Freckles and His Friends
Encyclopedia
Freckles and his Friends was a popular American
comic strip
set in the peaceful small town of Shadyside where young Freckles McGoosey and his friends live. Although the long-run strip, created by Merrill Blosser
, is remembered for its continuing storyline involving a group of teenagers, it originally featured a child at the age of six or seven in gag-a-day situations.
Illustrated by Blosser and later by Henry Formhals
(1908-1981), Freckles and His Friends was ghostwritten
by Fred Fox (1903-1981). A gagwriter for Groucho Marx
and Judy Canova
, Fox scripted for radio, television and films. Widely syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association
, Freckles and His Friends had a long run through much of the 20th Century. Today some of the strips can be read at Steve Cottle
's I Love Comix Archive.
points out that it actually began on August 16, 1915. In May 1915, the 23-year-old Merrill Blosser landed a job in Chicago with NEA, initially drawing cartoons based on news events. That summer he began drawing five comics features. One of these, titled Freckles, began as a one-column daily gag panel on August 16, expanding into a full comic strip on September 20 when it was retitled Freckles and His Friends. One by one, Blosser dropped each of the other panels, but in July 1916, he began another strip, Miniature Movies, which soon became Chestnut Charlie, continuing until early in 1918. At that point, Blosser then dedicated himself exclusively to the production of Freckles and His Friends.
The daily strip
gained readers through the 1920s and into the 1930s when a Sunday strip
was added on December 31, 1933. By 1939, according to Editor & Publisher
, the Sunday strip
was published in 130 newspapers, while the daily strip appeared in more than 500 papers. During the World War II
years, Blosser's creation was seen by some 60,000,000 readers.
The one-a-day gag strip evolved into adventure stories in the 1920s. In 1927, when readers were told to submit names for a horse, Blosser was overwhelmed with 24,000 responses. Freckles began wearing knickers in 1928. When Freckles and His Friends was dropped by a newspaper in 1929, the paper received thousands of phone calls, cards and letters, plus a petition from the employees of the newspaper, prompting a return of the strip to the comics page. In 1932, Freckles wore long trousers when he entered Shadyside High School and met his Friends. The Crumpet Hut crowd eventually included his best buddy Lard Smith, Bazoo Botts, Hilda, perky Daisy and the inventive intellectual Nutty Cook. Romance entered the strip after Freckles met June Wayman, a character introduced in 1937.
Walter Hoban
and his strip Jerry on the Job
were an influence on Blosser's simple cartoon style. An inspection of strips from different decades reveals that Blosser's artwork continually improved as the strips and characters evolved. After Henry Formhals
became Blosser's assistant in 1935, a more realistic style surfaced as Freckles grew older and the strip became more narrative.
By 1939, Freckles was 17 years old, a high school senior and the captain of Shadyside High's football team. Most of his time was spent hanging out with his girlfriend June and his pal Lard, who was often in the company of his girlfriend, Hilda. Freckles' younger brother, Tagalong, aka Tag, also made appearances.
, since Blosser often referenced real places in Nappanee, such as Johnson's Drug Store. Nappanee holds the distinction of having the longest city name in the United States containing each letter in its name twice, and six successful cartoonists lived in Nappanee as children, including Fred Neher
(Life’s Like That
) and Bill Holman
(Smokey Stover
).
In the 1940s, Freckles and His Friends carried a topper
strip, Hector. By 1945, the strip was carried in 580 daily and 158 Sunday newspapers. At its peak, Freckles and His Friends was syndicated to more than 700 papers. It was adapted to the Big Little Book series and reprinted in comic books, including Dell Comics
' Crackajack Funnies and the back pages of the Red Ryder comic book. Freckles had his own title from Standard Comics for eight issues in the late 1940s and then four issues published by Argo Comics in the mid-1950s.
Blosser married shortly after he drew the earliest Freckles and His Friends strips. For years, the couple lived in Cleveland, where the NEA office was located, until they moved to Los Angeles and then to the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia
. After his first few decades of doing the strip, Blosser shared the work of producing the daily and Sunday strips with his assistant Henry Formhals, who took over the daily in 1938. When Blosser retired, Formhals produced it alone from 1966 to 1971. The strip was discontinued on August 28, 1971.
honored Blosser with an award "in recognition of the wholesome entertainment he has brought his myriad readers" and for the creation of "the oldest regular comic strip still piloted by its creator."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
set in the peaceful small town of Shadyside where young Freckles McGoosey and his friends live. Although the long-run strip, created by Merrill Blosser
Merrill Blosser
Merrill Blosser was the creator of the comic strip Freckles and His Friends, which had a long run . Although his strip was set in the small town of Shadyside, it was obviously based on Blosser's hometown of Nappanee, Indiana, since Blosser often referenced real Nappanee locations, such as...
