Skippy (comic strip)

The strip focused on Skippy Skinner, a young boy living in the city. Usually wearing an enormous collar and tie and a floppy checked hat, he was an odd mix of mischief and melancholy who might equally be found stealing from the corner fruit stand, failing to master skates or baseball, complaining about the adult world, or staring sadly at an old relative's grave ("And only last year she gave me a tie"). The syndicated strip was enormously popular, at one point guaranteeing Crosby $2,350 a week, more than the United States president. Skippy had several topper strips on the Sunday page: Always Belittlin' (Oct 17, 1926 - 1940), Comic Letter (April 22 - Sept 16, 1934) and Bug Lugs (Feb 17 - Aug 18, 1935). During the years of the 1930s, Crosby began to suffer a severe drinking problem that compounded with a divorce from his wife. The strip lost readers when papers dropped the strip due to the perception of the strip becoming less funny with its political content, which had bent conservative by the mid-1930s, to the point where he even published a book called Would Communism Work Out in America? in 1938 that saw him pay for one of the chapters to be published in the New York Sun paper, which at one point stated the following about then-President Franklin Roosevelt: "It little becomes Roosevelt to accuse others of tyranny when he has tyrannized over every human soul in this nation. When, by every method, he is attempting to smash the United States government, is Roosevelt any different from the other dictators, now that he has just jumped into the fray?" Repeated audits by the Internal Revenue Service did not help matters. Negotiations on a new contract failed, and Crosby ended Skippy in 1945. Crosby's final years were tragic; he was unable to find steady work and drifted further into alcoholism. After a 1949 suicide attempt, he was placed in the asylum at Kings Park, New York, where he died in 1964, unable to secure release. ==In other media==

Grosset & Dunlap published Crosby's Skippy novel in 1929. There were Skippy dolls, toys and comic books. The strip was adapted as a movie by Paramount. The 1931 comedy film Skippy starring Jackie Cooper was based on the comic strip. It won director Norman Taurog the Academy Award for Best Director and boosted the career of its young star. Crosby disliked the film and, though he had to allow the production of a previously contracted sequel, Sooky, released the same year, he never let another Skippy movie be made. In 1937, to replace Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons, an attempt to adapt the cartoons was made by Mayfair Productions for United Artists. Only one cartoon, "The Dog Catcher" was produced and released. Radio dramatist Robert Hardy Andrews wrote the daytime, children's radio serial Skippy, sponsored by General Mills. Trademark conflict In the 1930s, the Alameda, California, food packer Rosefield Packing Co., Ltd. began to sell its newly developed hydrogenated peanut butter, which it labeled "Skippy" without Crosby's permission. Percy Crosby had the trademark invalidated in 1934, but Rosefield persisted after Crosby was committed to an asylum, and its successor companies, including Unilever and Hormel (owner since 2013), were granted rights to the trademark over the objection of Crosby's heirs. Years of expensive litigation followed, which Crosby's heirs have continued into the 2000s. ==Reprints==

In 2012, IDW Publishing started a complete reprint series under "The Library of American Comics", with separate volumes for the daily and Sundays. On September 10, 2012, GoComics also began publishing Skippy dailies online. == See also ==