I think this card was mailed much earlier than 10/5/70. I found this, and I can’t explain the date on it-1/2/70, 9 months earlier

I found it in the September 25, 1970 from San Antonio Express in Texas.

And yes I saw that other one too and then realized that it was over 5000 pages for a newspaper and started looking for dates and found it is all the papers from that year registered as a single paper. If you go a few pages back from the article you referenced you can see the date printed on the actual newspaper was actually from a later edition after the Zodiac mailing was reported. They just mashed them all into one date for the whole year on the site for some reason. Or if you scroll up on that page you can see the date of another article as October 12, 1970 on the same page under the Iowa Campaigns headline on the same page.

Okay cool, that was odd. Good find either way

Okay cool, that was odd. Good find either way

Thanks. Yeah I kept looking at it thinking how in the world could they be reporting this months prior to it being mailed then realized it was all the papers from the year crammed into one.

I am wondering if this coming from a comic strip, as did some of his other works, may be able to rule it back in as a Zodiac confirmed letter? I don’t think anyone at the time had made any of the comic references connection, so maybe this was Z doing his thing and connecting it in a way that takes some digging to figure it out?

Good find, vc.

I wonder how closely Chronicle staff were looked at? People familiar with the syndicated columns, paste up, that sort of thing? When I worked in a newspaper art department early in my career, I knew the paper inside and out without trying.

Excellent find.

Here’s it together with the card. Not that it needs it but it’s nice to see. Also, to the best of my knowledge I don’t recall this being found before.

Good find, vc.

I wonder how closely Chronicle staff were looked at? People familiar with the syndicated columns, paste up, that sort of thing? When I worked in a newspaper art department early in my career, I knew the paper inside and out without trying.

I haven’t been able to find this comic in anything but the Texas paper I found it in, though if it was in the Chronicle it should be in the same date issue as this one I would think.

Excellent find.

Here’s it together with the card. Not that it needs it but it’s nice to see. Also, to the best of my knowledge I don’t recall this being found before.

Thanks! And much appreciated putting them together.

Thinking a bit deeper on it, I can’t imagine it would be too hard to find out what papers carried Smidgens comic strips and when they ran them. I will dig a bit tomorrow to see if I can find the places around the country that ran them.

Diggin up the previous issue again..:

Slightly colored the darker areas on where the handwriting/stamp is. It seems that the lines of the document on which someone had written were sort of named or numbered. Could have been a form, e.g. where it says ‘address’ or ‘Date’ or something instead of ‘1,000’. The handwriting does not appear to be Z-style, imo. It could even come from a SF Chronicle or FBI document. In 1971 it was famous to use folders where you did put in all the stuff to send it to the e.g. editor, so other documents may have given some color onto the card. Rather got onto it after opening the envelope, imo.

QT

Good find, vasa.

It also appears in the September 25, 1970 Oakland Tribune:

Here’s the entire page.

Good find, vasa.

It also appears in the September 25, 1970 Oakland Tribune:

Here’s the entire page.

Nice! That tells me it is probably in more papers in the area.

i’m not familiar with "smidgens" but in the third panel if you can make out the vertical writing on the left side it probably says "some company syndicate" which would indicate it was a syndicated comic and probably ran region-wide if not nationwide.

One interesting thing I just realized is the thickness of the font in the one from the card more closely matches the Texas paper. The one from Oakland seems too thin except for the last block. The one from Texas seems to me more of a match yet gets even thicker in the last block as well. I wonder what the reason for that is? Guessing it could vary from paper to paper?

Guessing it could vary from paper to paper?

Yup. Answered your own question. Depends on the ink and the printer and the paper and the room and the press and the pre-press and when lunch is lol. Smithy could give you a more technical answer I’m sure.

Awesome! It always reminded me of a "Peanuts" font. So I looked at many of those. Cool to come across that Vasa!

How did you do it? Type in the phrase in a search….pure luck?

I still don’t think this was Zodiac, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s a great find and a good feeling it must have been to come across it.