They'll Do It Every Time

Infobox comic strip
title=They'll Do It Every Time


caption=
creator=Jimmy Hatlo (1929-1963)
current=Bob Dunn (1963-1989)
Al Scaduto (1989-2008)
status=Ended
syndicate=King Features Syndicate (current) (1936-present)
comictype=print
genre=Humor
first=February 5, 1929
last=February 2, 2008

"They'll Do It Every Time" was a single-panel newspaper comic strip, created by Jimmy Hatlo and distributed by King Features Syndicate. It debuted on February 5, 1929. The title of the strip became a popular catchphrase, still used today by many people who have no idea of its origin.

The strip illustrated minor absurdities, frustrations, ironies and misfortunes of everyday life. Often, these ideas came from reader suggestions, which were credited with a small acknowledgment, accompanied by a tiny drawing of Hatlo tipping his hat. More recently, readers were still credited, but without the "Hatlo hat" drawing.

Hatlo, a sports cartoonist, created the strip to fill space on the comics page of The "San Francisco Call-Bulletin", when comics from the syndicate failed to arrive on time.Fact|date=February 2007 The feature proved so popular that it was itself eventually syndicated and Hatlo continued it until his death in 1963. His former assistant, Bob Dunn, continued it until his own death in 1989. It was written and drawn by Dunn's former assistant, Al Scaduto, until his death in December of 2007. King Features announced that the strip would not continue with another cartoonist, and it ended on February 2, 2008.cite news |title="They'll Do It" ends a long run |url=http://www.connpost.com/breakingnews/ci_7976037 |work=The Connecticut Post |location=Bridgeport, Conn. |date=2008-01-15 |accessdate=2008-01-16]

In its early decades, a timid man named Henry Tremblechin was a recurring victim of the strip's observations. Tremblechin's bratty daughter, Little Iodine, was spun off into her own comic strip (1943-1986), comic book (1949-1962), a 1946 movie, and even a 1988 cartoon show.

King Features Syndicate picked it up for national distribution in 1936. At the time of Scaduto's death, King Features was distributing the panel to more than 100 American newspapers.

The strip, as well as Bob Dunn, received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for 1968, 1969, and 1979 (with Al Scaduto), and the Reuben Award for 1975. Al Scaduto won the Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for 1991 and 1997 for his work on the strip.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/theydoit/about.htm They'll Do It Every Time at King Features]
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/theydoit.htm They'll Do It Every Time at Don Markstein's Toonopedia]
* [http://www.reuben.org/ncs/awards.asp NCS Awards]