Sullivan decided to start his own studio and made a series called 'Sammy Johnsin' based on a Marriner strip on which he had worked.

According to artist George Cannata, Sulivan would often fire employees in a drunken haze, not remembering the next day, when they would return to work as if nothing had happened.

According to Otto Messmer, Sullivan drank all day long and was never in a sound enough state of mind to contribute creatively to the cartoons he produced.

[citation needed] Sullivan died on 15 February 1933[3] in New York City[2] at age 47[2] from health problems brought on by alcoholism and pneumonia.

According to Rudy Zamora, when he and Eddie Salter tested for positions at the Sullivan studio, they were bested by a young African American boy.

Zamora recalled that animator Dana Parker "took the black boy [aside] and told him that they’ll call him when they needed him, [as they were] not hiring anyone that day.

[8] Firsthand accounts were recorded in print, notably a recollection from 1953 by Australian writer Hugh McCrae, who was sharing an apartment with Pat Sullivan just before Felix was created.

'It comes properly as a postscript that in New York McCrae shared a flat with Pat Sullivan, the famed creator of "Felix, the Cat."