, 2/4-2/18, 3/3-3/31, 4/14, 4/21, 5/19, 5/26, 6/23-7/7, 7/21, 8/4, 8/25, 9/1, 9/15, 10/13-10/27, 11/17, 12/1, 12/8, 12/22. 12/29)
S1220-0008 1941 - 27H G/G/G-VG $54.00 On reverse Thimble Theatre(1H), Toots & Casper(1H), Bunky(1H), Pete the Tramp(2H), Family Portraits(14H), Squirrel Cage(1H) (1/5, 1/12, 2/23, 3/16, 3/30-4/13, 5/18, 5/25, 6/8, 6/22, 7/6-8/10, 8/24, 8/31, 9/14, 9/28, 10/19, 11/2-11/16, 11/30, 12/28)
S1220-0009 1942 - 22H G/G/VG $44.00 On reverse Toots & Casper(1H), Little King(2H), Family Portraits(2H), Tippie(3H) (1/11, 1/25, 2/1, 2/15-3/1, 3/29, 4/5, 4/26-5/17, 6/14, 7/26, 8/9, 8/30, 10/25-11/8, 12/13-12/27)
S1220-0010 1943 - 28H G/G/VG $56.00 On reverse King of the Royal Mounted(1TH), Barney Google(1TH), Room & Board(3TH), Lone Ranger(4TH), Little Annie Rooney(1TH), Tim Tyler's Luck(2TH), Jungle Jim(2TH), Henry(1TH), Aladdin Jr(2TH), Col. Potterby(2TH), Toots & Casper(1TH) (1/3, 1/10, 1/24, 1/31, 2/14, 2/28-3/14, 3/28, 4/4, 5/2, 5/23, 5/30, 7/4, 7/11, 8/15, 8/29, 9/12, 9/19, 10/3-10/24, 11/7, 11/21, 11/28, 12/19, 12/26)
S1220-0011 1944 - 7H, 1TH G/G/G $15.00 On reverse Tim Tyler's Luck(1tH), Buz Sawyer(3H), Right around home(1TH), Little Iodine(1TH), Little Annie Rooney(1TH), Room and Board(1TH) (2/6, 2/13, 3/12, 4/16, 5/7, 6/11, 9/24, 10/15)
S1220-0012 1945 - 29H, 4TH G/G/VG $62.00 On reverse Squirrel Cage(2TH), Barney Google(1TH), Out Our Way(1H) (1/7, 1/21-2/4, 2/18, 2/25, 3/11, 3/18, 4/8-5/20, 6/3-6/17, 7/1, 7/22, 8/12, 9/2, 9/9, 9/23-10/21, 11/11, 11/18, 12/2, 12/23, 12/30)
S1220-0013 1946 - 26H, 10TH G/FR-G/VG $31.00 On reverse Jungle Jim(1TH), Little Iodine(2TH) Col Potterby(1TH), Henry(1TH), Tillie the Toiler(1TH)(1/6--3/31, 4/14, 4/21, 5/5-6/16, 6/30, 7/7, 7/28, 8/11, 9/8-9/29, 10/13, 10/27-11/10, 12/1, 12/22)
S1220-0037 1956 - 2H, 2TH G/FR-G/VG $3.00 On reverse (12/9-12/30)
S1220-0024 1957 - 15H, 32TH G/FR-G/VG $31.00 On reverse Little Iodine(1tH), Steve Canyon(1H), Mickey Mouse(1TH), Beetle Bailey(1TH) (1/6-11/24)
S1220-0025 1958 - 1TH G/G/G $1.00 No reverse (12/21)
S1220-0027 1960 - 2TH G/G/G $1.00 No reverse (4/17, 9/18)

Daily Comics Sets
Item # Title Date-# Size* Condition* Price Notes
D1220-0003 Ripley's Believe it or Not 1943/04 - 13 4x6R G $2.50 by Robert Ripley
Newspaper Comics Links ---> Ripley's Believe it or Not - Sundays Ripley's Believe it or Not - Dailies

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