Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 created by Harold Gray (1894–1968) and syndicated by Tribune Media Services

Tribune Media Services

Tribune Media Services is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.The company has two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products"...

. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie

Little Orphant Annie

"Little Orphant Annie" is an 1885 poem written by James Whitcomb Riley and published by the Bowen-Merrill Company. First titled "The Elf Child", Riley changed the name to "Little Orphant Allie" at its third printing, however a typecasting error during printing renamed the poem to its current form...

" by James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the Hoosier Poet and Children's Poet for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively...

, and made its debut on August 5, 1924 in the New York Daily News. It ranked number one in popularity in a Fortune

Fortune (magazine)

Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...

 poll in 1937.

The plot follows the wide-ranging adventures of Annie, her dog Sandy, and her benefactor Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks.