John Stanley (cartoonist) facts for kids

John Stanley (born March 22, 1914 – died November 11, 1993) was a famous American cartoonist and writer. He is most known for writing the Little Lulu comic book stories. He worked on these popular comics from 1945 to 1959.

While John Stanley mostly wrote the stories, he also drew many of them. This included the first Little Lulu comics and the Tubby spin-off series. He was especially good at creating funny stories. These stories featured both characters he licensed (like Lulu) and characters he made up himself. People often say his writing was very clever and a bit strange, like the author Roald Dahl. His stories were always well-planned with no loose ends. Many compare him to other great comic artists like Carl Barks. Some even call him "the most consistently funny cartoonist" in comic books.

Life Story of John Stanley

John Stanley was born on March 22, 1914. Not much is known about his very early life. He had an older sister named Marion and two younger brothers, Thomas and James. He also had a younger sister, Marguerite.

He received a special scholarship to study art at Textile High School in Chelsea, Manhattan. Another student there, Gill Fox, later said that Stanley's art at age 16 was as good as many professionals today. He also attended another art school in New York. After his studies, he started working at Fleischer Studios. There, he helped with animation, first by coloring drawings and then by drawing the in-between frames.

Early Career and Disney Work

In 1935, Stanley left Fleischer's studio. He began working for Hal Horne, drawing for the new Mickey Mouse Magazine. From there, he moved on to create art for Disney merchandise. He also sold funny cartoons to different magazines, including The New Yorker. During this time, he also took classes in lithography, which is a type of printing.

In 1943, Stanley started working as a freelance artist for Western Publishing. He wrote stories for many well-known characters. These included Bugs Bunny, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Woody Woodpecker, and Andy Panda. He also created his own characters like Peterkin Pottle. When he wrote stories, he often drew rough sketches like a storyboard to guide the artists. He would also write the dialogue inside speech bubbles.

Respected by Other Artists

John Stanley was highly respected by other artists. Dan Noonan, who worked with him, said Stanley was "one of the few truly capable and funny writers." He also mentioned that Stanley was a huge reader. He loved to read everything he could find.

Stanley and his wife, Barbara, had two children. Their names were Lynda and James.

Creating Little Lulu Comics

John Stanley was humble about his talent. He said it was just luck that he got to work on Little Lulu. Little Lulu was a popular cartoon character from newspaper panels. He met with Lulu's creator, Marjorie Henderson Buell, only once. They talked about the character before he started the first comic book.

Stanley drew the first few Lulu comic books himself. But when the series became a regular monthly comic in 1948, other artists took over the drawing. Irving Tripp and Charles Hedinger drew the final art from Stanley's sketch scripts. However, Stanley continued to draw the covers for the comics. He also drew most of Little Lulu #31 in 1951. He only received a special credit in Little Lulu #49.

Expanding Lulu's World

The original Lulu newspaper cartoons showed a mischievous tomboy. But Stanley quickly made Lulu's world much bigger. He added a whole neighborhood of children. He also gave them rich personalities. He captured how kids really talked and acted.

Many stories were about the competition between the boys and girls. The boys, led by Tubby and Iggy, had a club. Their clubhouse famously had a sign that said "No Girls Allowed." Lulu and her friend Annie often planned ways to "teach the fellers a lesson." The boys were always surprised, as they thought their gender was superior. This "battle of the sexes" was often funny. The boys even had a "mumday" once a month when they weren't allowed to speak to girls.

Tubby and his gang also had adventures with the tougher West Side Gang. Other stories showed Tubby as "The Spider," a detective. He would always accuse Lulu's father of being the culprit. And usually, Mr. Moppet was guilty! Sometimes, Lulu had to escape the Truant Officer McNabbem. She would use funny, fast-paced chases to get away.

Imaginary Tales and Tubby's Own Series

Lulu would also tell stories to a young neighbor boy named Alvin. Many of these stories were about a poor little girl who looked just like Lulu. This girl would have scary adventures with Witch Hazel and her niece, Little Itch.

