Editing Little Orphan Annie (section)

==Publication history==
[[File:Little Orphan Annie 1924-08-05.jpg|thumb|The first strip of ''Annie'''s test run, published on August 5, 1924.]]
After [[World War I]], cartoonist [[Harold Gray]] joined the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' which, at that time, was being reworked by owner [[Joseph Medill Patterson]] into an important national journal. As part of his plan, Patterson wanted to publish comic strips that would lend themselves to nationwide [[Print syndication|syndication]] and to film and radio adaptations. Gray's strips were consistently rejected by Patterson, but ''Little Orphan Annie'' was finally accepted and debuted in a test run on August 5, 1924, in the New York ''[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]]'', a ''Tribune''-owned [[Tabloid (newspaper format)|tabloid]]. Reader response was positive, and ''Annie'' began appearing as a [[Sunday strip]] in the ''Tribune'' on November 2 and as a [[daily strip]] on November 10. It was soon offered for syndication and picked up by the ''[[Toronto Star]]'' and [[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution#The Atlanta Constitution|''The Atlanta Constitution'']].<ref name="Gray2008">{{cite book |author=Gray Harold |year=2008 |title=The Complete Little Orphan Annie Volume One: Will Tomorrow Ever Come? Daily Comics 1924–1927 |publisher=IDW Publishing |isbn=978-1-60010-140-3 |pages=23–7}}</ref>

[[File:Hgray.gif|thumb|Harold Gray]]

Gray reported in 1952 that Annie's origin lay in a chance meeting he had with a ragamuffin while wandering the streets of Chicago looking for cartooning ideas. "I talked to this little kid and liked her right away", Gray said. "She had common sense, knew how to take care of herself. She had to. Her name was Annie. At the time some 40 strips were using boys as the main characters; only three were using girls. I chose Annie for mine, and made her an orphan, so she'd have no family, no tangling alliances, but freedom to go where she pleased."<ref name="Gray2008"/> By changing the gender of his lead character, Gray differentiated himself in the field of comics (and likely increased his readership by appealing to female readers).<ref>{{citation |last=Maurer |first=Elizabeth |title=Little Orphan Annie to the Rescue: Depression-era Heroine Defied Gender Stereotypes |year=2017}} 
https://www.womenshistory.org/articles/little-orphan-annie-rescue</ref> In designing the strip, Gray was influenced by his midwestern farm boyhood, [[Victorian era|Victorian]] poetry and novels such as [[Charles Dickens]]'s ''[[Great Expectations]]'', [[Sidney Smith (cartoonist)|Sidney Smith]]'s wildly popular comic strip ''[[The Gumps]]'', and the histrionics of the silent films and melodramas of the period. Initially, there was no continuity between the [[daily strip|dailies]] and the [[Sunday strip]]s, but by the early 1930s the two had become one.<ref name="Gray2008"/> The strip (whose title was borrowed from [[James Whitcomb Riley]]'s 1885 poem "[[Little Orphant Annie]]") was "conservative and topical", according to the editors of ''The Great Depression in America: A Cultural Encyclopedia'', and "represents the personal vision" of Gray and Riley's "homespun philosophy of hard work, respect for elders, and a cheerful outlook on life". A ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'' popularity poll in 1937 indicated ''Little Orphan Annie'' ranked number one and ahead of ''[[Popeye]]'', ''[[Dick Tracy]]'', ''[[Bringing Up Father]]'', ''[[The Gumps]]'', ''[[Blondie (comic strip)|Blondie]]'', ''[[Moon Mullins]]'', ''[[Joe Palooka]]'', ''[[Li'l Abner]]'' and ''[[Tillie the Toiler]]''.<ref name=young>{{cite book |author1=Young, William H.  |author2=Nancy K.  |name-list-style=amp |year=2007 |title=The Great Depression in America: A Cultural Encyclopedia |publisher=Greenwood |pages=107, 297–8}}</ref>

===1929 to World War II===
Gray was little affected by the [[stock market crash]] of 1929. The strip was more popular than ever and brought him a good income, which was only enhanced when the strip became the basis for a radio program in 1930 and two films in 1932 and 1938. Unsurprisingly, Gray was mocked by some for his strip's lecturing to the poor on hard work, initiative, and motivation, while still enjoying his successful lifestyle.{{Citation needed|reason=See Talk's Subjective|date=May 2022}}