, is remembered for its continuing storyline involving a group of teenagers, it originally featured a child at the age of six or seven in gag-a-day situations.
Illustrated by Blosser and later by Henry Formhals
Henry Formhals
Henry Martin Formhals was an American cartoonist best known for his work on the comic strip Freckles and His Friends....
(1908-1981), Freckles and His Friends was ghostwritten
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
by Fred Fox (1903-1981). A gagwriter for Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
and Judy Canova
Judy Canova
Judy Canova , born Juliette Canova, was an American comedienne, actress, singer and radio personality. She appeared on Broadway and in films...
, Fox scripted for radio, television and films. Widely syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association
United Media
United Media is a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States, owned by The E.W. Scripps Company. It syndicates 150 comics and editorial columns worldwide. Its core business is the United Feature Syndicate and the Newspaper Enterprise Association...
, Freckles and His Friends had a long run through much of the 20th Century. Today some of the strips can be read at Steve Cottle
Steve Cottle
Steve Cottle, Jr. , dedicated to the preservation of vintage comic strips, is also known as Mr. ilovecomix. In 2008, he founded the I Love Comix Archive and began to recruit vintage comic strip collectors as contributors, noting, "This is a collaborative effort to save and digitize old newspaper...
's I Love Comix Archive.
History
Although many sources give the start date as September 20, 1915, comic strip historian Allan HoltzAllan Holtz
Allan Holtz is a comic strip historian who researches and writes about newspaper comics for his Stripper's Guide, launched in 2005. His research encompasses some 7,000 American comic strips and newspaper panels...
points out that it actually began on August 16, 1915. In May 1915, the 23-year-old Merrill Blosser landed a job in Chicago with NEA, initially drawing cartoons based on news events. That summer he began drawing five comics features. One of these, titled Freckles, began as a one-column daily gag panel on August 16, expanding into a full comic strip on September 20 when it was retitled Freckles and His Friends. One by one, Blosser dropped each of the other panels, but in July 1916, he began another strip, Miniature Movies, which soon became Chestnut Charlie, continuing until early in 1918. At that point, Blosser then dedicated himself exclusively to the production of Freckles and His Friends.
The daily strip
Daily strip
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays....
gained readers through the 1920s and into the 1930s when a Sunday strip
Sunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
was added on December 31, 1933. By 1939, according to Editor & Publisher
Editor & Publisher
Editor & Publisher is a monthly magazine covering the North American newspaper industry. It is based in New York City. E&P calls itself "America's Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry" and describes itself on its website as "the authoritative journal covering all aspects of the North...
, the Sunday strip
Sunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
was published in 130 newspapers, while the daily strip appeared in more than 500 papers. During the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
years, Blosser's creation was seen by some 60,000,000 readers.
Characters and story
When Blosser began the strip in 1915, he simply devised daily gags and problems for his child character Freckles to encounter while wandering around the fictional town of Shadyside. At the time, Freckles wore short pants and long stockings. As Freckles aged, the strip introduced more jokes in family situations, eventually expanding into a continuity storyline about the teenage Freckles' day-to-day life with his friends.The one-a-day gag strip evolved into adventure stories in the 1920s. In 1927, when readers were told to submit names for a horse, Blosser was overwhelmed with 24,000 responses. Freckles began wearing knickers in 1928. When Freckles and His Friends was dropped by a newspaper in 1929, the paper received thousands of phone calls, cards and letters, plus a petition from the employees of the newspaper, prompting a return of the strip to the comics page. In 1932, Freckles wore long trousers when he entered Shadyside High School and met his Friends. The Crumpet Hut crowd eventually included his best buddy Lard Smith, Bazoo Botts, Hilda, perky Daisy and the inventive intellectual Nutty Cook. Romance entered the strip after Freckles met June Wayman, a character introduced in 1937.
Walter Hoban
Walter Hoban
Walter C. Hoban was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Jerry on the Job.Born in Philadelphia, Hoban came from a newspaper family...
and his strip Jerry on the Job
Jerry on the Job
Jerry on the Job was a popular comic strip by cartoonist Walter Hoban which was set in a railroad station. Syndicated by William Randolph Hearst's International Feature Service, it ran from 1913 into the 1930s....
were an influence on Blosser's simple cartoon style. An inspection of strips from different decades reveals that Blosser's artwork continually improved as the strips and characters evolved. After Henry Formhals
Henry Formhals
Henry Martin Formhals was an American cartoonist best known for his work on the comic strip Freckles and His Friends....
became Blosser's assistant in 1935, a more realistic style surfaced as Freckles grew older and the strip became more narrative.
