''Flapper Fanny Says'' was a single-panel daily cartoon series starting on January 26, 1925, with a

Sunday page Sunday (Latin: ''dies solis'' meaning "day of the sun") is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. Sunday is a day of rest in most Western countries and a part of the weekend. In some Middle Eastern countries, Sunday is a weekday. F ...

(called ''Flapper Fanny'') following on August 7, 1932. Created by

Ethel Hays Ethel Hays (March 13, 1892 – March 19, 1989) was an American syndicated cartoonist specializing in flapper-themed comic strips in the 1920s and 1930s. She drew in Art Deco style. In the later part of her career, during the 1940s and 1950s, she ...

, each episode featured a

flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women prominent after the First World War and through the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee length was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their ...

illustration and a witticism. The Sunday strip concluded on December 8, 1935; the daily panel continued until June 29, 1940. At the start, the panel was drawn by notable illustrator Hays, who employed an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style. ''Flapper Fanny Says'' was part of a wave of popular culture that focused on

the flapper ''The Flapper'' is a 1920 American silent comedy film starring Olive Thomas. Directed by Alan Crosland, the film was the first in the United States to portray the "flapper" lifestyle, which became a cultural craze or fad in the 1920s. Plot Si ...

look and lifestyle. Through many films and the works of illustrators such as Hays,

John Held Jr. John James Held Jr. (January 10, 1889 – March 2, 1958) was an American cartoonist, printmaker, illustrator, sculptor, and author. One of the best-known magazine illustrators of the 1920s, his most popular works were his uniquely styled car ...

, and

Russell Patterson Russell Patterson (December 26, 1893 – March 17, 1977) was an American cartoonist, illustrator and scenic designer. Patterson's art deco magazine illustrations helped develop and promote the idea of the 1920s and 1930s fashion style known as t ...

, as well as the writings of

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and exces ...

and

Anita Loos Corinne Anita Loos (April 26, 1888 – August 18, 1981) was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 1912, she became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put h ...

, flappers came to be seen as attractive, reckless and independent. When

Gladys Parker Gladys Parker (March 21, 1908 – April 28, 1966) was an American cartoonist for comic strips and a fashion designer in Hollywood. She is best known as the creator of the comic strip ''Mopsy'' (1939-1965), which had a long run over three decades. ...

took over the strip in 1930, she gave it a "more cartoony style." Focus shifted from Fanny, now a curly-haired brunette resembling Parker herself, to her little sister Betty, a schoolgirl.

Publication history

Because the syndicate

Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary new ...

often sold whole packages of features to individual newspapers, ''Flapper Fanny Says'' gained widespread distribution almost from the start, appearing daily in perhaps 500 papers within its first year. Despite this immediate success, Hays—finding the daily workload too heavy after the birth of her second child—turned ''Flapper Fanny Says'' over to promising newcomer

starting on March 21, 1930. Parker expanded the daily panel into a Sunday strip with the truncated title ''Flapper Fanny'' starting August 7, 1932, and continued both until December 8, 1935. Parker relinquished ''Flapper Fanny Says'' to Sylvia Sneidman on December 9, 1935. That artist, who signed her work only "Sylvia," continued the strip until June 29, 1940. Parker began drawing her own creation ''

Mopsy ''Mopsy'' was a comic strip created in 1937 by Gladys Parker, who was one of the few female cartoonists of the era. The strip had a long run over three decades. Parker modeled the character of Mopsy after herself. In 1946, she recalled, "I got ...

'' in 1939 (also in her own image). ''Flapper Fanny Says'' was imitated in the

Jazz Age The Jazz Age was a period from 1920 to the early 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles gained worldwide popularity. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz. Originating in New O ...

by Faith Burrows's similarly themed upstart '' Flapper Filosofy'' panel from the rival

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product License, licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, columnist, newspape ...

.Guide to the SFACA Collection : Newspaper Comic Strips Series I: Comic Features

Notes

{{reflist 1925 comics debuts American comic strips Gag cartoon comics Comics about women Female characters in comics 1940 comics endings Art Deco Comics characters introduced in 1925 Flappers