Camera-ready comic art drawing for Emmy Lou

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Emmy Lou newspaper strip shows Emmy Lou thinking that her mother is setting her up on a date with a neighbor’s son, when it turns out that the boy is much younger and a cub scout.

Martha B. "Marty" Links's (1917-2008) early career included work in 1940 at the San Francisco Chronicle, where she contributed to a recurring feature called Women’s World. Links started the comic strip Bobby Sox in 1944, and later changed the title to Emmy Lou. She used a man’s name to sell her drawings to newspapers and advertising agencies. After Links ended the strip, she designed greeting cards for Hallmark until her retirement in 1999.

Emmy Lou (1944-1979), originally Bobby Sox, told the story of a young girl’s dealings with adolescence. "Bobby soxers," a name given to teenage girls of the 1940s, usually denoted fans of swing music and followers of certain fashion trends, most notably the poodle skirt and rolled ankle socks. Links eventually decided that her concept of teenage girls was no longer relevant, especially because her own daughters, the inspirations for the Emmy Lou character, were becoming adults. She discontinued the strip in 1979.

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