''Reg'lar Fellers'' is a long-running newspaper

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

adapted into a feature film, a radio series on the NBC Red Network, and two animated cartoons. Created by

Gene Byrnes Eugene Francis Byrnes (March 18, 1889 – July 26, 1974) created the long-running comic strip ''Reg'lar Fellers'', which he signed Gene Byrnes. His humorous look at suburban children (who nevertheless spoke like New York street kids) was syndica ...

(1889–1974), the comic strip offered a humorous look at a gang of suburban children (who nevertheless spoke like New York street kids). Syndicated from 1917 to January 18, 1949, Byrnes' strip was collected into several books. Branding also extended to such items as baseball bats and breakfast cereal.

Publication history

While working as a sports cartoonist with the '' New York Telegram'', Byrnes created his cartoon panel ''It's a Great Life If You Don't Weaken'' which introduced the ''Reg'lar Fellers'' characters in 1917. He began ''Wide Awake Willie'' as a ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

'' Sunday page in 1919, and this too featured ''Reg'lar Fellers'' characters. With ''Reg'lar Fellers'' distributed by the Bell Syndicate as a daily strip in 1920, Byrnes changed the name of the

Sunday strip The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies. The first US newspap ...

to ''Reg'lar Fellers''. At its peak, the strip was syndicated in 800 newspapers. It was imitated by other strips, notably

Ad Carter August Daniel Carter (1895–1957) was an American comic strip cartoonist who created the long-running ''Just Kids'' strip. He was known as Ad Carter, the signature he used on his strips. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Carter was 11 years old wh ...

's ''Just Kids''. ''Reg'lar Fellers'' had several topper strips on the Sunday page: ''Draw It Y'self'' (May 1, 1932 - Sept 2, 1934), ''Daisybelle'' (Sept 9, 1934 - 1940/41), ''Dizzie Lizzie'' (1940/41 - 1942) and ''Zoolie'' (Feb 6, 1944 - Jan 1949).

Characters and story

The characters include leader Jimmy Dugan, sidekick Puddinhead Duffy, Puddinhead's little brother Pinhead, Bullseye the dog and the gang's girl member, Angie Riley.

Collected editions and comic books

Cupples & Leon published four collections of ''Reg'lar Fellers'' reprints between 1921 and 1929. Two

Big Little Books The Big Little Books, first published during 1932 by the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, were small, compact books designed with a captioned illustration opposite each page of text. Other publishers, notably Saalfield, adopted t ...

, from different publishers, were published during the 1930s. ''Reg'lar Fellers Story Paint Book'' was published by Whitman Publishing in 1932. One curious hardcover book published during World War II brought together colorful ''Reg'lar Fellers'' episodes of kids playing soldiers in backyards with black-and-white World War II combat photographs. Reg'lar Fellers of America was an athletic organization founded by Clair F. Bee, the Director of Health Education at

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

. Reg'lar Fellers of America was planned to develop summer recreation for 12- to 15-year-olds through competitive sports, and Eastern Color Printing's ''Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics'' promoted the organization to the nation's youth beginning in 1940. ''Reg'lar Fellers'' remained in the title logo for the first 15 issues, which also displayed a seal with an eagle and a shield along with the words "Reg'lar Fellers of America". "The Official Publication of Reg'lar Fellers" was the cover blurb until issue 15; the title was shortened to ''Heroic Comics'' with issue 16. In other comic books, ''Reg'lar Fellers'' was reprinted in Dell Comics' ''Popular Comics'' beginning in #9 (November, 1936), which also featured reprints of ''

Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...

'', '' Tailspin Tommy'', '' Winnie Winkle'' and other strips. ''Reg'lar Fellers'' next appeared in the first issue (April, 1939) of DC Comics's '' All-American Comics''. Standard Comics published two issues of ''Reg'lar Fellers'' in its own 1946–47 title.

In other media

Films

In addition to book reprints and comic books, the strip was adapted to both animation and live-action films. Ub Iwerks produced the animated adaptation, '' Happy Days'', released on September 30, 1936, as the last '' ComiColor Cartoon'' short. Walter Lantz also produced an animated short, ''

Boy Meets Dog ''Boy Meets Dog!'' is an American animated musical commercial short made in 1938 for Ipana Toothpaste. It was produced by Walter Lantz as a Technicolor cartoon for theatrical release by Universal Pictures. However, it did not see theatrical rele ...

'', an unreleased 1938 commercial for Ipana toothpaste. It eventually got released on the home-movie market (with the Ipana toothpaste billboard scene removed) by Castle Films. Arthur Dreifuss' live-action feature ''

Reg'lar Fellers ''Reg'lar Fellers'' is a long-running newspaper comic strip adapted into a feature film, a radio series on the NBC Red Network, and two animated cartoons. Created by Gene Byrnes (1889–1974), the comic strip offered a humorous look at a gang ...

'' (1941) stars Billy Lee as Pinhead Duffy and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as Bump Hudson.

Radio

The ''Reg'lar Fellers'' comedy radio series, sponsored by Jello, aired Sunday nights on NBC from June 8 to August 31, 1941, as a summer replacement for '' The Jack Benny Program''. Dickie Van Patten and Dickie Monahan starred as Jimmy and Dinky Dugan. Others in the cast included Joyce Van Patten, Patsy O'Shea and Skippy Homeier.

References

Notes

Sources consulted

* Strickler, Dave. ''Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index''. Cambria, California: Comics Access, 1995.

External links

'Reg'lar Fellers''
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

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