Editing George Herriman (section)

===1905–1910: Return to California===

{{wide image
|1   = Daniel and Pansy 1909-12-04 top half.png
|2   = 600px
|3   = ''Daniel and Pansy'', Herriman's first all-animal strip (December 4, 1909)
|alt = In the first three panels of a six-panel cartoon strip, a pig is given a bottle of medicine by a sheep called Old Doctor Mutton. The pig drinks the medicine. A dog sees the pig drinking from the bottle, mistakes the medicine for an alcoholic beverage, and says "Why the deceitful swine—He told me he'd sworn off".}}

In California, Herriman continued to mail in work to the [[World Color Press|World Color Printing Company]]. He revived ''Major Ozone'' and produced ''Grandma's Girl—Likewise Bud Smith'', which he combined from two earlier strips, and a two-tiered children's strip, ''Rosy Posy—Mama's Girl''. He began to work with the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' on January 8, 1906, before returning to Hearst that summer.{{sfn|McDonnell|O'Connell|Havenon|1986|p=45}} Accompanying a front-page illustration in Hearst's ''[[Los Angeles Herald-Examiner|Los Angeles Examiner]]'', Herriman was announced as "the ''Examiner''{{'}}s cartoonist" on August 21. His artwork began to appear on nearly every page, resulting in greatly increased sales for the newspaper.{{sfnm|1a1=McDonnell|1a2=O'Connell|1a3=Havenon|1y=1986|1p=45|2a1=Blackbeard|2y=1983|2p=54}} In October, he stopped working for World Color.{{sfn|McDonnell|O'Connell|Havenon|1986|p=45}}

Following the success of [[Bud Fisher]]'s daily strip ''[[Mutt and Jeff|A. Mutt]]'',{{sfn|Harvey|1994|p=242}}{{efn|Herriman may also have been inspired by the earlier daily strip ''[[A. Piker Clerk]]'' (1903–04) by [[Clare Briggs]], which also had a sports theme, and which Herriman had likely seen.{{sfnm|1a1=Blackbeard|1y=1983|1pp=52, 54|2a1=Harvey|2y=1994|2p=242}} }} which debuted in late 1907, Herriman began a similarly sports-themed daily strip starting December 10 called ''Mr. Proones the Plunger''. The strip was not as successful as Fisher's, and it ceased to appear after December 26.<ref name=Holtz>{{cite book |last1=Holtz |first1=Allan |title=American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide |date=2012 |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472117567 |page=273}}</ref>

''Mary's Home from College'', a precursor to the popular "girl strips" such as [[Cliff Sterrett]]'s ''[[Polly and Her Pals]]'' and John Held Jr.'s ''Merely Margie'', ran from February 19, 1909 until January 4, 1910.<ref>[https://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/herriman.htm "George Herriman"]. [[Lambiek]].</ref> His next comic strip, ''Baron Mooch'', starring the titular freeloader, debuted in the ''Examiner'' on October 12, 1909.{{sfn|McDonnell|O'Connell|Havenon|1986|p=49}}<ref>Note: Historian [[Don Markstein]] gives November 1, 1909, at the entry [http://toonopedia.com/mooch.htm Baron Mooch] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20240527115316/https://www.webcitation.org/6b6aAtodL?url=http://toonopedia.com/mooch.htm Archived] from the original on August 27, 2015.</ref> Herriman began two more strips in November 1909 with the World Color Printing Company—''Alexander the Cat'' and ''Daniel and Pansy'', which both appeared in color. ''Daniel and Pansy'' was Herriman's first strip to feature an all-animal cast.{{sfn|McDonnell|O'Connell|Havenon|1986|p=50}} This was followed in the ''Examiner'' on December 23 by ''Gooseberry Sprig'', about an aristocratic, cigar-smoking duck who had previously and popularly appeared in Herriman's sports cartoons.<ref name="gooseberry-toonopedia">[http://toonopedia.com/gooseber.htm ''Gooseberry Sprigg''] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20150209102620/http://toonopedia.com/gooseber.htm Archived] from the original on February 6, 2015.</ref> The bird-populated fantasy was a precursor to ''Krazy Kat'', and many of its characters reappeared in the later strip.{{sfn|McDonnell|O'Connell|Havenon|1986|p=49}}