''Tillie the Toiler'' is a newspaper

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

created by cartoonist

Russ Westover Russell Channing Westover (March 8, 1886 – May 3, 1966) was a cartoonist best known for his long-run comic strip ''Tillie the Toiler''. Early life Westover was born in Los Angeles, California. He recalled, "When the time came... to make a livi ...

who initially worked on his concept of a

flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptab ...

character in a strip he titled ''Rose of the Office''. With a title change, it sold to

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editori ...

which carried the strip from January 3, 1921, to March 15, 1959. The

daily strip A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays. Bud Fisher's ''Mutt and Jeff'' is commonly regarded as the first daily c ...

began on Monday, January 3, 1921, followed by the Sunday strip, Sunday page on October 10, 1922. Westover retired in 1951 with his assistant Bob Gustafson then doing most of the writing and drawing. After Westover departed completely three years later, Gustafson's signature appeared on the strip beginning October 4, 1954. The daily strip ended March 7, 1959, with the last Sunday eight days later on March 15.Toonopedia" ''Tillie the Toiler''
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Characters and story

Stylish working girl Tillie was employed as a stenographer, secretary and part-time model. An attractive brunette, she had no problem finding men to escort her around town. Comics historian Don Markstein's Toonopedia, Don Markstein described the story situations:

Toppers

For the Sunday page, Westover produced a series of topper (comic strip), topper strips, starting with ''Kitty Change-Her-Mind'' (Jan 10–March 14, 1926) and ''The Counter Kids'' (March 21–May 2, 1926). On May 9, 1926, Westover began a topper series that would run for two decades – first called ''The Van Zippers'' (May 9–Aug 15, 1926), then ''The Van Swaggers'' (Aug 22, 1926 – June 26, 1938) and finally ''The Van Swaggers Starring Aunt Min'' (July 3, 1938 – 1943?) A paper-doll panel, ''Tillie the Toiler's Fashion Parade'', appeared next to the topper from April 24, 1932, until 1951.

Reprints

Cupples & Leon collected the strips into book form in 1925, followed by seven other books in that series. Dell Comics reprinted the strip in 14 issues between 1941 and 1949. ''Tillie the Toiler and the Masquerading Duchess'' was a novel published by Whitman in 1943.

Films

The comic strip inspired two films of the same name: ''Tillie the Toiler (1927 film), Tillie the Toiler'' (1927), a silent film with Marion Davies in the title role, and ''Tillie the Toiler (1941 film), Tillie the Toiler'' (1941), starring Kay Harris.

References

External links

Christopher Wheeler: ''Tillie the Toiler'' books"See You in the Funnies" by Barbara Erdman
{{King Features Syndicate Comics American comic strips 1921 comics debuts Fictional American people 1959 comics endings Gag-a-day comics American comics characters Comics characters introduced in 1921 Comics about women Female characters in comics American comics adapted into films Flappers