Henry (comic Strip) - From Cartoons To Comic Strip

From Cartoons To Comic Strip

After seeing a German publication of Henry, William Randolph Hearst signed Anderson to King Features Syndicate and began distributing the comic strip on December 17. 1934, with the half-page Sunday strip launched March 10, 1935. Henry was replaced in The Saturday Evening Post by Marjorie Henderson Buell's Little Lulu. Anderson's Post cartoons featuring Henry are credited with early positive depictions of African-American characters during an era when African-Americans were often unflatteringly depicted.

Anderson's assistant on the Sunday strip was Don Trachte. His assistant on the dailies was John Liney. In 1942, arthritis kept Anderson away from the drawing board, so Anderson turned the dailies over to Liney, and Trachte drew the Sunday strips. When Liney retired in 1979, the strip appeared on Sundays only until Trachte's death in 2005. During that period, Jack Tippit and Dick Hodgins, Jr. also contributed. About 75 newspapers still run classic Henry strips drawn by Trachte, and it is also available through King Features' DailyINK.