Hazel (comics)
Hazel is a single-panel cartoon series by Ted Key about a live-in maid who works for a middle-class family. Launched in 1943, Hazel ended September 29, 2018.
Publication history
The character of Hazel came to Key in 1943 in a dream. He drew it the next morning and sent to The Saturday Evening Post, where it quickly became a popular series.Hazel ran weekly in The Saturday Evening Post until the magazine ceased publication in 1969, after which the cartoon was picked up for daily newspaper syndication by King Features Syndicate, starting on June 16, 1969. Key continued to draw Hazel until his retirement in 1993; he died in May 2008.
In 2008, King Features was reprinting Hazel panels in more than 50 newspapers.
Characters
Hazel, the live-in maid to the Baxter family, also serving as nanny to the children.George Baxter, ostensible head of the household.Dorothy Baxter, George's wife.Harold Baxter, the son of George and Dorothy.Katie Baxter, the Baxters' adopted younger child.Smiley the dog.Mostly the cat.Two Ton, another cat, named for its size.In 2008, the cartoonist's son, Peter Key, talked about the origin of the character, "Like a lot of creative people, he kept a notepad near his bedside. He had a dream about a maid who took a message, but she screwed it up completely. When he looked at the idea the next day, he thought it was good and sold it to The Post."
Shortly afterward, the wry and bossy household maid was given the name Hazel, along with employment at the Baxter household. Peter Key recalled, "He picked the name Hazel out of the air, but there was an editor at The Post who had a sister named Hazel. She thought her brother came up with the name, and she didn’t speak to him for two years."