Freckles and His Friends

Freckles and his Friends was an American comic strip, illustrated by Merrill Blosser and later by Henry Formhals. It was ghostwritten by Fred Fox, who also wrote for radio, television and movies.UPI. (September 2 1971). [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E7D9133BF931A3575AC0A967948260 Fred Fox, comic strip author And writer for Groucho Marx] "The New York Times". Retrieved 24 July, 2008.] Widely syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association, the strip was published from September 20, 1915 to August 28, 1971. The story, about Freckles and his group of friends, was created by Blosser at the behest of Newspaper Enterprise Association.

History

When Newspaper Enterprise Association decided to produce a children's comic, it handed the job to 23-year-old Blosser, then working in the art department. Blosser created Freckles, and after 1915 dedicated himself exclusively to its production.cite book | last = Cavinder | first = Fred D. | title = More Amazing Tales from Indiana | publisher = Indiana University Press | date = 2003 | pages = 75 |url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Vqa3S-HlqkoC&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75&dq=%22Freckles+and+His+Friends%22&source=web&ots=-qf3c3nUBH&sig=T3godybIg1Kg9pewOt9oIh8dP8w&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA75,M1 | isbn = 0253216532] In 1965, he was honored for working on what was at that time the "oldest continuing comic strip still drawn by its creator". After his first few decades, he shared the work of producing the daily and Sunday strips with his assistant Formhals, who took over when Blosser retired and produced it alone from 1966 to 1971.

Over the time of its syndication, the nature of the strip changed. Originally a one-shot gag strip, it evolved into an adventure series in the 1920s before gradually settling into a teenage character series.

"Freckles and His Friends" was primarily a newspaper strip, with peak syndication of over 700 papers, but was also reprinted in comic books, including Dell Comics' "Crackajack Funnies", and in book form in the Big Little Book series.

Characters

At its beginning, the story focused on a little boy named Freckles in the imaginary town of Shadyside. Freckles slowly aged into a teenager. His adventures included his buddy Lard and their respective girlfriends, June and Hilda. Tagalong, also known as Tag, was the protagonist's younger brother.

References

External links

* [http://www.toonopedia.com/freckles.htm Toonopedia entry]
* [http://ilovecomixfreckles.blogspot.com/ I Love Comix - Freckles Blog]