Happy Hooligan

''Happy Hooligan'' is an American comic strip, the first major strip by the already celebrated cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper. It debuted with a Sunday strip on March 11, 1900 in the William Randolph Hearst newspapers, and was one of the first popular comics with King Features Syndicate. The strip ran for three decades, ending on August 14, 1932.

Characters and story

The strip told the adventures of a well-meaning hobo who encountered a lot of misfortune and bad luck, partly because of his appearance and low position in society, but who did not lose his smile over it. He was contrasted by his two brothers, the sour Gloomy Gus and the snobbish Montmorency, both just as poor as Happy. Montmorency wore a top hat and monocle but was otherwise as ragged as his siblings.

The archivist Jennifer Huebscher wrote that Opper may have taken inspiration for the Happy Hooligan's look from an illustration done by cartoonist Oscar Bradley depicting a Minnesotan acrobat and vaudeville entertainer named Fred Lowe. Lowe performed in the 1910s and onward under the moniker "The Original Happy Hooligan".

Like the other major comics by Opper, ''And Her Name Was Maud'', ''Happy Hooligan'' initially did not run on a regular schedule, skipping Sundays from time to time, while some other weeks two pages appeared at once; the character also played a role in some of Opper's daily strips. After a few years, though, ''Happy Hooligan'' became a regular feature with both daily strips and Sunday pages.

The Sunday strip changed titles and focus many times during the 1910s and 20s. The ''Happy Hooligan'' Sunday feature went on hiatus after January 16, 1916; when it returned on June 18, 1916, it was called ''Happy Hooligan's Honeymoon'', a title which stuck until April 7, 1918. The next week, it was back to ''Happy Hooligan'' until May 26. Starting June 23, the strip was called ''Dubb Family'', and didn't feature any appearances by Happy Hooligan; this title lasted until September 29. From October 6 to November 17, the strip was back to ''Happy Hooligan'', and then switched to ''Mister Dubb'' from December 8, 1918 to April 24, 1921. For the next two years—May 1, 1921 to July 29, 1923—the Sunday strip was called ''Down on the Farm''. The title swapped again—now called ''Mister Dough and Mister Dubb''—from Aug 9, 1925 to January 9, 1927, and then reverted to ''Happy Hooligan'' for the rest of the run, until 1932.

Adaptations and books

Opper was one of the most popular comic creators of his time. ''Happy Hooligan'' and his other popular strips were collected in book form and developed into merchandise products. The comic got translated as well and was, together with the ''Katzenjammer Kids, as ''Cocoliche''. The comic was also probably the very first American comic strip adapted for films, when J. Stuart Blackton directed 13 live-action shorts (1900–03). Some 15 years later, it was adapted for more than 50 animated cartoons, released from 1916 to 1921.

Beginning in 1904, Opper drew ''And Her Name Was Maud'', about the kicking mule Maud, into comic strips and books, but on May 23, 1926, he positioned ''And Her Name Was Maud'' as the topper to his ''Happy Hooligan'', and it ran along with ''Happy Hooligan'' until both strips came to a conclusion on October 14, 1932.

As Opper did not use an assistant, the series ended in 1932 when Opper abandoned it due to failing eyesight. While lacking lasting popularity, the series remained influential and inspired other cartoonists such as Rube Goldberg and Jules Feiffer (who compared the title character to President Gerald Ford) and was also arguably a major inspiration for Charlie Chaplin's ''The Tramp'' character. It was called "Opper's greatest comic character" by comics artist Coulton Waugh. ''Happy Hooligan'' is also cited as the first comic to use speech balloons on a regular basis as an integral part of the comic (''The Yellow Kid'' used speech balloons as early as 1896 but did not use them as the main means of communication).

''Sam's Strip''

In the early 1960s, Happy Hooligan was a semi-regular character in ''Sam's Strip''; dozens of other comic-strip characters had appeared as "guests" in the strip, but Hooligan appeared so often that he was eventually treated as a regular member of the cast.Sam's Strip
at ComicsWorthReading.com

References

Everything not directly referenced in the text can be sourced to th

for ''Happy Hooligan''.

Further reading

Kevin Scott Collier. ''Happy Hooligan : The Animated Cartoons 1916-1922''. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018.

External links

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Happy Hooligan Dance and Two Step (sheet music)

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1900 comics debuts
1932 comics endings
American comics adapted into films
American comics characters
American comic strips
Fictional hoboes
Fictional beggars
Male characters in comics
Fictional American people
Gag-a-day comics