Little Lulu - Characters and Story

Characters and Story

• "Little" Lulu Moppet: Lulu is the title character and is often the ringleader of the girls. As such, she is the leader of their less formal club. Her best friend is Annie Inch. Lulu is a kind and sincere little girl who, though prone to mischief, usually ends up saving the day.
• Thomas "Tubby" Tompkins: Tubby, whose real name is Thomas, is Lulu's friend and the leader of the fellers. He has helped Lulu many times and has tormented her just as much. His closest friends are Eddie, Willy and Iggy, who happens to be Annie's twin brother. When they are together, they can be as nasty to Lulu as any boy would. His parents, Jim and Ellie Tompkins, have less patience with his antics than Lulu's parents had with hers. In fact, Tubby was spanked with more frequency than Lulu. As the junior detective, who was later nicknamed "the Spider", he has helped Lulu get out of hot water when she is punished for something that her father has done. In his own title, Tubby appeared on his own, without Lulu. In addition, he had whimsical adventures with tiny aliens from another planet.
• Cousin Chubby: Chubby is Tubby's cousin that has a similar appearance to Tubby, except that he is shorter. The son of Mrs. Tompkins' sister, he is often forced on Tubby when he wants to play. Chubby became his familial nemesis after having to deal with two other cousins, Cousin Peter and cousin Jefferson. The latter had stolen Tubby's clothes, and was stripped in retaliation by the Clubhouse fellers.
• Alvin Jones: Alvin is the little neighbor boy who is younger than Lulu and is often vexing towards her and her family. To placate the extremely troublesome Alvin, Lulu usually tells him stories, often starring Lulu and her mother, as a poor family who usually tries to make ends meet with little. Later on, even though Lulu as a poor girl is still used, the wicked Witch Hazel and her equally evil niece, Little Itch, became the antagonists of the stories. Alvin has a younger brother named Cedric, who torments him, just as he torments Lulu. In the "Tubby" series, he had his own stories by himself or with another little girl named Kathie.
• George and Martha Moppet: George and Martha are Lulu's mother and father. Martha (Mildred in FC 146, 1947) was more patient with Lulu than her husband tended to be. George and Martha also co-starred with Lulu in some of the stories that she tells Alvin. Sometimes, Martha would spank Lulu for crimes she did not do, and thanks to Tubby's later investigation, would end up finding out that George had done something (like borrowing, misplacing, or breaking an object) that Lulu had wrongly been punished for.
• Annie Inch: Annie is Lulu's best friend and occasional co-conspirator in her schemes to best the boys. She is the twin sister of Iggy and the two were often at each other's throats. They have a grandfather named Grandpa Feeb. Like most of the characters, their last names were variable with the stories, mainly her name was either Inch or McGee, but was more commonly remembered as Annie Inch.
• Gertie Greenbean: Gertie is a friend of Lulu's and is spoken of often. Her first appearance showed her sticking up for Lulu against snobby Wilbur, who became her chief nemesis. In an attempt to get even with her, he shamelessly used his father's influence in the community to have her mother (Gertie and her mother lived in a trailer house) moved outside of town, but Gertie did not realize this. She thought her mother had run off (her mother allowed her to sleep over at Lulu's house, and didn't know her address); and had begun to cry. When Wilbur taunted her about this, the two got into a fight (she was a tomboy) and beat him up. She sent him off crying, and she and her mother reunited. She was also featured in another story when Lulu planned to give her dog, Rover, a T-Bone, but, thanks to the snotty Wilbur, accidentally gave him a strand of pearls.
• Wilbur Van Snobbe: Wilbur is a snobby rich kid who antagonizes not just Lulu, but everyone else (except Annie, Gertie, Margie, Gloria and the other girls who never antagonizes Lulu because she is their friend), as he thinks he is superior to his peers. One of his least endearing traits is the patronizing and extremely rude way that he treats his servants, which cause him to be referred to as "brat!" (Originally, his name was "Van Snobble", but was later accepted as Van Snobbe) Wilbur's nemesis was Gertie Greenbean, who fought him two times until they decided to become friends for now on. He has also clashed with Tubby on many occasions, but in the end, is vanquished, bested and humiliated because he so often underestimates his opponents.
