Helpful Henry was the name of two comic strips—one from the United States, the other from the United Kingdom.
Helpful Henry was an Americangag-a-daycomic strip, created by cartoonistJ. P. Arnot (Paul Arnot – Born: 16 September 1887 – Died: 2 December 1951).[1] The series ran from July 17, 1922, until 1927 and was syndicated byInternational Feature Service.[2] Despite its brief run actorOliver Hardy, ofLaurel and Hardy fame, said the character was an inspiration for his own screen character.[3] He describedHelpful Henry as being big, fussy and self-important, but underneath it all, he was a very nice fellow.
Helpful Henry was also a Britishgag-a-daycomic strip from the magazineThe Beano. It first appeared inBeano issue 1, dated 30 July 1938, drawn byEric Roberts. A similarly named character had also appeared in the first issue ofThe Wizard under the name 'Elpful 'Enery.
The central character is Henry, a young boy who attempts to be helpful but ends up doing more harm than good – usually as a result of a misunderstanding or misinterpretation.
He was also inThe Dandy Annual 1939,[4] which came out two months afterBeano No. 1 – it is unknown whether the character moved comic or if this was a preview. However some characters, such asMarmaduke Mean the Miser, only appeared in the annuals, so that could be the explanation. As well as this some early Dandy characters such as Podge appeared in the 1940Beano annual so this could be the case of minor characters just appearing in anyDC Thomson annual.
Helpful Henry reappeared inSparky in issue 211 (dated 1 February 1969) drawn by Hugh Morren this strip lasted in Sparky until issue 230.[5]
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