''Hejji'' is a short-lived 1935

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

, an early work and the only comic strip by prominent children's author

Dr. Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, two years before the publication of his first book. Distributed by

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

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, ''Hejji'' began publication on April 7, 1935, as a

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 ...

. A comic strip with an unusually brief publication period, it was canceled after only three months; the final comic was published on June 23, 1935.''Hejji''
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 ...

Archived
from the original on December 11, 2015.

Characters and story

The title character was a traveler who, in the first strip, entered the strange land of Baako, which had whales swimming in water-filled volcano craters, a flower broadcasting music and twin goats sharing a single beard. Hejji inadvertently plucks the sacred Trumpet Flower and is promptly arrested. He is taken to the palace of the Mighty One, who has Hejji thrown to the Seven Deadly Wombats. After Hejji escapes, the Mighty One apologizes and gives him a guided tour of Baako. They encounter various creatures and eventually arrive at the mysterious castle of the Evil One.

Recycling characters

Characters and situations from ''Hejji'' reappeared in later Dr. Seuss work. For example, the two goats with the single beard reappeared in the musical fantasy film '' The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T'', scripted by Geisel.

References

1935 comics debuts 1935 comics endings American comics characters American comic strips Comics characters introduced in 1935 Fantasy comics Humor comics Works by Dr. Seuss {{comic-strip-stub