Freckles and His Friends
Although the long-running strip, created by Merrill Blosser, is remembered for its continuing storyline involving a group of teenagers, it originally featured a child at the age of six or seven in gag-a-day situations.
[3] Widely syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association, Freckles and His Friends had a long run through much of the 20th century.
In May 1915, 23-year-old Merrill Blosser began working for the Chicago syndicate Newspaper Enterprise Association, initially drawing cartoons based on news events.
[2][1] One by one, Blosser dropped each of the other single-panel comics and, in July 1916, he began another strip, Miniature Movies, which soon became Chestnut Charlie, continuing until early in 1918.
[7] When Blosser began the strip in 1915, he simply devised daily gags and problems for his child character Freckles to encounter while wandering around the fictional town of Shadyside.
[8] In 1932, Freckles wore long trousers when he entered Shadyside High School and met his Friends.
The Crumpet Hut crowd eventually included his best buddy Lard Smith, Bazoo Botts, Hilda, perky Daisy and the inventive intellectual Nutty Cook.
After Henry Formhals became Blosser's assistant in 1935, a more realistic style surfaced as Freckles grew older and the strip became more narrative.
[6] In New York in May, 1965, the National Cartoonists Society honored Blosser with an award "in recognition of the wholesome entertainment he has brought his myriad readers" and for the creation of "the oldest regular comic strip still piloted by its creator.
