For a period of about 50 years, many of America’s top cartoonists and illustrators lived within a stone’s throw of one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut.

Comic strips and gag cartoons read by hundreds of millions were created in this tight-knit group — Prince Valiant, Superman, Beetle Bailey, Hägar the Horrible, Hi and Lois, Nancy, The Wizard of Id, Family Circus … I could keep going.

This hour, a look at the funny pages, and at Connecticut’s cartoon county.

GUESTS:

• Bill Griffith: The creator and author of the daily comic strip Zippy
• Henry McNulty: A writer and editor who worked for the Hartford Courant for more than 25 years
• Cullen Murphy: Editor-at-large for Vanity Fair and the author of Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe

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Colin McEnroe, Kevin MacDermott, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired January 11, 2018.

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