CINXE.COM

<HEAD><TITLE>Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Lolly & Pepper </TITLE> <script language="JavaScript"></script> <META name = "author" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "description" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "subject" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "keywords" content = "comic books animated cartoons animation comics comix syndicated comic strips"> <META name = "publisher" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "format" content = "text/html"> <META name = "language" content = "EN"> </HEAD><BODY> <body onload="if (self!= top) top.location = self.location"></body> <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="0000EE" VLINK="551A8B"> <TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=310 VALIGN="CENTER"><IMG GALLERYIMG="NO" ALIGN="LEFT" HEIGHT=308 WIDTH=300 ALT="L-r: Lolly, Pepper, Granny. Artist: Pete Hansen." SRC="lolly.jpg"> <TD VALIGN="CENTER"> <H1>LOLLY (AND PEPPER)</H1><FONT SIZE=4> <B>Medium:</B> Newspaper comics <BR><B>Distributed by:</B> Chicago Tribune Syndicate <BR><B>First Appeared:</B> 1955 <BR><B>Creator:</B> Pete Hansen<FONT SIZE=3> <! BEGIN DONATION CODE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="993366"><CENTER> If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, <BR>Please contribute to its necessary financial support. <BR><A HREF="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1237L0BCY25QA" TARGET="_blank">Amazon.com</A> or <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=don%40toonopedia.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_cod e=USD" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> </FONT></CENTER><HR> <! END DONATION CODE> <P><A NAME="cont"> Comic strips about single young women whose most important function was to look pretty had what is probably their greatest proliferation during the 1920s. <I><A href="pollypal.htm">Polly & Her Pals</I></A> went back a little farther, but the '20s were when <I><A href="afjane.htm">The Affairs of Jane,</A> <A href="boots.htm">Boots & Her Buddies,</A> <A href="dumbdora.htm">Dumb Dora</I></A> and  <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="#cont"><FONT SIZE=2><I>continued below</A></FONT> </TABLE> <CENTER><! BEGIN ADSENSE "LEADERBOARD" CODE> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <! END ADSENSE CODE></CENTER> <P><TABLE><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> many other examples of the genre started. In the '50s, the hot new genre was high-spirited kids, such as <A href="ms-peach.htm">Miss Peach's</A> students, <A href="meekle.htm">Winthrop,</A> <A href="dennis.htm">Dennis the Menace</A> and stuff like that. <A href="fritzi.htm">Fritzi Ritz,</A> a '20s survivor that was finding fresh popularity by emphasizing the kid aspect with her niece <A href="nancy.htm">Nancy,</A> had become just another kid strip. <P> That's the route chosen by former <A href="disney.htm">Disney</A> animator Pete Hansen when he launched <I>Lolly</I> on Monday, March 7, 1955, through <A href="tribune.htm">The Chicago <I>Tribune</I>/New York <I>News</I> Syndicate</A> (<I><A href="gasalley.htm">Gasoline Alley,</A> <A href="broomhil.htm">Broom-Hilda</A></I>). Hansen's prior hewspaper comics experience includes <I>Flapdoodles,</I> which he did for <A href="king.htm">King Features Syndicate</A> (<I><A href="val.htm">Prince Valiant,</A> <A href="mallardf.htm">Mallard Fillmore</I></A>) from 1950 through '56. Lolly would have fit right in with Jane, Boots, Dora etc. (also <A href="merely-m.htm">Margy,</A> Mazie and the rest), but her kid brother, Pepper, who shared stardom in fact if not name, appealed more to the Nancy crowd. <P> Even without Pepper, she'd have stood out from the crowd of pretty girl comics stars. Most didn't have their grandmothers as prominent supporting characters. Lolly's Granny lived with her and Pepper. Lolly was the breadwinner (<A href="winnie.htm">no relation</A>). She lived up to this responsibility by working in an unspecified office job for Mr. Quimby, who completed the roster of major supporting characters. <P> <I>Lolly</I> circulated in the middle range, nowhere near the stratospheric heights of <I><A href="blondie.htm">Blondie,</A></I> but also not approaching the Stygian depths of <I><A href="timtyler.htm">Tim Tyler's Luck</A></I> during the 1990s. It had only one small media breakout  a <A href="dell.htm">Dell</A> comic book, which had six issues between 1957 and '62. <P> At Dell, the feature's title was slightly altered, reflecting who really shared stardom. <I>Lolly & Pepper</I> first appeared as Dell's <I>Four Color Comics</I> #832 (September, 1957). <I>Four Color</I> was the title where Dell tossed everything from <I><A href="pogo.htm">Albert & Pogo</A></I> to <A href="dondi.htm">Dondi.</A></I> Four subsequent issues of <I>Four Color</I> were devoted to <I>Lolly & Pepper</I> over the next several years, then continued for one more issue after they'd stopped using <I>Four Color Comics</I> as a catch-all title. Hansen wrote and drew all six. <P> The Dell series scarcely outlasted the 1950s. But at the Tribune Syndicate she ran until 1983. <P ALIGN = "RIGHT">— DDM <P><A HREF="index.htm">BACK</A> to <I>Don Markstein's Toonopedia</I> Home Page <BR><A HREF="today.htm">Today in Toons:</A> Every day's an anniversary! <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE BANNER CODE><CENTER> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </CENTER><! END ADSENSE CODE> <TD WIDTH=10><TD WIDTH=180 VALIGN="TOP"> <! BEGIN ADLINKS CODE><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><! END ADLINKS CODE> <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE REFERRAL CODE><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><! END ADSENSE REFERRAL CODE> <P> <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" target="google_window"> <table border="0" bgcolor="#cccccc"> <tr><td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top" align="left" height="32"> <a href="http://www.google.com/"> <img src="http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_25gry.gif" border="0" alt="Google"></img></a> <br/> <input type="hidden" name="domains" value="www.toonopedia.com"></input> <input type="text" name="q" size="23" maxlength="255" value=""></input> </td></tr> <tr> <td nowrap="nowrap"> <table> <tr> <td> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value=""></input> <font size="-1" color="#000000">Web</font> </td> <td> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="www.toonopedia.com" checked="checked"></input> <font size="-1" color="#000000">www.toonopedia.com</font> </td> </tr> </table> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search"></input> <input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-1498877845272586"></input> <input type="hidden" name="forid" value="1"></input> <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1"></input> <input type="hidden" name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1"></input> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="GALT:#008000;GL:1;DIV:#336699;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:336699;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;"></input> <input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en"></input> </td></tr></table> </form>  <B><FONT SIZE=2><P> <A HREF="boutique/strips.htm">Purchase Comic Strip Reprints Online </A></B> <P></FONT></TABLE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2><I>Text ©2010 Donald D. Markstein. Art © Dick Cavalli.</I> </BODY></HTML>