A Brief History of The Little Lulu Character
The comic strip character Little Lulu was born in 1935, when The Saturday Evening Post asked Marjorie Henderson Buell to create a successor to the magazine's Henry, Carl Anderson's stout, mute little boy, who was moving on to national syndication. The result was Little Lulu, the resourceful little girl whose loopy curls were reminiscent of the artist's own as a girl. Buell explained to a reporter, "I wanted a girl because a girl could get away with more fresh stunts that in a small boy would seem boorish."
Little Lulu debuted in The Saturday Evening Post on 23 February 1935 and continued to run weekly until 30 December 1944. A daily comic strip, entitled Little Lulu, was syndicated from June 1950 through May 1969.
Little Lulu appeared in ten issues of Dell Comics' Four Color comic book series before graduating to her own title: Marge's Little Lulu in 1948. The title was later shortened to Little Lulu. It ceased publication with issue No. 268. The series had been successively published by Dell Comics, Gold Key and Whitman Comics.
In addition to its regular series, Little Lulu appeared in giant-sized annuals and special issues. Lulu's friend and most important supporting character Tubby got his own comic series from 1952 to 1961, appearing without Little Lulu, but with his friends, the Little Men from Mars, in 49 issues and two specials.
Sketching and writing of the Little Lulu comic book series was taken on besides Marge by John Stanley, who later drew the Nancy and Sluggo comic strip. Stanley's work on the Little Lulu comic book is highly regarded. He did the initial Little Lulu comics, later working with artists Irving Tripp and Charles Hedinger. He continued working on the comic until the late 1950s. Stanley is responsible for the many additional characters in the stories. After Stanley, other writers produced the Lulu stories, including Arnold Drake.
The Little Lulu panel continued weekly in The Saturday Evening Post until December 30, 1944. Buell marketed Little Lulu widely throughout the 1940s and retained it rights, which was unusual for the time. In 1950, Little Lulu became a daily syndicated comic strip.
Little Lulu has appeared in other languages, besides English: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
Little Lulu appeared in comic books, cartoons, greeting cards and more. She was featured on numerous licensed products, and she was the centerpiece of an extensive advertising campaign for Kleenex tissues during the 1940s-50s, and she was also seen in Pepsi-Cola magazine ads during that period. Lulu fans hold an annual gathering at the San Diego Comic Con in which they perform a play adapted from a classic Lulu story.
The comic strip character Little Lulu was born in 1935, when The Saturday Evening Post asked Marjorie Henderson Buell to create a successor to the magazine's Henry, Carl Anderson's stout, mute little boy, who was moving on to national syndication. The result was Little Lulu, the resourceful little girl whose loopy curls were reminiscent of the artist's own as a girl. Buell explained to a reporter, "I wanted a girl because a girl could get away with more fresh stunts that in a small boy would seem boorish."
Little Lulu debuted in The Saturday Evening Post on 23 February 1935 and continued to run weekly until 30 December 1944. A daily comic strip, entitled Little Lulu, was syndicated from June 1950 through May 1969.
Little Lulu appeared in ten issues of Dell Comics' Four Color comic book series before graduating to her own title: Marge's Little Lulu in 1948. The title was later shortened to Little Lulu. It ceased publication with issue No. 268. The series had been successively published by Dell Comics, Gold Key and Whitman Comics.
In addition to its regular series, Little Lulu appeared in giant-sized annuals and special issues. Lulu's friend and most important supporting character Tubby got his own comic series from 1952 to 1961, appearing without Little Lulu, but with his friends, the Little Men from Mars, in 49 issues and two specials.
Sketching and writing of the Little Lulu comic book series was taken on besides Marge by John Stanley, who later drew the Nancy and Sluggo comic strip. Stanley's work on the Little Lulu comic book is highly regarded. He did the initial Little Lulu comics, later working with artists Irving Tripp and Charles Hedinger. He continued working on the comic until the late 1950s. Stanley is responsible for the many additional characters in the stories. After Stanley, other writers produced the Lulu stories, including Arnold Drake.
The Little Lulu panel continued weekly in The Saturday Evening Post until December 30, 1944. Buell marketed Little Lulu widely throughout the 1940s and retained it rights, which was unusual for the time. In 1950, Little Lulu became a daily syndicated comic strip.
Little Lulu has appeared in other languages, besides English: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
Little Lulu appeared in comic books, cartoons, greeting cards and more. She was featured on numerous licensed products, and she was the centerpiece of an extensive advertising campaign for Kleenex tissues during the 1940s-50s, and she was also seen in Pepsi-Cola magazine ads during that period. Lulu fans hold an annual gathering at the San Diego Comic Con in which they perform a play adapted from a classic Lulu story.