Who wrote Little Joe?

But there was something unique about Little Joe that could have potentially transformed it into a monster success. Comics historians have debated for decades whether the Leffingwell brothers’ famous cousin, Harold Gray, the right-leaning creator of Little Orphan Annie, had any direct involvement in the Little Joe comics. At long last, the secret has finally been revealed — and a crucial new chapter in this neglected strip’s life has been written.

Peter Maresca and Sammy Harkham’s Ed Leffingwell’s Little Joe: The Sunday Comics by Harold Gray is a delightful collection of the strip’s early life in all of its full-color glory. Maresca is the founder of Sunday Press Books, which has won prestigious Eisner Awards for its collections of Little Nemo in Slumberland and Dick Tracy, and Harkham is a cartoonist and the brainchild behind the Kramers Ergot anthology. They have put together a fascinating examination of Little Joe Sunday strips published mostly between 1937 and 1942, along with illuminating essays by comics historians Jeet Heer and Rick Marschall. With some research and a little bit of sleuthing, they have helped solve a decades-old comics mystery once and for all.

Little Joe is the tale of 13-year-old Joe Oak, who takes care of the family ranch with his mother after his father’s murder. He’s aided by loyal ranch hand Utah, an ex-gunslinger who assumes the role of a father figure, and, in later years, by Utah’s roguish friend, “Ze Gen’ral.” The ranch is often threatened or attacked by outlaws, Mexican bandidos, and corrupt businessmen. Joe and Utah make important alliances with friendly Native American tribes and meet a few wild animals who serve as occasional comic relief.

Heer describes the strip as “hard bitten” — the teenage Joe “lives in a brutal world where violence has to be met with equal force.” Harkham’s essay makes the grandiose claim that Little Joe is the epitome of the “twentieth-century fantasy,” “offering us a record of ‘white’ America’s self-images, ideals and eventual disillusionment.”

Little Joe is lushly drawn, with traditional Western scenes and imagery. The stories are well-written and engaging, with a strong focus on plot and character development. Joe and Utah, the main protagonists, exemplify strength, honor, courage, and conviction as they find ways to protect the ranch from dastardly villains. And as this volume’s editors point out, the similarities between Little Joe and Little Orphan Annie are impossible to ignore.

Heer, who wrote his Ph.D. on the cultural politics of Little Orphan Annie, firmly believes that “Little Joe bore all the hallmarks of a Harold Gray production.” Joe, like Annie, “was something of a half-orphan,” and it’s probably fair to draw a line between Utah and Daddy Warbucks, the surrogate father figure from the Little Orphan Annie comics. And although Little Joe depicted Native Americans in sometimes stereotypical ways, Heer believes that Gray viewed them in a positive light, “possessing an admirable cunning and ruthless sense of justice” — traits that show up frequently in Little Orphan Annie.

The biggest revelations can be found in Gray’s private papers and diary entries. Each contained character sketches and plotlines related to Little Joe, some of which were reprinted in Maresca and Harkham’s book. As Heer writes, “It seems hard to deny that he worked on the strip until at least 1946 or so, perhaps later.”

It’s even harder to deny when you explore the strip’s “high quality of art” after Edwin Leffingwell’s death in 1936. While both Edwin and Robert assisted Gray on Little Orphan Annie, Heer argues that “Robert Leffingwell was far less talented than either Gray or Edwin Leffingwell.” Marschall agrees that the Little Joe comics in this period should be attributed to the Gray period — Little Joe and Little Orphan Annie, in his opinion, should be viewed as Gray’s “red-headed orphan children.”

If all of this is true, why didn’t Gray reveal the extent of his role with Little Joe during his lifetime?

It’s a good question. Marschall suggested the secret strip may have afforded Gray an additional platform “to air even more controversial private views,” since “Little Joe and Utah and the ‘Gen’ral’ would employ vengeance and even violence as naturally as drawing breath.” Then again, Ed Leffingwell, the nephew of Edwin and Robert, reportedly told Heer that Gray thought Little Joe was nothing more than a “burden” — and only maintained it for the family’s sake.

Alas, Gray took the real answer with him to the grave. But thanks to Maresca and Harkham’s superb collection, we can now see Little Joe’s adventures in the Old West as marvelous, magical, and far less mysterious than ever before.

Michael Taube, a Troy Media syndicated columnist and political commentator, was a speechwriter for former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.