John Stanley also wrote stories for a spin-off series called Tubby. He worked on this series from 1952 to 1959. He even drew some of the early Tubby issues himself.

After Little Lulu

John Stanley's last Little Lulu comic was issue #135 in early 1959. After that, he started writing for Nancy and Sluggo comics. He created a character named Oona Goosepimple for this series. Oona lived in a haunted house with strange relatives and tiny mysterious people called Yoyos. Even though Oona only appeared in a few comics, she became very popular with fans. He also created Mr. McOnion, Sluggo's grumpy neighbor.

New Characters and Genres

In the 1960s, Stanley created many new funny comic titles for Dell Comics. Some of these included:

• Kookie (1961-1962): About a young single girl living in a city.
• Around the Block with Dunc & Loo (1961-1963): Funny stories about city teenagers.
• Thirteen (Going on Eighteen) (1961-1967): Humor about suburban pre-teens, which Stanley also drew.
• Melvin Monster (1965-1969): Humorous horror stories, also drawn by Stanley.

He also tried different types of comics. He wrote the medical/romance comic Linda Lark. He also wrote two horror comics: Tales From the Tomb and Ghost Stories. Stanley continued to work on comics for licensed characters too, like Clyde Crashcup and Nellie the Nurse.

When Dell Comics and Western Publishing split up in 1962, Stanley chose to stay with Dell. He also drew cartoon storyboards for animation studios in New York. In 1965, he published his only children's book, It's Nice to be Little.

His last comic book works were for Gold Key Comics. These included a comic about the Good & Plenty mascot Choo Choo Charlie in 1969. In 1971, he created O.G. Whiz, about a boy who owned his own toy company. Stanley both wrote and drew these last comics.

Later Years and Legacy

After leaving comic books, John Stanley worked in other fields. He managed a silk screen company and worked in advertising. He also drew cartoons for Christian books.

Fans eventually found John Stanley and helped make his work more known in the comic world. He made his first and only appearance at a fan gathering in Boston in 1976. Later in life, he created new paintings of classic Little Lulu and Tubby covers. One of his last published drawings was in a book called The Art of Mickey Mouse in 1991.

John Stanley passed away on November 11, 1993, from cancer. His wife had died three years earlier. His daughter, Lynda, became a photographic retoucher. His son, James, worked as an environmental consultant and later in computer graphic design.

Stanley's Impact

John Stanley's work on Little Lulu was ranked very high on Comics Journals list of 100 top comics. Four of his Little Lulu stories were even included in a special collection called A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics.

Fans of Stanley's work created a fanzine (a fan magazine) called The Stanley Steamer. Today, fans still gather at the annual Comic-Con International. They even perform radio-play versions of his classic Lulu stories.

Many of the episodes of Cinar's The Little Lulu Show (which aired on HBO) were based on Stanley's stories. Two theatrical cartoons in the early 1960s were also based on his Lulu stories.

New collections of Stanley's Lulu stories are still being published by Dark Horse. This shows how popular and timeless his work remains. In 2009 and 2010, special Free Comic Book Day issues featured his characters like Nancy, Melvin Monster, and Choo Choo Charlie.

In 2017, the first full book about John Stanley's life was published. It's called John Stanley, Giving Life to Little Lulu.

Awards and Recognition

• Inkpot Award in 1980 from the San Diego Comic Con.
• Inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2004.
• Received the Bill Finger Award in 2015.

Reprint Collections

• Little Lulu Library: A series of 18 hardbound books published between 1985 and 1992. These books reprinted the early Little Lulu stories.
• Melvin Monster: Three volumes collecting his humorous horror comics.
• Nancy: Four volumes collecting his work on the Nancy comics.
• Thirteen going on Eighteen: One volume of his teen humor comics.
• Little Lulu: Working Girl (2019): Reprints the first five Lulu comic book appearances from 1945-1946.
• Little Lulu: The Fuzzythingus Poopi (2020): Another collection of Lulu stories.
• The Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories: Includes stories by Stanley and other famous artists.