Starting January 4, 1931, Gray added a [[topper (comic strip)|topper strip]] to the ''Little Orphan Annie'' Sunday page called ''Private Life Of...'' The strip chose a common object each week like potatoes, hats and baseballs, and told their "stories". That idea ran for two years, ending on Christmas Day, 1932. A new three-panel gag strip about an elderly lady, ''Maw Green'', began on January 1, 1933, and ran along the bottom of the Sunday page until 1973.<ref>{{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 |pages=256 & 321}}</ref>

In 1935, Punjab, a gigantic, sword-wielding, beturbaned Indian, was introduced to the strip and became one of its iconic characters. Whereas Annie's adventures up to the point of Punjab's appearance were realistic and believable, her adventures following his introduction touched upon the supernatural, the cosmic, and the fantastic.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gray, Harold |author2=Heer, Jeet |year=2010 |title=Punjab and Politics |work=The complete Little Orphan Annie Volume Six: Punjab the Wizard Daily and Sunday Comics 1935–1936 |publisher=IDW Publishing |pages=5–13 |isbn=978-1-60010-792-4}}</ref>

In November 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president and proposed his New Deal. Many, including Gray, saw this and other programs as government interference in private enterprise. Gray railed against Roosevelt and his programs. (Gray even seemingly killed Daddy Warbucks off in 1944, but following FDR's death in 1945, Gray brought back Warbucks, who said to Annie, "Somehow I feel that the climate here has changed since I went away", suggesting that Warbucks could not coexist in the world with FDR.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cartoonician.com/big-deals-comics-highest-profile-moments/ |title="Big Deals: Comics' Highest-Profile Moments," ''Hogan's Alley'' #7, 1999 |access-date=November 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130630083743/http://cartoonician.com/big-deals-comics-highest-profile-moments/ |archive-date=June 30, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>) Annie's life was complicated not only by thugs and gangsters but also by New Deal do-gooders and bureaucrats. Organized labor was feared by businessmen and Gray took the businessmen's side. Some writers and editors took issue with this strip's criticisms of FDR's New Deal and 1930s labor unionism. ''[[The New Republic]]'' described ''Annie'' as "[[Herbert Hoover|Hooverism]] in the Funnies", arguing that Gray's strip was defending utility company bosses then being investigated by the government.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Neuberger, Richard L. |author-link=Richard L. Neuberger|title=Hooverism in the Funnies |magazine=[[The New Republic]] |date=July 11, 1934 |page=23}}</ref> The ''Herald Dispatch'' of [[Huntington, West Virginia]], stopped running ''Little Orphan Annie'', printing a front-page editorial rebuking Gray's politics.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Clendenin, James |journal=Herald Dispatch |page=1}}</ref> A subsequent ''New Republic'' editorial praised the paper's move,<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Fascism in the Funnies |magazine=The New Republic |date=September 18, 1935 |page=147}}</ref> and ''[[The Nation]]'' likewise voiced its support.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Little Orphan Annie |magazine=The Nation |date=October 23, 1935}}</ref>

In the late 1920s, the strip had taken on a more adult and adventurous feel with Annie encountering killers, gangsters, spies, and saboteurs. It was about this time that Gray, whose politics seem to have been broadly [[conservative]] and [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] with a decided [[populism|populist]] streak, introduced some of his more controversial storylines. He would look into the darker aspects of human nature, such as greed and treachery. The gap between rich and poor was an important theme. His hostility toward [[labor union]]s was dramatized in the 1935 story "Eonite". Other targets were the [[New Deal]], [[communism]], and corrupt businessmen.<ref>{{cite web |author=Cagle, Daryl |title=The New Deal Kills Daddy Warbucks |url=http://www.cagle.com/hogan/features/big%20events/big-events.asp}}</ref>