By 1939, Freckles was 17 years old, a high school senior and the captain of Shadyside High's football team. Most of his time was spent hanging out with his girlfriend June and his pal Lard, who was often in the company of his girlfriend, Hilda. Freckles' younger brother, Tagalong, aka Tag, also made appearances.
Shadyside
Although Shadyside could have been located anywhere in the American heartland, it was obviously based on Blosser's hometown of Nappanee, IndianaNappanee, Indiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 6,710 people, 2,521 households, and 1,792 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,818.9 people per square mile . There were 2,647 housing units at an average density of 717.5 per square mile...
, since Blosser often referenced real places in Nappanee, such as Johnson's Drug Store. Nappanee holds the distinction of having the longest city name in the United States containing each letter in its name twice, and six successful cartoonists lived in Nappanee as children, including Fred Neher
Fred Neher
Fred Neher was an American cartoonist best known for his syndicated gag panel, Life’s Like That, which offered a humorous look at human nature, with a focus on American society and family life, for more than five decades....
(Life’s Like That
Life’s Like That
Life’s Like That was a gag panel by Fred Neher which found humor in life's foibles. Spanning five decades, the series was initially distributed by the Bell Syndicate and later by Consolidated News Features and the United Features Syndicate....
) and Bill Holman
Bill Holman (cartoonist)
Bill Holman was an American cartoonist who drew the classic comic strip Smokey Stover from 1935 until he retired in 1973. Distributed through the Chicago Tribune, it had the longest run of any strip in the screwball genre...
(Smokey Stover
Smokey Stover
Smokey Stover is an American comic strip written and drawn by cartoonist Bill Holman, from 1935 until he retired in 1973. Distributed through the Chicago Tribune, it features the wacky misadventures of the titular fireman, and had the longest run of any comic strip in the "screwball comics"...
).
In the 1940s, Freckles and His Friends carried a topper
Topper (comic strip)
A topper in comic strip parlance is a small secondary strip seen along with a larger Sunday strip. In the 1920s and 1930s, leading cartoonists were given full pages in the Sunday comics sections, allowing them to add smaller strips and single-panel cartoons to their page.Toppers usually were drawn...
strip, Hector. By 1945, the strip was carried in 580 daily and 158 Sunday newspapers. At its peak, Freckles and His Friends was syndicated to more than 700 papers. It was adapted to the Big Little Book series and reprinted in comic books, including Dell Comics
Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
' Crackajack Funnies and the back pages of the Red Ryder comic book. Freckles had his own title from Standard Comics for eight issues in the late 1940s and then four issues published by Argo Comics in the mid-1950s.
Blosser married shortly after he drew the earliest Freckles and His Friends strips. For years, the couple lived in Cleveland, where the NEA office was located, until they moved to Los Angeles and then to the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia
Arcadia, California
Arcadia is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and located approximately northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains....
. After his first few decades of doing the strip, Blosser shared the work of producing the daily and Sunday strips with his assistant Henry Formhals, who took over the daily in 1938. When Blosser retired, Formhals produced it alone from 1966 to 1971. The strip was discontinued on August 28, 1971.
Awards
In September 1945, with the 30th anniversary of Freckles and His Friends, Blosser was the guest of honor in Los Angeles at a testimonial dinner attended by his personal friends, radio personalities, film stars and executives of the Los Angeles News. In New York in May, 1965, the National Cartoonists SocietyNational Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
honored Blosser with an award "in recognition of the wholesome entertainment he has brought his myriad readers" and for the creation of "the oldest regular comic strip still piloted by its creator."
See also
- Aggie MackAggie MackAggie Mack was a newspaper comic strip about a teenage girl. Created by Hal Rasmusson, it was distributed by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate beginning in 1946. It had a 26-year run, with a title change to Aggie during the final six years....
- Carl Ed
- Etta KettEtta KettEtta Kett was a long-run comic strip created by Paul Robinson. Launched as a single panel during December 1925, it originally offered tips to teenagers on manners, etiquette and the social graces...
- Harold TeenHarold TeenHarold Teen was a popular, long-running comic strip written and drawn by Carl Ed . Publisher Joseph Medill Patterson may have suggested, and certainly approved, the strip's concept, loosely based on Booth Tarkington's successful novel Seventeen. Asked in the late 1930s why he had started the strip,...
- Marty LinksMarty LinksMarty Links was an American cartoonist best known for her syndicated comic strip Emmy Lou.-Biography:Born Martha Arguello in Oakland, California, she moved with her family to San Francisco, where she grew up...
- PennyPenny (comic strip)Penny was a comic strip about a teenage girl by Harry Haenigsen which maintained its popularity for almost three decades. It was distributed by the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate from 1943 to 1970....
- TeenaTeenaTeena is a cartoon panel series and comic strip about a teenage girl, created by Hilda Terry. It ran from 1944 to 1966, distributed by King Features Syndicate....
- Zits