His 50+ novels of the American West were published under the pen names Will Henry and Clay Fisher.

[1][2][3] Before he began his writing career he worked variously as a stablehand, shop clerk, and gold miner.

While his early work was for Harman and Ising's "Barney Bear" series, his longest collaboration was with director Tex Avery.

Allen was credited as story artist on many classic Avery shorts, included Swing Shift Cinderella, Northwest Hounded Police, and King-Size Canary, among many others.

Following the 1948 shutdown of Walter Lantz Productions,[7] Allen returned to MGM and continued to write for Avery's cartoons that were released during the 1950s including Little Johnny Jet, The Three Little Pups, and The First Bad Man.