• The Clubhouse fellers: Iggy Inch, Eddie Stimson, and Willy Wilkins. These boys are Tubby's friends and co-horts, in their more formal and structured club, whose meetings are held in a one-room homemade "clubhouse". They are the ones who usually torment Lulu and the other girls. Sometimes, they turn the tables on Tubby, who seems to not pay his club dues on a frequent basis. Willy is the co-president and has developed a relationship with Gertie Greenbean. Eddie is usually the treasurer. At times, they usually end up needing Lulu to help them out, most especially against their cross-town rivals, the West Side Boys. During these occasions, they usually end up victorious and are happy Lulu is there to help them out.
• Gloria: A rich friend of Lulu, Gloria's last name varied with the stories (for example, Goode, Love, or Sweet), as was not unusual with some of the characters but was often connected with Wilbur, as she was never in the same economic stratum as he was. She would use Tubby in order to make Wilbur jealous and vice versa. At times, she and Lulu would be shown as antagonistic, due to Lulu's excitement and that Gloria was too "girly" for Lulu's liking, but when united against the common enemy (boys) including Wilbur, they could be friendly forever.
• Margie: A light brown-haired girl and also a friend of Lulu.
• Ada: A slightly overweight girl who was a friend of Lulu.
• Jeannie & Joannie: Two sweet twin girls and also two of Lulu's best friends. They are playing many times with Lulu and Annie.
• Bearnie: Another of Lulu's friends. He is fat sweet boy who changes into a bad bully.
• Suzy: A sweet girl with pigtails and Lulu's friend.
• Freddie: An ugly boy who is in love with Lulu and trying always to kiss her.
• Linnie: Another of Lulu's friends.
• Miss Feeny: Miss Feeny is the kids' Fourth grade teacher. She is popular and the kids love her. She appreciates Lulu, as she is one of the top students in her class. A spinster, who lives with her mother, she has a pet parrot she loves. Tubby took the parrot at one time to make sure Miss Feeny would promote him, but nasty Wilbur outsmarted him, or so he thought. Tubby switched the parrot for one of Wilbur's pet ducks. When Miss Feeny saw what Wilbur tried to do, she threatened him with demotion; and Tubby returned the parrot to Miss Feeny with no harm.
• Mr. and Mrs. Tompkins: Tubby's parents, who have little if any patience with his shenanigans, and has spanked him more times than Lulu's parents have. Often, Mrs. Tompkins forces him to entertain his annoying cousin, Chubby, when he doesn't want to.
• Mr. Ernest: Mr. Ernest is the school's principal. He is usually seen yelling at Mr. McNabbem and Mr. Googins for their failure to catch hooky players. He replaced the more stern Mr. Gruffly.
• Mr. Clarence McNabbem and Mr. Timothy Googins: The school district's highly incompetent truant officers. Mr. Googins was married with children, and was never able to catch a hooky player. His replacement, Mr. McNabbem, wasn't constrained by marriage, but was even worse than his predecessor. He (as well as Googins) always framed Lulu for hooky playing when she was clearly given a legitimate reason to leave the school. For this, both often earned the wrath of Mr. Ernest. Eventually, McNabbem lost his job as a truant officer, after he once more framed Lulu for hooky when she had been sent on an errand by Mr. Ernest himself, he had forgotten his pipe at home, and sent Lulu to bring it to him. McNabbem thought that she was going to smoke it, and broke the pipe angering Principal Ernest. After being chased by him and most of the students, he hid in a box with two real hooky players. The students locked McNabbem in the box and delivered it to Mr. Ernest. He discovered McNabbem and thought that he had been playing hooky. After Mr. Ernest yelled at him, he was demoted to janitor. McNabben had once caught Tubby, who skipped classes to avoid a test, but it was a wasted effort as it was later revealed the principal had dismissed the class because the teacher didn't show up.
• Snobbly: Snobbly is Wilbur's butler. Another butler, Parks, was summarily fired after he had had enough of being bullied by Wilbur.