Gray was especially critical of the justice system, which he saw as not doing enough to deal with criminals. Thus, some of his storylines featured people taking the law into their own hands. This happened as early as 1927 in an adventure named "The Haunted House". Annie is kidnapped by a gangster called Mister Mack. Warbucks rescues her and takes Mack and his gang into custody. He then contacts a local [[US Senator|Senator]] who owes him a favor. Warbucks persuades the politician to use his influence with the judge and make sure that the trial goes their way and that Mack and his men get their just deserts. Annie questions the use of such methods but concludes it is necessary to counteract criminals manipulating the justice system in their own way.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Warbucks became much more ruthless in later years. After catching yet another gang of Annie kidnappers, he announced that he "wouldn't think of troubling the police with you boys", implying that while he and Annie celebrated their reunion, the Asp and his men took the kidnappers away to be [[Lynching|lynched]]. In another Sunday strip, published during [[World War II]], a war-profiteer expresses the hope that the conflict would last another 20 years. An outraged member of the public physically assaults the man for his opinion, claiming revenge for his two sons who have already been killed in the fighting. When a passing policeman is about to intervene, Annie talks him out of it, suggesting, "It's better some times to let folks settle some questions by what you might call ''democratic'' processes."{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

===World War II and Annie's Junior Commandos===
As war clouds gathered, both the Chicago ''Tribune'' and the New York ''Daily News'' advocated neutrality; "Daddy" Warbucks, however, was gleefully manufacturing tanks, planes, and munitions. Journalist James Edward Vlamos deplored the loss of fantasy, innocence, and humor in the "funnies", and took to task one of Gray's sequences about espionage, noting that the "fate of the nation" rested on "Annie's frail shoulders". Vlamos advised readers to "Stick to the saner world of war and horror on the front pages."<ref name="Smith"/>

When the US entered [[World War II]], Annie not only played her part by blowing up a German submarine but organized and led groups of children called the Junior Commandos in the collection of newspapers, scrap metal, and other recyclable materials for the war effort. Annie herself wore an armband emblazoned with "JC" and called herself "Colonel Annie". In real life, the idea caught on, and schools and parents were encouraged to organize similar groups.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heer |first=Jeet |title=Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie Volume Ten: The Junior Commandos |date=April 2014 |publisher=IDW Publishing |isbn=978-1-61377-951-4 |location=San Diego, CA |pages=7–8 |language=English}}</ref> Twenty thousand Junior Commandos were reportedly registered in Boston.<ref name="Smith"/>

Gray was praised far and wide for his war effort brainchild. ''[[Editor & Publisher]]'' wrote,

<blockquote>Harold Gray, ''Little Orphan Annie'' creator, has done one of the biggest jobs to date for the scrap drive. His 'Junior Commando' project, which he inaugurated some months ago, has caught on all around the country, and tons of scrap have been collected and contributed to the campaign. The kids sell the scrap, and the proceeds are turned into stamps and bonds.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2009/06/news-of-yore-1942-war-work-of.html |author=Monchak, S. J. |date=September 19, 1942 |title=War Work of the Cartoonists: Cartoonists Important Factor In Keeping Nation's Morale |work=Editor & Publisher}}</ref></blockquote>

Not all was rosy for Gray, however. His application for extra gas coupons was denied by the [[Office of Price Administration]], as cartoonists were not deemed essential to the war effort. Gray appealed, but the decision was upheld. Furious, Gray used the strip to criticize the government's decision as well as the clerk who made the original denial, whom he thinly caricatured in the strip. This storyline was controversial, with both sides garnering criticism in local papers. The clerk eventually threatened to sue for libel, and some papers cancelled the strip. Gray showed no remorse, but did discontinue the sequence.<ref name="Smith"/>

Gray was criticized by a Southern newspaper for including a black child among the white children in the Junior Commandos. In his reply, Gray denied being a reformer, but pointed out that Annie was a friend to all, and his inclusion of a black character, was "merely a casual gesture toward a very large block of readers." African-American readers wrote letters to Gray thanking him for the incorporation of a black child in the strip, although no record survives of any replies from Gray.<ref name="Smith"/>

In the summer of 1944, [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]], whom Gray despised, was nominated for a fourth term as President of the United States. Gray responded with a dramatic month-long storyline that ended with Warbucks dying of a jungle fever. Readers were generally unhappy with Gray's decision to kill off the character, although one New York Man wrote to suggest that Annie also be killed off and the strip ended.<ref name="Smith" />

