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24-848: Frank Henry Willard was born on September 21, 1893, in Anna, Illinois , the son of a physician. He determined to become a cartoonist early in life. After attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago in 1913, he was a staff artist with the Chicago Herald (1914–18), where he drew the Sunday kids' page Tom, Dick and Harry and another strip, Mrs. Pippin's Husband . He next wrote and drew The Outta Luck Club for King Features Syndicate (1919–23). In The Comics (1947), Coulton Waugh described Willard's art style as "gritty-looking". In 2003,

48-498: A few months after the strip began in 1923. Starting with the lettering, then the backgrounds, Johnson gradually progressed to the point where he was handling the entire operation; but it was only after Willard's death that he began signing it. When Willard died suddenly on January 11, 1958, the Tribune Syndicate hired Johnson to helm the strip. Johnson's first credited strip ran on March 3, 1958. (Frank Willard's tombstone at

72-539: A new strip for the Chicago Tribune Syndicate . That strip was Moon Mullins ... Ah, Moon Mullins! He made a horrible role model but a hilarious star nonetheless—as did his assorted pals ... Adventures included stints in jail, trysts with stolen cars, failed employment opportunities, misunderstandings and plenty of black eyes for all. Yet, there was a certain lightness to all of Moon's debaucheries that made his low-down ways pretty charming ... Willard

96-522: A powdered hot chocolate mix distributed by Superior Coffee and Tea and Smucker Foodservice Canada for the foodservice market. Moon Mullins was adapted for radio during the 1940s. In the third episode of the series (March 25, 1940), the Plushbottoms trade Moon's only suit to pay for a collect telegram and learn they are owners of a goldmine. In a CBS audition recording dated January 31, 1947, Uncle Willie asks Moon for $ 10 bail, and Moon teaches

120-441: A series of strip reprints for SPEC Productions. Moon Mullins merchandising began when agent Toni Mendez arranged a licensing deal for Kayo suspenders. The wave of products that followed included such items as a series of Kellogg's Pep Cereal pins, a Milton Bradley board game (1938), salt and pepper shakers, perfume bottles, Christmas lights, bisque toothbrush holders, a set of German nodder figures, carnival chalkware statues,

144-402: A wind-up toy handcar , oilcloth and celluloid Kayo dolls, coloring books and a series of jigsaw puzzles (1943). Kayo Chocolate Drink was the name of a bottled, later canned, chocolate-flavored milk drink . Created in 1929 by Aaron D. Pashkow of Chicago, it was bottled under authority of Chocolate Products, manufactured for decades, and featured Kayo Mullins on its label. It now only sold as

168-804: The American Comics Group (1947–1948). Dover Publications reprinted a collection of the daily strips in 1976, consisting of the third and fifth Cupples & Leon books. Representative samples of Moon Mullins daily continuity were featured in Great Comics Syndicated by the Daily News-Chicago Tribune ( Crown Publishers , 1972), and The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics ( Smithsonian Institution Press / Harry Abrams , 1977). The latter volume also reproduces several full-color Sunday pages. Comic strip historian Bill Blackbeard (1926–2011) edited

192-620: The Chicago Tribune with Willard. While assisting on Moon Mullins , Johnson remained active with other Tribune projects. He created several comic strip features for the Syndicate— Texas Slim (1925–1928) and Lovey-Dovey (1932)—did sports illustration work, and produced advertising cartoons. In 1940, he revived Texas Slim in Texas Slim and Dirty Dalton (with the companion strip, Buzzy ), which ran for 18 years. By

216-468: The Scoop newsletter documented the 1923 events that led to the creation of the strip: Moon was a tough-talking, if generally good natured, kind of guy who took (and dealt) plenty of punches during his run. And actually, those are very appropriate characteristics. See, back before Moon was created, Frank Willard was working on a strip called The Outta Luck Club for King Features Syndicate. That's when he got

240-696: The 1920s, at 449 Fourth Avenue. Victor Cupples had previously worked with the publisher Houghton Mifflin , and Arthur Leon had been with Laird & Lee Publishers. In 1902, Cupples and Leon ran the New York agency for the George W. Ogilvie Company and other Chicago firms. They also were the advertising managers for Jamieson-Higgins' Four O'Clock magazine. The duo saw that Grosset & Dunlap and A. L. Burt (New York), Donohue (Chicago) and Altemus (Philadelphia) were selling juveniles at varying prices from $ 1.25 to 25 cents. After talks with Edward Stratemeyer ,

264-729: The Anna Cemetery in Anna, Illinois, is graced with an engraving of Moon Mullins.) Ferd Johnson was born December 18, 1905, in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania. Johnson became interested in cartooning after winning the Erie (Pennsylvania) Dispatch-Herald cartoon contest at the age of 12. After finishing high school in 1923 he attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, but left school after only three months to take an assistant's job at

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288-604: The Ark , Poor Lil Mose and The Tigers . Their major competitor in books of comic strip reprints was Frederick A. Stokes , who died in 1939. To reprint comic strips, the company offered, for 25 cents, a square-bound paperback format of 52 pages of black-and-white strips. The flexible, cardboard covers were printed in black and red. Between 1906 and 1934, Cupples & Leon published more than 100 titles in that format. They collected Bringing Up Father , Little Orphan Annie , Mutt and Jeff , Reg'lar Fellers , Smitty , Tillie

