Frank Willard - Moon Merchandising

Moon Merchandising

Moon Mullins quickly became popular after it was launched as a daily on June 19, 1923. A few months later, Ferd Johnson signed on as Willard's assistant, eventually doing a great deal of the work. The success of the strip enabled Willard to spend much time on his avocation, golf. Johnson recalled, "We'd go to Florida and follow the golf guys all the way to Maine." With Florida as a home base, Willard worked out of hotel rooms in Los Angeles, North Carolina, Maine and Wisconsin. At least one summer, the two mailed in their comic strips from Mexico.

Meanwhile, the strip expanded to 250 newspapers, a radio program, a Milton Bradley game, two Big Little Books and a comic book. Willard and Johnson also did the topper strip Kitty Higgins. Characters in toppers sometimes turned up in the main strip, such as Kitty Higgins joining the cast of Moon Mullins and Herby appearing in Smitty.

Frank Willard was one of the first members of the National Cartoonists Society, joining two weeks after it was founded in 1932. With his health declining, Willard had little to do with the strip in his last years. After Willard's death in 1958, Johnson continued Moon Mullins until 1991, when it came to an end.