By the following November, Annie was working as a maid in an abusive home. The public begged Gray to have mercy on Annie; instead, he had her framed for her mistress's murder, though she was later exonerated. Following Roosevelt's death in April 1945, Gray resurrected Warbucks with the explanation that he had only been playing dead to thwart his enemies, and once again the billionaire began expounding the joys of [[capitalism]].<ref name="Smith" />

===Post-war years===
In the post-war years, Annie took on The Bomb, communism, teenage rebellion and a host of other social and political concerns, often provoking the enmity of clergymen, union leaders and others. For example, Gray believed children should be allowed to work. "A little work never hurt any kid," Gray stated, "One of the reasons we have so much juvenile delinquency is that kids are forced by law to loaf around on street corners and get into trouble." His belief brought upon him the wrath of the labor movement, which staunchly supported the [[child labor laws]].<ref name="Smith"/>

A London newspaper columnist thought some of Gray's sequences a threat to world peace, but a Detroit newspaper supported Gray on his "shoot first, ask questions later" foreign policy. Gray was criticized for the gruesome violence in the strips, particularly a sequence in which Annie and Sandy were run over by a car. Gray responded to the criticism by giving Annie a year-long bout with amnesia that allowed her to trip through several adventures without Daddy. In 1956, a sequence about juvenile delinquency, drug addiction, switchblades, prostitutes, crooked cops, and the ties between teens and adult gangsters unleashed a firestorm of criticism; 30 newspapers cancelled the strip. The syndicate ordered Gray to drop the sequence and develop another adventure.<ref name="Smith"/>

===Gray's death===
[[Image:Lstarrannie.jpg|right|thumb|[[Leonard Starr]]'s ''Little Orphan Annie'']]

Gray died in May 1968 of cancer, and the strip was continued under other cartoonists. Gray's cousin and assistant Robert Leffingwell was the first on the job but proved inadequate and the strip was handed over to ''Tribune'' staff artist Henry Arnold and general manager Henry Raduta as the search continued for a permanent replacement. [[Tex Blaisdell]], an experienced comics artist, got the job with [[Elliot Caplin]] as writer. Caplin avoided political themes and concentrated instead on character stories. The two worked together six years on the strip, but subscriptions fell off and both left at the end of 1973. The strip was passed to others and during this time complaints were registered regarding Annie's appearance, her conservative politics, and her lack of spunk. Early in 1974, David Lettick took the strip, but his Annie was drawn in an entirely different and more "cartoonish" style, leading to reader complaints, and he left after only three months. In April 1974, the decision was made to reprint Gray's classic strips, beginning in 1936. Subscriptions increased.<ref name="Smith"/> The reprints ran from April 22, 1974, to December 8, 1979.<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=241}}</ref>

Following the success of the [[Broadway musical]] ''[[Annie (musical)|Annie]]'', the strip was resurrected on December 9, 1979, as ''Annie'', written and drawn by [[Leonard Starr]].<ref name=Holtz/> Starr, the creator of ''[[Mary Perkins, On Stage]]'', was the only one besides Gray to achieve notable success with the strip.

Starr's last strip ran on February 20, 2000, and the strip went into reprints again for several months.<ref name=Holtz/> Starr was succeeded by ''[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]]'' writer Jay Maeder and artist [[Andrew Pepoy]], beginning Monday, June 5, 2000. Pepoy was eventually succeeded by [[Alan Kupperberg]] (April 1, 2001 – July 11, 2004) and [[Ted Slampyak]] (July 5, 2004 – June 13, 2010).<ref name=Holtz/> The new creators updated the strip's settings and characters for a modern audience, giving Annie a new hairdo and jeans rather than her trademark dress. However, Maeder's new stories never managed to live up to the pathos and emotional engagement of the stories by Gray and Starr. Annie herself was often reduced to a supporting role, and she was a far less complex character than the girl readers had known for seven decades. Maeder's writing style also tended to make the stories feel like tongue-in-cheek adventures compared to the serious, heartfelt tales Gray and Starr favored. ''Annie'' gradually lost subscribers during the 2000s, and, by 2010, it was running in fewer than 20 U.S. newspapers.

