Tom Tyler in “Screen Oddities” by Captain Roscoe Fawcett

Can you imagine being alive back in 1933, reading the local newspaper and catching a glimpse of an illustrated version of Tom Tyler in a comics panel? Aptly named “Screen Oddities” and created by Roscoe Kent Fawcett, this particular comic panel brought unusual tidbits of information about popular Hollywood stars of the era to many readers. Even though “Screen Oddities” was drawn and circulated for eight years, many digital copies of the comics panel have survived in online newspaper archives. “Screen Oddities” was written and illustrated in the style of Robert Ripley’s decades-popular “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” comics panel which began in 1918 and continues until this day by various comics artists, long after the originator’s death in 1949.

Roscoe Fawcett was the co-owner and publisher of Fawcett Comics from the years 1940 to 1954. This division fell under the parent company of Fawcett Publications. Tom Tyler is no stranger to Fawcett Publications, having appeared in the very first superhero movie ever made, “Adventures of Captain Marvel” (1941) – a superhero originally published by Fawcett. Born in 1913 in Ramsey, Minnesota, Roscoe’s comics panel covered unusual facts about stars such as Joan Crawford, Gene Lockhart, Harold Lloyd, William Powell, Kay Francis – and Tom Tyler.

The depiction of Tom dressed as the Mountie Clancy from the Universal serial "Clancy of the Mounted" (1933) which was exhibited at theatres during that year is somewhat humorous at first sight. Tom Tyler is indeed dressed up as a Mountie, with his hat on, and a peek at sideview of his horse, with most of the animal's body obscured by the panel's border. What is the "oddity" on Tom Tyler? Why, the fact he was a champion weightlifter. Roscoe Fawcett drew the largest pair of Milo weights possible that would fit into the space at the bottom of the panel, with the accompanying text: "Tom Tyler: Appearing in 'Clancy of the Mounted' is an Olympic weightlifting champion." This no doubt is a reference to Tom's being selected for the 1928 Summer Olympics weightlifting team that was held in Amsterdam that year, even though the United States weightlifting team was never sent. Tom is lifting up two gigantic weights, one in each hand, as if they were books instead of 100-plus pound weights. Two other Hollywood stars which share that same panel space is Will Rogers, and the beautiful Olga Baclanova.

From The Saginaw News, June 23, 1933

Sometimes signing “Screen Oddities” as Captain Rosco[e] Fawcett, the panel was distributed by Bell Syndicate during the eight years it was drawn. Fawcett died on December 23 in 1999 in Minnesota.