Mickey Finn (comics)
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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 cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
Lank Leonard
Lank Leonard
Frank E. Leonard , better known as Lank Leonard, was an American cartoonist artist who created the long-running comic strip Mickey Finn, which he drew for more than three decades.-Early life and career:...
, which was syndicated
Print syndication
Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....
to newspapers from 1936 to 1976. The successful lighthearted strip struck a balance between comedy and drama. It was adapted to a 400-page Little Big Book and was reprinted in several comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
Distributed by the McNaught Syndicate
McNaught Syndicate
The McNaught Syndicate was an American newspaper syndicate founded in 1922. It was established by Virgil Venice McNitt and Charles V. McAdam. Its best known contents were the columns by Will Rogers and O. O. McIntyre, the Dear Abby letters section and comic strips, including Joe Palooka and...
, Mickey Finn debuted as a daily strip on Monday, April 6, 1936. The Sunday strip
Sunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
, which eventually focused on the supporting character of Uncle Phil, began on May 17 of that same year.
Leonard was assisted by Tony DiPreta
Tony DiPreta
Anthony Lewis DiPreta , better known as Tony DiPreta, was an American comic book and comic strip artist active from the 1940s Golden Age of comic books...
(from 1945–50) and by Mart Bailey from 1950 in New York. In 1952, Bailey moved to Miami to help Leonard with the strip until July 1959. After Leonard retired in 1968, Morris Weiss continued the strip, though under Leonard's byline.
Characters and story
The storyline centered on likable Irish-American police officerPolice officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
Michael Aloysius "Mickey" Finn in suburban Port Chester, New York
Port Chester, New York
Port Chester is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is part of the town of Rye. As of the 2010 census, Port Chester had a population of 28,967...
. Leonard based the character on Port Chester policeman Mickey Brennan after watching Brennan helping children cross the street.
Like other police strips, it surfaced in the wake of the blockbuster Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy is a comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate...
, but Mickey Finn was more analogous to the popular 1970s television program Barney Miller
Barney Miller
Barney Miller is a situation comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker...
, focusing on humor and character rather than on action or mystery
Mystery fiction
Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...
. Historian Tom Whissen found it "one of the few comic strips ever to portray a city policeman in a manner that avoided either sentimentality or sensationalism."
When the strip began, Mickey worked at the Schultz Soap Company, but after he caught a runaway steer, he was given a chance to take a police physical exam. Mickey lived with his widowed mother and her cigar-smoking, derby-wearing, blarney
Blarney
Blarney is a town and townland in County Cork, Ireland. It lies north-west of Cork and is famed as the site of Blarney Castle, home of the legendary Blarney Stone.-Tourism:Blarney town is a major tourist attraction in County Cork...
-spieling brother, Uncle Phil, a member of the Goat Hill Lodge of the Ancient Order of American Grenadiers. Uncle Phil became a breakout character. Comics historian Don Markstein
Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Don Markstein's Toonopedia was a web encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation. Don D...
noted:
With Mickey promoted to become a detective, Uncle Phil became an alderman and sheriff. Supporting characters included Mickey's girlfriend Kitty Kelly, Sergeant Halligan, baseball player Red Fedder and bartender Clancy. Leonard occasionally brought into the strip real-life sports figures, such as Joe Louis
Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time...
and Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...
.
Other artists
Morris Weiss, Leonard's assistant from 1936 to 1943 and again from 1960 on, took over following Leonard's illness in 1968. Weiss continued through the final Sunday strip on December 21, 1975 and the daily strip's finale on July 31, 1976. Other 1940s assistants were Ray McGill, John Vita, Allie Vita and Larry Tullapano. Early in his career, Tony DiPretaTony DiPreta
Anthony Lewis DiPreta , better known as Tony DiPreta, was an American comic book and comic strip artist active from the 1940s Golden Age of comic books...
did the strip's lettering.
Reprints
Lank Leonard's Mickey Finn strip was reprinted in color in the first American comic bookAmerican comic book
An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 6 5/8" x 10 ¼" , down from 6 ¾" x 10 ¼" in the Silver Age, although larger formats appeared in the past...
series, Eastern Color's Famous Funnies
Famous Funnies
Famous Funnies is an American publication of the 1930s that represents what popular culture historians consider the first true American comic book, following seminal precursors.-Immediate precursors:...
, starting with issue #28 (November 1936). Famous Funnies also reprinted Leonard's Nippie: He's Often Wrong, which appeared as the Sunday page
Sunday comics
Sunday comics is the commonly accepted term for the full-color comic strip section carried in most American newspapers. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies....
's topper
Topper (comic strip)
A topper in comic strip parlance is a small secondary strip seen along with a larger Sunday strip. In the 1920s and 1930s, leading cartoonists were given full pages in the Sunday comics sections, allowing them to add smaller strips and single-panel cartoons to their page.Toppers usually were drawn...
(an additional, ancillary strip). Mickey Finn appeared in most issues through #35 (June 1937). The strip then appeared in every issue of Quality Comics
Quality Comics
Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1939 to 1956 and was an influential creative force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books....
' Feature Funnies (retitled Feature Comics with issue #21) from #1–113 (Oct. 1937 – August 1947). Concurrently for a few months, Mickey Finn also ran in Columbia Comic Corporation's Big Shot #74–104 (Feb. 1947 – August 1949). The strip was also reprinted in its own comic book series, Eastern Color's Mickey Finn #1–4 (no cover dates; 1941–42), which continued as Columbia's Mickey Finn #5–15 (no cover dates; c. 1943–49). The strip's final comic-book reprints were Headline Comics Mickey Finn (Vol. 3, #1–2) in 1952.
Additionally, an adaptation of the comic strip was published as a Little Big Book, Mickey Finn (1940). Unrelated to Western Publishing
Western Publishing
Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company was a Racine, Wisconsin firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Western Publishing also produced children's books and family-related entertainment products as Golden Books Family Entertainment...
's Big Little Books
Big Little Books
The Big Little Books, first published during 1932 by the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, were small, compact books designed with a captioned illustration opposite each page of text...
, this was one of a series by the Saalfield Publishing Company of Akron, Ohio
Akron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
. Golden Years Publications reprinted the Mickey Finn strips from Big Shot #82 (Oct. 1947) in All-Amazing Comics #16 (Dec. 2001).
Reactions to the strip
Referring to PeanutsPeanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
creator Charles Schulz, Morris Weiss was quoted in the The Palm Beach Post
The Palm Beach Post
The Palm Beach Post is a major daily newspaper in Florida, serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and the Treasure Coast area. It is the 72nd largest daily newspaper in the United States and the sixth largest in Florida.-History:...
: "'Sparky' Schulz once told me that Mickey Finn was his dad's favorite comic strip. Compliments like that you don't hear every day."
Sources
- Lambiek: Lank Leonard (gives death as August 1, 1970)
- Caskets on Parade (gives death date as August 2, 1970)
- Lambiek: Tony Di Preta
- Lambiek: Mart Bailey
- Morris Weiss interview, Alter Ego #43 (December 2004), pp. 7-22