Little Lulu


Little Lulu is a comic strip created in 1935 by American cartoonist Marjorie Henderson Buell. The character, Lulu Moppet, first introduced in The Saturday Evening Post on February 23, 1935, in a single panel, appearing as a flower girl at a wedding and mischievously strewing the aisle with banana peels. Little Lulu replaced Carl Anderson's Henry, which had been picked up for distribution by King Features Syndicate. The Little Lulu panel continued to run weekly in The Saturday Evening Post until December 30, 1944.
Little Lulu was created as a result of Anderson's success. Schlesinger Library curator Kathryn Allamong Jacob wrote:

History

Pennsylvania native Marjorie Henderson Buell, whose work appeared under the pen name "Marge", had created two comic strips in the 1920s: The Boy Friend and Dashing Dot, both with female leads. She first had Little Lulu published as a single-panel cartoon in The Saturday Evening Post on February 23, 1935. The single-panel strip continued in the Post until the December 30, 1944 issue, and continued from then as a regular comic strip. Buell herself stopped drawing the comic strip in 1947. In 1950, Little Lulu became a daily syndicated series by Chicago Tribune–New York News Syndicate, and ran until 1969.
Comic-book stories of the character scripted by John Stanley appeared in ten issues of Dell's Four Color before a Marge's Little Lulu series appeared in 1948 with scripts and layouts by Stanley and finished art by Irving Tripp and others. Stanley greatly expanded the cast of characters and changed the name of Lulu's pudgy pal from "Joe" to "Tubby", a character that was popular enough himself to warrant a Marge's Tubby series that ran from 1952 to 1961. Little Lulu was widely merchandised, Writer/artist John Stanley's work on the Little Lulu comic book is highly regarded. He did the initial Lulu comics, later working with artists Irving Tripp and Charles Hedinger, writing and laying out the stories.
He continued working on the comic until around 1959. Stanley is responsible for the many additional characters in the stories. After Stanley, other writers produced the Lulu stories for Gold Key Comics, including Arnold Drake. The comics were translated into French, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Portuguese, and other languages. After Buell's retirement in 1972 she signed the rights to Western Publishing. Marge's was dropped from the title, and the series continued until 1984.

Characters

The main characters of the Little Lulu comic strip include the following. Full details and supporting and minor characters can be found in the main article of Little Lulu characters. Variations from the comic strip and other media representations are discussed in the main article.
  • Little Lulu – Louise "Little Lulu" Moppet is the main character and Tubby and Annie's best friend. She is very smart, but stubborn and always initiates a battle with the boys to show that the girls are as good as them. Lulu is also very creative and tells stories to Alvin to teach him a lesson with fun. She wears a red dress and hat and has long black curly hair with brown highlights.
  • Tubby Tompkins – Thomas "Tubby" Tompkins is Lulu's male best friend and her chief opponent in their disputes. He is the leader of the boys' club known as "The Fellers". He is relapsed and always forgets to pay the monthly fee or to fulfill the obligations and his clubmates often take him out of office. Tubby is in love with Gloria, but she's rarely given him a chance. He has red hair and wears a white sailor hat, a black suit jacket, a large blue bowtie and light brown/orange pants, making his attire very similar to a sailor's uniform. See main article: Tubby Tompkins.
  • Annie Inch – Lulu's female best friend who is involved in most of Lulu's escapades and adventures. She is not as smart, but she is a true friend who helps Lulu in her plans. Sometimes she is annoyed at everyone for no reason. Annie is Iggy's sister. She has short black straight hair and wears a blue dress.
  • Iggy Inch – Tubby's male best friend and a member of the "Fellers". He is grumpy, mischievous and always doing tricks. Iggy is Annie's brother. He has a shaved head, and wears a white collar shirt and orange pants.
  • Willie Wilkins – One of Tubby's friends and the strongest member of the "Fellers". He has short black hair and wears an orange cap, a green suit jacket, and orange knickers.
  • Eddie Stimson – One of Tubby's friends and the smartest member of the "Fellers". He often creates the boys' plans against the West Side Boys. He has short blond hair and wears a blue whoopee cap, a red sweater and blue pants.
  • Wilbur Van Snobbe – The richest and most charming boy in town. He likes to be loved by the girls, but he is arrogant and petulant, being sweet only with Gloria. Wilbur has no friends, although he sometimes plays with the other kids. He has curly blond hair and wears a purple suit.
  • Gloria Goode – The most beautiful girl in town. She is nice and playful with the girls, who secretly hate her out of envy, and the boys, who fall in love with her. Gloria has a friendly rivalry with Lulu and she is richer than most of the class, although less than Wilbur. She has long, wavy blonde hair and wears a ruffled pink dress.
  • Alvin Jones – Lulu's 6-year-old neighbor. He is mischievous, bratty and only stops tantrums when Lulu tells a story. He has red hair with a quiff and wears a blue and white ball cap, a white shirt and blue overalls.
  • George and Martha Moppet – Lulu's parents. Martha is a great cook and George is always targeted by Tubby's pursuit as a detective.
  • Jim and Ellie Tompkins – Tubby's parents.
  • The West Side Boys – A gang of stronger, tougher bully boys from across town who are the rival club of the "Fellers" and always try to invade their club. The most frequently seen of the West Side Boys are Butch, Mickey and Spike, while other individual members include Mike, Slug, Junior and Guggy.

    Comic strips and comic books

A daily comic strip, entitled Little Lulu, was syndicated by the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate from June 5, 1950, through May 31, 1969. Artists included Woody Kimbrell, Roger Armstrong, and Ed Nofziger.
Little Lulu appeared in ten issues of Dell Comics' Four Color comic book series, before being certified to her own title: Marge's Little Lulu in 1948.
With the Dell Comics/Western Publishing split that created Gold Key Comics, Little Lulu went to Gold Key with issue No. 165. Tubby got his own comic series from 1952 to 1961, first appearing in Four Color No. 381, 430, 444, and #461; then his own title Marge's Tubby from No. 5 thru 49. In this series, Tubby had his own adventures without Lulu, especially with the Little Men from Mars.
Upon retirement, Marge sold Little Lulu to Western Publishing. The comic was renamed Little Lulu with No. 207. Publication of the comics stopped printing in 1984, when Western discontinued publishing comics. Artist Hy Eisman retained stories intended for #269–270 because the artwork was returned to him after the comic was cancelled. Three of these are to be reprinted in the Lulu fanzine The HoLLywood Eclectern. "The Case of the Disappearing Tutu", slated to be the lead story in Little Lulu No. 270, appears in HE No. 47.
There were also two giant-sized Annuals, 14 Dell Giants, a regular-sized unnumbered special on visiting Japan and three Gold Key Specials. Lulu also appeared in 20 issues of March of Comics and was reprinted in several Golden Comics Digests.
Between 1985 and 1992 Another Rainbow Publishing published a hardbound 18-volume set, the Little Lulu Library, collecting the stories in the Four Color issues, plus the regular series through No. 87.
While Western Publishing's Little Lulu stopped being released in 1984, in Brazil, new Lulu stories, penned by local artists, kept being published by Editora Abril. Primaggio Mantovi was responsible for overseeing the production. Luluzinha, Abril's main monthly Lulu comic series, ended in 1993.

Advertising and merchandising

Little Lulu was featured on numerous licensed products, and she was the centerpiece of an extensive advertising campaign for Kleenex tissues during the 1940s–50s, being the first mascot for Kleenex tissues; from 1952 to 1965 the character appeared in an elaborate animated billboard in Times Square in New York City. and she was also seen in Pepsi-Cola magazine ads during that period. Kleenex commercials featuring Little Lulu were regularly seen in the 1950s on Perry Como's TV show. Buell played an active role in merchandising Little Lulu, often taking a hands-on role in terms and negotiations. Currently, the trademarks on Little Lulu are held by NBCUniversal.

Adaptations

Short films

Between 1943 and 1948, Lulu appeared in 26 theatrical animated shorts produced by Famous Studios for Paramount Pictures, replacing the Superman shorts of the 1940s. Paramount went on to create a similar character, Little Audrey, after failing to renew the Lulu license, and thereby avoiding the payment of royalty fees.
Lulu was voiced by Cecil Roy, while Tubby was voiced by Arnold Stang. The theme song for the shorts was written and composed by Buddy Kaye, Fred Wise, and Sidney Lippman, and performed by the singing group Helen Carroll and the Satisfiers. All musical arrangements were done by Winston Sharples and Sammy Timberg.

List of ''Little Lulu'' cartoons

In the 1960s, Paramount and Famous Studios produced two new Little Lulu cartoons, "Alvin's Solo Flight", and "Frog's Legs", both based on two of John Stanley's comic stories. Cecil Roy reprised her role as Lulu, but Arnold Stang did not return as Tubby, as by that time, he already left Famous Studios to work at Hanna-Barbera Productions where he would perform the voices for Top Cat.

Feature films

aired two half-hour live-action specials based on the comic on Saturday morning as part of ABC Weekend Special. Little Lulu was released on November 4, 1978 and The Big Hex of Little Lulu on September 15, 1979. The cast included:
  • Lauri Hendler as Lulu
  • Kevin King Cooper as Tubby
  • Lulu Baxter as Annie
  • Robbie Rist as Iggy
  • Annrae Walterhouse as Gloria
  • Billy 'Pop' Atmore as Willie
  • Nicky Manfredi as Eddie
  • Billy Jayne as Alvin
  • Nita DiGiampaolo as Margie
  • Shari Belafonte as Janie

    Television adaptations

Little Lulu was adapted for the Japanese anime TV series Little Lulu to Chitchai Nakama, was directed by Seitaro Kodama, produced by the Japanese studio Nippon Animation and written by Niisan Takahashi. the TV series was issued in Japan by ABC and NET. Lulu was interpreted by Eiko Masuyama in the first three episodes and Minori Matsushima for the remainder, Keiko Yamamoto interpreted to Tubby Tompkins, Alvin was voiced by Sachiko Chichimatsu and Annie and Iggy Inch were voiced by Junko Hori and Yoneko Matsukane respectively. The music was composed by Nobuyoshi Koshibe, The main theme in the original language was composed by and the end theme "Watashi wa Lulu" was composed only by Mitsuko Horie. An English-dubbed version of the anime was made for the American market by ZIV International in 1978, and this same company distributed globally the TV series; the show lasted from 1976 to 1977 with 26 episodes in total.
In 1995, Little Lulu was adapted for The Little Lulu Show, an HBO animated TV series with the voices of Tracey Ullman and Jane Woods as Lulu Moppet. The series was produced by Canada-based CINAR after Marge's death two years earlier. The series ended in 1999, but continued to air on Family Channel and now-defunct Teletoon Retro in Canada.

Manga-style Brazilian comic

In 2009, Luluzinha Teen e sua Turma, a Brazilian comic book series depicting Lulu and her friends as teenagers, was launched. The book was created in an attempt to rival Monica's Adventures, another comic book which also adapts a popular franchise by using a manga style and presenting its original characters were now as teenagers.
Lulu and Tubby have their first kiss in #50, a commemorative edition.
Luluzinha Teen e sua Turma became very popular in its introduction, being one of the best-selling comics in Brazil for a while, second only to its "rival". Nevertheless, unlike Monica's Adventures, Little Lulu's teen-aimed spin-off was canceled in 2015, after 65 issues.

Later days

Lulu fans hold an annual gathering at San Diego Comic-Con in which they perform a play adapted from a classic Lulu story.

Reprints

The Little Lulu Library

Published by Another Rainbow Publishing, were a series of six-book boxsets released from 1985 to 1992. They were published in reverse order, with Set VI being released first, then counting down to Set I. Each of the six sets contains three volumes, each with about six comics. The comics are printed in B&W; however, the covers are printed in full color. The books are about 9" by 12", with the pages being larger than the original comic book pages.

Dark Horse reprints

In 2004, Dark Horse Comics obtained the rights to reprint Little Lulu comics. 18 B&W volumes, plus an unnumbered color special, were published through early 2008. After a short hiatus, the series resumed in mid-2009 in full color. Volumes 4-5 were originally published until the first three volumes, as it was felt that their content was more accessible.
  1. My Dinner with Lulu
  2. Sunday Afternoon
  3. Lulu in the Doghouse
  4. Lulu Goes Shopping
  5. Lulu Takes a Trip
  6. Letters to Santa
  7. Lulu's Umbrella Service
  8. Late for School
  9. Lucky Lulu
  10. All Dressed Up
  11. April Fools
  12. Leave It to Lulu
  13. Too Much Fun
  14. Queen Lulu
  15. The Explorers
  16. A Handy Kid
  17. The Valentine
  18. The Expert
  19. The Alamo and Other Stories
  20. The Bawlplayers and Other Stories
  21. Miss Feeny's Folly and Other Stories
  22. The Big Dipper Club and Other Stories
  23. The Bogey Snowman and Other Stories
  24. The Space Dolly and Other Stories
  25. The Burglar-Proof Clubhouse and Other Stories
  26. The Feud and Other Stories
  27. The Treasure Map and Other Stories
  28. The Prize Winner and Other Stories
  29. The Cranky Giant and Other Stories
  • Little Lulu Color Special
Dark Horse later began issuing Giant Size volumes; each collects three of their reprint books.
  1. Giant Size Little Lulu Volume 1
  2. Giant Size Little Lulu Volume 2
  3. Giant Size Little Lulu Volume 3
  4. Giant Size Little Lulu Volume 4
In 2010, Dark Horse reprinted the companion Tubby series in volumes similar to their Lulu volumes.
  1. The Castaway and Other Stories
  2. The Runaway Statue and Other Stories
  3. The Frog Boy and Other Stories
  4. ''The Atomic Violin and Other Stories''

    Drawn & Quarterly reprints

In May 2018, Drawn & Quarterly announced that they will be reprinting John Stanley's Little Lulu comics in a multi-volume best-of series, beginning in spring 2019. Drawn & Quarterly reprinted a selection of John Stanley's stories for Free Comic Book Day 2019.
  • Marge's Little Lulu in World's Best Comic Book
  • Little Lulu: Working Girl, ISBN
  • Little Lulu: The Fuzzythingus Poopi, ISBN
  • Little Lulu: The Little Girl Who Could Talk To Trees,
In 2009, Drawn & Quarterly printed a volume of John Stanley Tubby comics as part of their John Stanley Library series.
As a cameo appearance, Little Lulu was planned for the 1988 Disney live-action/animated hybrid family comedy film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but rights to the character could not be obtained in time. In 1994, an organization called Friends of Lulu, was founded that lasted until 2011, its name was based on Little Lulu. In 2006, Buell's family donated a collection of Buell's artwork and related papers as Marge Papers to the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. She makes a cameo appearing on a comic book cover in The Simpsons episode "Husbands and Knives", being read by Alan Moore.
In Brazil, the expression for "boys' club" is "clube do Bolinha".

Works cited

  • Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, California: Comics Access, 1995.
  • Taylhardat, Karim. ''The little lulu''