Comic Art 05 Jun 2006 07:20 am
Barnaby & Mr. O’Malley
Crockett Johnson, whose most famous books are the Harold and The Purple Crayon series, drew a comic strip from 1942 through 1952 called Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley.
Barnaby was a child, who looked very similar both to Harold and to the child in Johnson’s other hit book, Carrot Seed. Mr. O’Malley was a cigar-smoking guardian angel who often brought more trouble for Barnaby than help.
Barnaby’s parents refused to accept Mr. O’Malley’s presence even when he stood in front of them. It took Barnaby’s growing up to bring an end to O’Malley. After age 6, Barnaby wasn’t allowed to see his friend anymore, thus ending the relationship and the strip.
Crockett Johnson tried updating and revising the stories in the 60′s, but the once successful comic strip wouldn’t ignite again.
This is not a strip for everyone. It’s wordy and seemingly “old fashioned.” There’s a calm to Johnson’s style and a wry sense of humor that I love. I’ve done an animated version of Carrot Seed for HBO and did a small bit of “consulting” work on their series of Harold & The Purple Crayon produced in LA at SONY. There’s a lot of room in his style for adaptation to animation, and I could easily imagine an animated version of this strip.
Here are the first few pages of it.
(Click on any image to enlarge.)