312-570: The Toiler and other leading strips of the 1920s and 1930s. They produced at least 18 reprint collections of Mutt and Jeff daily strips, in 10" × 10" softcover books from 1919 to 1934. In 1921, they negotiated a contract to sell $ 405,000 worth of these books to magazine distributor American News Company , at the time one of the largest publishing contracts ever signed. They also published two larger hardcover editions, Mutt and Jeff Big Book (1926) and Mutt and Jeff Big Book No. 2 (1929). They left

336-528: The editors want to make room for them, so the old ones get dumped. And Moon sure qualifies that way." In April 1991, the Chicago Tribune dropped the strip, and the Tribune Media Syndicate told Johnson that it was the end. The last strip ran on Sunday, 2 June 1991. The strip was reprinted in a long-running series of Cupples & Leon books (1927–1937), Big Little Books and comic books for Dell Comics (starting in 1936) and later,

360-461: The game of Blackjack to Kayo. Lord Plushbottom plans to go to a costume party as an Indian but instead winds up with a suit of armor. Character actor Sheldon Leonard was in the cast. Cambria Studios produced two sample episodes of a proposed Moon Mullins syndicated TV series with their Syncro-Vox animation process in the early 1960s, but it did not clear enough television stations to go into production. Comic actor and director Howard Morris

384-464: The notion that some of his ideas were being slipped to fellow cartoonist George McManus (creator of Bringing Up Father ). So, in typical Moon Mullins fashion, Willard approached McManus and gave him a wallop that knocked the latter out cold and got the former fired. That little episode didn't stop Captain Joe Patterson 's interest from being piqued, however, and Willard soon set to work on

408-418: The time he took Moon Mullins , it had evolved from long story continuities to a gag-a-day strip. In 1978, Ferd's son, Tom Johnson, signed on as his assistant. Ferd Johnson stayed with the strip until it came to an end upon his retirement in 1991. Moon Mullins appeared in 350 papers at its height but declined to 50. Johnson said, "They just kept dropping off because it's so damn old. The new ones come out and

432-794: The two men published a juvenile that sold for 50 cents but appeared to be worth more. Cupples & Leon published the American editions of the UK children's weekly story paper Chatterbox , founded by John Erskine Clarke , prompting a UK researcher of Chatterbox to comment: In 1913, they were publishing Roy Rockwood 's Dave Dashaway series and other aviation juveniles. Scouting was another focus of their serial novels, along with their Motor Boys series. In 1914, they published Grimm's Fairy Tales , illustrated by Johnny Gruelle . In 1903, Cupples & Leon collected such strips as The Katzenjammer Kids , Alphonse and Gaston , Happy Hooligan , On and Off

456-664: Was a tough guy in a derby and turtleneck; everyone remembers him as the kid who slept in a pulled-out dresser drawer. Running the boarding house was sour ol' Emmy Schmaltz (she later married insubstantial Englishman Lord Plushbottom.) Rounding out the continuing cast were the cook Mamie and her less than industrious husband Willie. Moon Mullins is not likely to be adapted into the new big Broadway musical (although you never know), but I always liked it and would like to see it remembered. The Sunday page's topper strip , Kitty Higgins , ran from December 14, 1930, to 1973. Ferdinand "Ferd" Johnson (1905–1996) began as Willard's assistant

480-414: Was always enjoyable and funny in a low-key way. Frank Willard's art was better than it's given credit for, very smooth and subtle; but his real strength was in the amusing personalities he gave his characters. (Longtime assistant Ferd Johnson took over after Willard's death in 1958.) "Moonshine" Mullins, as his name hinted, was a shady sort of rogue, always in trouble and often in jail. His little brother Kayo

504-488: Was an American publishing company founded in 1902 by Victor I. Cupples (1864–1941) and Arthur T. Leon (1867–1943). They published juvenile fiction and children's books but are mainly remembered today as the major publisher of books collecting comic strips during the early decades of the 20th century. In Manhattan, the company was initially located in the Presbyterian building at 156 Fifth Avenue and, during

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528-612: Was in tune with the working class characters he created, as noted by David Westbrook in From Hogan's Alley to Coconino County: Four Narratives of the Early Comic Strip : After Johnson took over, other characters were added to the cast, including: The strip was reviewed by Dr. Hermes in Dr. Hermes Retro-Scans : It was never so hysterical that you felt you just had to clip it and show it to everyone you knew, but Moon Mullins

552-528: Was repeated in 1978, without Archie , under the title Fabulous Funnies . Anna, Illinois Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.132 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 952074663 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:43:54 GMT Cupples %26 Leon Cupples & Leon

576-513: Was the voice of Moon when the strip was adapted to animation for Archie's TV Funnies (1971–1973), produced by Filmation . Moon and Kayo became one of several rotating segments on the Saturday morning cartoon series. Other comic strip character features in the rotation included Broom-Hilda , Dick Tracy , The Captain and the Kids , Alley Oop , Nancy and Sluggo and Smokey Stover . It

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