"Desperate Desmond" was a comic strip by Harry Hershfield, published in the New York JournalHarry Hershfield, at Lambiek; retrieved April 6, 2019 between March 11, 1910, and October 15, 1912. Obscurity of the Day: Desperate Desmond, by Allan Holtz, at Stripper's Guide; published November 25, 2009; retrieved April 6, 2019
A parody of melodrama, it depicted a stereotypical villain named Desmond who continually tried to capture a damsel in distress named Rosamond, which brought him into conflict with her and her paramour Claude Eclaire;, at Don Markstein's Toonopedia; published 2004; retrieved April 6, 2019 Hershfield ended the strip by having Claude and Rosamond marry, which meant that Desmond could no longer pursue her., at Don Markstein's Toonopedia; "Desmond (...) was idle because his former antaonistand love interest, Claude Eclaire and the fair Rosamond, had eluded him by marrying"; retrieved April 6, 2019
Coulton Waugh described it as one of the first strips to include genuine suspense; The Comics, by Coulton Waugh; first published 1947; 1991 edition published by University Press of Mississippi similarly, R. C. Harvey has mentioned its early use of daily continuity.The Art of the Funnies: An Aesthetic History, by Robert C. Harvey; published 1994 by University Press of Mississippi
Don Markstein noted that it was a "probably a response" to the presence of a similar character in C. W. Kahles's earlier strip "Hairbreadth Harry"; Maurice Horn, however, called it a "direct imitation" of Kahles's work, but felt that it "showed greater ingenuity and wit".World Encyclopedia of Comics, by Maurice Horn, published 1976 by Chelsea House
Adaptations
Film adaptations of "Desperate Desmond" were produced by Nestor Studios,Melodramatic Villainy (Just) after the Victorians, by Guy Barefoot; chapter 3 in Neo-Victorian Villains: Adaptations and Transformations in Popular Culture, edited by Benjamin Poore; published June 1 2017 by Brill Publishers directed by Tom Ricketts, with Dorothy Davenport as Rosamond and Fred Kelsey as Claude;Bayonne, by Kathleen M. Middleton; published May 1, 1995 by Arcadia Publishing as well, vaudeville star Fred Duprez released a recording of a "Desperate Desmond"-based comedy act.
References
External links Audio of Fred Duprez's "Desperate Desmond", at the Library of Congress