A Fast And Sloppy Intro To John Stanley

I'm trying to catch up on eight weeks of e-mails that have piled up while I've been either on tour or sleeping off being on tour, and one response was to a young cartoonists I met at Heroes Con. At the end party a few of us comics nerds got into a conversation about John Stanley, and I was asked for some insights into looking into his work. Below is a dashed-off rundown of basic points. I advise anyone interested in making comics to have some familiarity with John Stanley's work, especially Little Lulu, and for comics fans to check out why so many cartoonists love his work. I was a doubter for a long time -- it's silly kid's comics! -- and became a devout believer. Here's my quick reply:

John Stanley -- early Little Lulu issues are the creakiest work, especially because they didn't have good materials to reprint those issues for modern reprints. But most Stanley issues are worth checking out, the thing he does beautifully is write endless variations on a theme and come up with creative situations and spin them into fun stories that resolve in a satisfying way. He knows his characters and how they fit into each story. He knows how to use characters to add value to a story. The Tubby vs Lulu stories are great, the Tubby as the Spider stories are great (he is a pulp detective that always accuses Lulu's father of being guilty of crimes), the Witch Hazel and Little Itch stories that Lulu tells Alvin (a great supporting character little bastard) are almost always gems. Stanley was inventive and funny and Lulu is a great character. She takes no shit and drives the stories. 

A quick look for some things to check out yielded:

https://www.tcj.com/john-stanleys-lost-little-lulu-stories-a-significant-find/ 

- a Comics Journal article that discusses Lulu/Stanley, and shows a late story with Stanley's breakdowns. Stanley laid out the comics and some of the best ones were inked by Irving Tripp.

https://stanleystories.blogspot.com/2010/07/last-of-little-lulu-pt-1-selections.html

https://stanleystories.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-pal-foot-foot-from-little-lulu-94.html ( a good one plus a fun one-pager)

Stanley is a great resource to look into how to do kid's comics that don't suck or stoop, how to continually spin ideas from a concept, organize a cast of singular characters that all serve specific roles in a story and to just be imaginative and funny. His Tubby solo stories are also worth seeking out, his Melvin Monster stuff is weird and funny, his Nancy comics take the character in some bizarre directions (more monsters in several stories) and Thirteen Going on Eighteen is his teen/romance/humor comic that I adore. Especially the "Judy Junior" stories which show teenager Judy as a little kid torturing a little boy named Jimmy Fuzzi. She always calls him by his full name and makes his life miserable. Unlike most kid's comics, she never pays for her bad behavior. Some of the stories are almost nightmarish. I love them. Here's a full issue: https://stanleystories.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-pal-foot-foot-from-little-lulu-94.html