John Stanley’s lost Little Lulu stories: Summer camp shenanigans

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Frank M. Young | January 2, 2025

A historian’s greatest thrill — and potential worst fear — is the discovery of unknown work by an important creator. Once a person’s known arc of work is determined, and it appears all aspects are found and documented beyond a reasonable doubt, it’s easy to think, “That’s it, I’m done.” In comics, where documentation is sketchy at best before the 1980s, a lingering doubt might persist. I have spent the past 35 years in search of every comic book story written (and sometimes drawn) by John Stanley. He is, arguably, the finest writer of mainstream comic book material in the 20th century.

After years spent wading through thousands of comic books published by Dell and Gold Key Comics, I felt that I’d spotted and ID'd every published comic book story by Stanley. Since he kept no records — nor did his editors or publishers — of his work, the task was daunting and sometimes misleading. I became familiar with the essence of Stanley’s art — his wordplay, body language, narratives and a set of stylistic quirks — and held hundreds of potential stories up to the lens of these signature "tells." I learned that many other creators who worked for Western Publications — the company that supplied material for Dell’s comic book line from the late 1930s to 1962 — made efforts to imitate his style. Stanley’s wit, comedy and sense of the absurd were lightning in a bottle. No one could mimic it with success.

The story of John Stanley’s career, as documented by myself (in my long-running blog Stanley Stories and in four books I’ve published on the work) and the late Bill Schelly, whose biography of Stanley I helped advise, tells us that Stanley was assigned a comic book adaptation of Marge Buell’s magazine-cartoon character Little Lulu in 1945. Stanley wrote and drew the first three trial issues, then surrendered the art duties to Irving Tripp, who remained Lulu’s main artist into the 1970s. Stanley quit the series with issue #135 in 1959. He’d written some 7,000 pages of material based on Buell’s characters; he felt burned out. History says he walked away from Lulu and didn’t look back.

Tom Devlin recently blew the roof off that official story. At the end of Stanley’s comics career, a decade after he left Lulu, he wrote one final issue, published in September 1970 as Marge’s Little Lulu #197, subtitled "and Tubby at Summer Camp." Stanley’s pencil storyboards for the 20 pages of material survive in Irving Tripp’s papers, which are held by Columbia University. The scripts were in a manila envelope and identified in Tripp’s hand on its outside.

Before I knew when they were from — or if they’d seen print — I felt this was later work; it teems with the same energy as Stanley’s 1960s series Melvin Monster and Thirteen Going on Eighteen. Its brisk, erudite and hyperactive humor is of a piece with what were Stanley’s final known works: a 1969 one-shot called Choo-Choo Charlie, based on a candy brand’s long-forgotten mascot, and the first issue of O. G. Whiz, Stanley’s last original creation for comic books, which saw print at the start of 1971.

In these three six-page stories and two gag pages, Stanley’s affection for these characters is powerful and moving. He finds new aspects of this childhood cast and writes with a freshness and vigor that shows him still at the top of his game. Two of the longer stories, “Divers Reasons” and “Log Jam,” compare to the best of his classic work of the early 1950s. It’s a thrill to see these stories—and characters—in Stanley’s hand. His dialogue, written in neat cursive, contrasts with excitable, boisterous quick sketches that capture the essence of an emotion, attitude and intention; to look at these scrawls is to see the big picture.

The published version of “Divers Reasons” and “Log Jam,” included here, reward comparison with Stanley’s pencil comic scripts. Irving Tripp seems delighted to illustrate Stanley’s concepts; his artwork, so tamped down and controlled in the classic 1940s/50s Lulu, catches more of the author’s free-spirited visual approach.

Stanley’s view of the series’ characters has warmed after a decade away from them. Annie is the main figure of “Divers Reasons,” and she has a relatable personal issue to get past — she’s a skilled diver but she can’t swim. “This is the age of specialization, Lulu! I specialize in diving!” she says with justified glee. Pragmatic Lulu sees past this excuse and considers it her duty to help her friend transcend this stumbling block.

There’s a new level to Lulu’s character here. Her concern for maintaining order and for being accountable is impressive. When Tubby and the fellers hijack the canoe the girls borrowed, she is conscious of her responsibility and can’t just react with an “oh, well.” In one brilliant moment, Annie forgets she can’t swim and paddles through the water with skill and urgency. Lulu reminds her that she can’t swim, after all, and breaks the willful spell.

In the story’s coda, Annie reveals to us what she hesitates to explain to Lulu via a thought balloon. This fourth-wall breach is charming and refreshing and shows that Stanley (and Tripp) were comfortable with these familiar characters and able to move them in new directions.

“Log Jam” is an inventive, energetic gender war in which Tubby at last admits: “Sometimes Lulu accidentally comes up with a good idea.” Her ally Annie is quick to deliver well-deserved praise for her friend’s problem-solving. The story erupts into the vivid situation comedy familiar in Stanley’s later work and, for the last time, the girls reveal the flaws in the boys’ hubris and self-importance. As the very last of John Stanley and Irving Tripp’s Little Lulu, it’s a significant story.

We're withholding “Cat Calls” due to the boys’ appropriation of Native American dress. In John Stanley’s world, fake Indians are asshats — as are the wealthy, antique dealers and anyone pretending to be what they’re not. The story hoists Tubby and his clubhouse pals on their petard of ignorance, and no cultural offense is meant, but the images are now deemed unapt for enlightened display. (The story can be read via the 1970 printing of the comic book.)

Why this one-off issue happened isn’t known, and none of its creators are alive to inform us. No other new work followed; the next issue returned to the format of 1950s-era reprints. Had this been any other medium than comic books, John Stanley’s return to his roots—his and Tripp’s “Get Back” moment—would have been celebrated, publicized in advance and anticipated by ardent fans. But since no one was credited on these comics, now published by Gold Key, Western Publications’ imprint since 1962, no one knew. Forty-four issues after Stanley’s last known Lulu stories, in the middle of a string of issues filled with reruns (of Stanley’s work) and new material by longtime Western staffer Virginia Hubbell, these five stories were hidden in plain sight for half a century.

Many thanks to Karen Green of Columbia University for locating and scanning John Stanley’s original scripts for this issue. They are a delight to read, and artist Tripp followed them with care in this very special comic book event that no one has noticed until now.

Editor's note: Below you will find the two Little Lulu stories – "Diver's Reasons" and "Log Jam" – which we are running alongside John Stanley's original scripts for comparison purposes. 

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