Frank Willard | |
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 Willard in 1931 | |
| Born | Frank Henry Willard (1893-09-21)September 21, 1893 Anna, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | January 11, 1958(1958-01-11) (aged 64) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Dok Willard |
| Occupation | Cartoonist |
| Known for | Moon Mullins |
Frank Henry Willard (September 21, 1893 – January 11, 1958) was an Americancartoonist best known for his syndicated newspaper comic stripMoon Mullins which ran from 1923 to 1991, working alongside assistantFerd Johnson. He sometimes went by the nicknameDok Willard.
As a youth, Willard dropped out of several schools. In addition to jobs at county fairs, he worked in amental institution. In 1909, he moved with his family toChicago. He went to Union Academy, where he illustrated theReflector yearbook in 1912. After attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago in 1913, he was a cartoonist with theChicago Herald (1914–18), where he drew the Sunday comic stripsTom, Dick and Harry andMister and Mrs. Pippen/Mrs. Pippin's Husband[1] and a daily comic strip which used various titles. At theHerald, he got to know cartoonistsE. C. Segar andBilly DeBeck, ofPopeye andBarney Google fame respectively.
Entering theU.S. Army in 1917, Willard served with theAmerican Expeditionary Force in France (1918–19). "Our unit built roads and did no fighting," he said. Unemployed on his return, he was given a place to stay by DeBeck and worked briefly on DeBeck's Barney Google and Snuffy Smith in 1920. Through DeBeck's influence, he landed a job that year in theKing Features Syndicate bullpen where he did just "about everything but carry water for the elephants."[2] He next wrote and drewThe Outta Luck Club for King Features (1919–23), where he also substituted for cartoonist Jean Knott on hisPenny Ante poker panel.
In 1923,Joseph Patterson of theChicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate wanted a lowlife strip to compete withBarney Google. The curious chain of events that brought Willard, Patterson andMoon Mullins together began because Willard and other King Features cartoonists had to show their planned panels in advance to the King editor, who usually rejected Willard's ideas. Willard was angry, but he exploded when he saw some of his gags surface inGeorge McManus'Bringing Up Father. As Willard's assistant Ferd Johnson recalled:
Moon Mullins quickly became popular after it was launched as a daily on June 19, 1923. A few months later, Ferd Johnson signed on as Willard's assistant, eventually doing a great deal of the work. The success of the strip enabled Willard to spend much time on hisavocation, golf. Johnson recalled, "We'd go to Florida and follow the golf guys all the way to Maine." With Florida as a home base, Willard worked out of hotel rooms in Los Angeles, North Carolina, Maine and Wisconsin. At least one summer, the two mailed in their comic strips from Mexico.
Meanwhile, the strip expanded to 250 newspapers, a radio program, aMilton Bradley game, twoBig Little Books and a comic book. Willard and Johnson also did thetopper stripKitty Higgins. Characters in toppers sometimes turned up in the main strip, such as Kitty Higgins joining the cast ofMoon Mullins and Herby appearing inSmitty.
Frank Willard was one of the first members of theNational Cartoonists Society, joining two weeks after it was founded in 1932. With his health declining, Willard had little to do with the strip in his last years. After Willard's death in 1958, Johnson continuedMoon Mullins until 1991, when it came to an end.
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