Skippy (comic strip)

This article is about the American comic strip by Percy Crosby. For the US radio series based on this comic, see Skippy (radio).

Skippy
The debut Skippy comic strip, published in Life on March 22, 1923
Author(s)Percy Crosby
Current status/scheduleConcluded daily & Sunday strip
Launch date1923 (1925 in syndication)
End dateDecember 2, 1945[1]
Syndicate(s)King Features Syndicate
Publisher(s)Eastern Color Printing
IDW Publishing
Genre(s)humor, children
Percy Crosby's Skippy novel (Grosset & Dunlap, 1929)

Skippy is an American comic strip written and drawn by Percy Crosby that was published from 1923 to 1945. A highly popular, acclaimed and influential feature about rambunctious fifth-grader Skippy Skinner, his friends and his enemies, it was adapted into movies, a novel and a radio show. It was commemorated on a 1997 U.S. Postal Service stamp and was the basis for a wide range of merchandising—although perhaps the most well-known product bearing the Skippy name, Skippy peanut butter, used the name without Crosby's authorization, leading to a protracted trademark conflict.

An early influence on cartoonist Charles Schulz and an inspiration for his Peanuts,[2] Skippy is considered one of the classics of the form. In Vanity Fair, humorist Corey Ford described it as "America's most important contribution to humor of the century",[3] while comics historian John A. Lent wrote, "The first half-century of the comics spawned many kid strips, but only one could be elevated to the status of classic... which innovated a number of sophisticated and refined touches used later by Charles Schulz and Bill Watterson..."[2] Comics artist Jerry Robinson said,

Nothing like Skippy had ever been seen before in the comic strips. It was not just Skippy's expert draftsmanship or remarkable flair, although that artistry earned its creator a reputation as "the cartoonist's cartoonist"... The brilliance of Skippy was that here was fantasy with a realistic base, the first kid cartoon with a definable and complex personality grounded in daily life.[4]

Skippy started in 1923 as a cartoon in Life and became a syndicated comic strip two years later through King Features Syndicate. Creator Crosby retained the copyright, a rarity for comic strip artists of the time.

  1. ^ Holtz, Allan. "Firsts and Lasts: The Final Skippy Sunday Page". Stripper's Guide. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b Horn, Maurice, ed. (1996). "Skippy". 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics. New York: Gramercy Books. pp. 348–349. ISBN 0-517-12447-5.
  3. ^ Quoted in Skippy: A Complete Compilation 1925-1926, foreword by Bill Blackbeard, Hyperion Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1977. ISBN 0-88355-629-4 (hardcover), ISBN 0-88355-629-4 (trade paperback)
  4. ^ Robinson, Jerry. Skippy and Percy Crosby (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1978), p. 1. ISBN 0-03-018491-6.