Little Orphan Annie - Characters

Characters

Annie is an 11 year old orphan. Her distinguishing physical characteristics are a mop of red, curly hair, a red dress and vacant circles for eyes. Her catchphrases are "Gee whiskers" and "Leapin' lizards!" Annie attributes her lasting youthfulness to her Leap Day, February 29, birthday, and so only ages one year in appearance for every four years that pass. Annie is a plucky, generous, compassionate and optimistic youngster who can hold her own against bullies and has a strong and intuitive sense of right and wrong.

Sandy enters the story as a puppy of no particular breed whom Annie rescues from a gang of abusive boys in a January 1925 strip. She is working as a drudge in Mrs. Bottle's grocery store at the time and manages to keep him concealed briefly, but eventually relinquishes him to Paddy Lynch, a gentle man who owns a "steak joint" and is able to give Sandy a good home. Sandy is a mature dog when he suddenly and astonishingly reappears in a May 1925 strip to rescue Annie from gypsy kidnappers. Annie and Sandy remain together thereafter.

Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks first appears in a September 1924 strip and reveals a month later he was a small machine shop owner who acquired his enormous wealth producing munitions during World War I. He is a large, powerfully-built bald man, the idealized capitalist, who typically wears a tuxedo and diamond stickpin in his shirtfront. He likes Annie at once, instructing her to call him "Daddy", but his wife (a plumber's daughter) is a snobbish, gossiping nouveau riche who derides her husband's affection for Annie. When Warbucks is suddenly called to Siberia on business, his wife spitefully sends Annie back to the orphanage.

Other major characters include Warbucks' right-hand men, Punjab, an eight-foot native of India, introduced in 1935, and the Asp, an inscrutably generalized East Asian, who first appeared in 1937. There was also the mysterious Mister Am, a friend of Warbucks' who wore a Santa Claus-like beard and was of a jovial personality. He claimed to have lived for millions of years and even had supernatural powers. Some strips hinted that he may even be God.