Joe Palooka's Future

Will Joe Palooka's wife Ann have a boy or a girl? Last week hundreds of thousands of comic-strip readers were speculating on the birth of the aging heavyweight hero's second, child after ten years of married life, but because of matters legal, not medical, it was not even certain that the baby would ever be born. Reason: Moe Leff, longtime collaborator on the strip and its producer since the death in 1955 of Joe's creator, Ham Fisher, had sued to end his 20-year contract with Fisher's estate, quit drawing the daily strips distributed by the McNaught Syndicate to some 650 U.S. and foreign newspapers.

In the midst of a legal snarl over royalties, Leff posed some big questions about Joe's future. He had planned the birth of a baby boy, Buddy Palooka, for the end of October. Soon afterward, Leff meant to have Joe retire from the ring as undefeated champion, plunge into youth work and life as a family man. Only when boxing-world conditions "took a turn for the better" did Leff intend to bring Joe's younger brother Steve along as the next heavyweight champion.

With a new McNaught Syndicate writer-artist team set to pump fresh ink into Joe, his prospects for an early retirement have faded fast. Best guess is that Joe's son will indeed be born. But poor Joe may never see the life as the worker for good causes that Leff had planned. Instead, to earn his living--and contribute to the McNaught Syndicate's income--Joe is more than likely to be tossed back into the ring with the rest of the palookas.

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