Ferd Johnson

Johnson was born December 18, 1905, in Spring Creek, Pennsylvania,[1] and had a younger brother, George.

"[3] Johnson dropped out of school and became Willard's assistant, two months after the latter launched Moon Mullins in 1923.

Johnson's effort, Texas Slim, about a ranch hand working for the antihero Dirty Dalton, debuted as a Sunday page from the Tribune Syndicate on August 30, 1925.

[4] On April 7, 1940, the characters returned once again as a Sunday strip titled Texas Slim & Dirty Dalton, which ran through 1958.

[4] Willard and Johnson traveled to Florida, Maine and Los Angeles, doing Moon Mullins while living in hotels, apartments and farmhouses.

"[6] Johnson continued to draw and paint after he moved into a retirement home in Irvine, California in 1995,[citation needed] and he died 15 months later.

[citation needed] Doris, his wife of 57 years, whom he met in art school in Chicago, died in 1986.

[citation needed] Ferd Johnson received a ComicCon International Inkpot Award in 1993.