===Cancellation===
On May 13, 2010, Tribune Media Services announced that the strip's final installment would appear on Sunday, June 13, 2010, ending after 86 years.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/ct-biz-0513-phil-annie-20100513,0,344970,full.column |title=''Annie'' left a homeless orphan in newspaper world |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |author=Rosenthal, Phil |date=May 13, 2010 |access-date=February 9, 2011}}</ref> At the time of the cancellation announcement, it was running in fewer than 20 newspapers, some of which, such as the New York ''Daily News'', had carried the strip for its entire life. The final cartoonist, [[Ted Slampyak]], said, "It's kind of painful. It's almost like mourning the loss of a friend."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/05/13/2010-05-13_little_orphan_gonnie_from_the_daily_news.html |title='Little Orphan Annie' comic canceled by Tribune Media Services |author=McShane, Larry |date=May 13, 2010 |work=Daily News |access-date=February 9, 2011}}</ref>

The last strip was the culmination of a story arc where Annie was kidnapped from her hotel by a wanted war criminal from eastern Europe who checked in under a phony name with a fake passport. Although Warbucks enlists the help of the FBI and Interpol to find her, by the end of the final strip he has begun to resign himself to the very strong possibility that Annie most likely will not be found alive. Unfortunately, Warbucks is unaware that Annie is still alive and has made her way to Guatemala with her captor, known simply as the "Butcher of the Balkans". Although Annie wants to be let go, the Butcher tells her that he neither will let her go nor kill her—for fear of being captured and because he will not kill a child despite his many political killings—and adds that she has a new life now with him. The final panel of the strip reads "And this is where we leave our Annie. For Now—".

Since the cancellation, rerun strips have been running on the GoComics site.

===Final resolution: Warbucks calls on Dick Tracy===
In 2013, the team behind ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' began a story line that would permanently resolve the fate of Annie. The week of June 10, 2013, featured several ''Annie'' characters in extended cameos complete with dialogue, including Warbucks, the Asp and Punjab. On June 16, Warbucks implies that Annie is still missing and that he might even enlist Tracy's help in finding her.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2013/06/16 |title=Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for Jun 16, 2013 - GoComics.com |date=June 16, 2013 }}</ref> Asp and Punjab appeared again on March 26, 2014. The caption says that these events will soon impact on the detective.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2014/03/26 |title=Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for Mar 26, 2014 - GoComics.com |date=March 26, 2014 }}</ref>

The storyline resumed on June 8, 2014, with Warbucks asking for Tracy's assistance in finding Annie.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2014/06/08 |title=Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for Jun 8, 2014 - GoComics.com |date=June 8, 2014 }}</ref> In the course of the story, Tracy receives a letter from Annie and determines her location. Meanwhile, the name of the kidnapper is revealed as Henrik Wilemse, and he has been tracked to the city where he is found and made to disappear. Tracy and Warbucks rescued Annie, and the storyline wrapped up on October 12.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2014/10/12 |title=Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for Oct 12, 2014 - GoComics.com |date=October 12, 2014 }}</ref>

Annie again visited Dick Tracy, visiting his granddaughter Honeymoon Tracy, starting June 6, 2015.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2015/06/06 |title=Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for Jun 6, 2015 - GoComics.com |date=June 6, 2015 }}</ref> This arc concluded September 26, 2015 with Dick Tracy sending the girls home from a crime scene to keep them out of the news.

A third appearance of Annie and her supporting cast in Dick Tracy's strip began on May 16, 2019, and involves both B-B Eyes' murder and doubts about the fate of Trixie.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2019/05/16 |title=Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for May 16, 2019 - GoComics.com |date=May 16, 2019 }}</ref> The arc also establishes that Warbucks has ''formally'' adopted Annie, as opposed to being just his ward.<ref name="annieAdopted">{{cite web |last1=Curtis |first1=Joe Staton and Mike |title=Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for July 09, 2019 {{!}} GoComics.com |url=https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2019/07/09 |website=GoComics |access-date=13 July 2019 |language=en |date=9 July 2019}}</ref>