Tubby Tompkins, generally referred to as Tubby, is a comic book character created by Marjorie Henderson Buell. The character, Thomas "Tubby" Tompkins first appeared in the Little Lulu comic panel in The Saturday Evening Post and went on to appear alongside Lulu in comic books, advertising, and animated cartoons, as well as in his own solo comic book series beginning in 1952. Both preternaturally hungry and egotistical, Tubby's overriding monomania and blissful lack of self-awareness propel him through an endless series of near-disasters and minor epics of suburban adventure. Although he is best known as Little Lulu's sometimes-boyfriend and comic foil, Tubby is also Lulu's nemesis, acting as the antagonist in many of her adventures. Tubby is the leader of The Fellers, a gang of neighbourhood boys with a strict "No Girls Allowed" policy in their clubhouse, and it is in this role that he most often runs afoul of Lulu and her genius.
Character evolution
Marge began introducing male school friends for Little Lulu in her panel for the Post as early as 1937. These unidentified boys were often dressed alike, in typical schoolboy fashions of the period, with short pants, large collar with bow tie, suit jacket, and tiny sailor cap. Gradually, a more portly version of these boys began to appear, eventually becoming a "regular" in the feature, usually as a suitor or playmate to Lulu. Marge referred to this character as "Joe" but it wasn't until the character was adapted into animated form in a series of short films produced for Paramount that something of his personality began to emerge and the new name of Tubby was first used. Tubby makes silent appearances in two Lulu shorts from 1944, "It's Nifty to Be Thrifty", in which he appears licking a lollipop and wearing a blue shirt, and "Lulu's Birthday Party", where he appears as a party guest wearing a black shirt. However, in the next year's "Beau Ties", Tubby takes center stage as "Fatso", erstwhile boyfriend of Lulu, who discovers him two-timing her with Gloria at the malt shop. The cowardly Fatso, voiced by popular character actor Arnold Stang, is then tormented by Lulu as punishment for his infidelity. The character next appears in "Bored of Education", at last named "Tubby" but dressed as a series of historical figures imagined by Lulu in a daydream. It is at this point that the basic Tubby template finally emerges, if only in name and costume. At the mid-point of the film series, and several merchandised Lulu books to her credit, Marge turned to licensing the Lulu concept to comic books, inking a deal with Dell Comics to publish a series of try-out issues beginning in 1945. The characters of Lulu and Tubby appear together for the first time in this format in Dell Comics' Four Color #74 in a story titled "The Costume Party" and written and drawn by cartoonist John Stanley. Stanley had created several "proto-Tubby" characters earlier in his career with Dell and began applying some of these traits to Marge's fat school chum. The Tubby and Lulu of this first comic book story are both anarchic in character but that would change as Stanley gradually evolves both: Lulu becomes the voice of logic and Tubby comes to embody a sort of anarchic force of nature, impervious to societal critique or censure. The success of these four one-shots lead to a long-running Little Lulu series beginning in 1948, and eventually to a solo series for Tubby, beginning with another series of one-shot try-outs in 1952 and running in various formats until 1964.
John Stanley's Tubby
Because Tubby was little more than a simple stereotype when his comic book adventures began, John Stanley was able to use him as a vehicle to explore a variety of themes and put his own stamp on the character. In this sense, Tubby is a relative rarity in the world of licensed American children's comics, akin to the Uncle Scrooge stories by Carl Barks. Under Stanley's guidance, through hundreds of stories, Tubby eventually reveals a reliable group of mostly anti-social personality traits that come to propel the narratives of his adventures. The comics critic Bill Schelly has proposed a six-point guide to Tubby's complex motivations and drives. According to Schelly, Tubby: With a multi-faceted character like Tubby in the role of protagonist in the Lulu stories, or as the hero of his own solo adventures, John Stanley was then free to add on to and expand the universe of these characters in a world-building exercise, introducing a supporting cast of characters and a variety of stock situations. These basic premises and situations would then be used to tell a humorous story with a series of more and more outrageous scenarios, actions and gags. Most of these premises are grounded in the reality of Tubby's small town environment, with the very occasional foray into a fantasy or science fiction setting. The generic situations include: 1) Romance Battle of the sexes crime or mystery Fantasy, Science Fiction or Deus ex machina.
Supporting characters
Lulu Moppet: Tubby's girlfriend and friendly enemy.
The Spider: Tubby's alias. A Sherlock Holmes-ian detective whose arch-enemy is Lulu's father.
The Fellers: Tubby's gang. Tubby is the usual leader of this gang. Their headquarters is a clubhouse hidden in the woods with a prominent "No Girls Allowed" sign.
