 | Moose and MollyOriginal Medium: Newspaper comics Distributed by: King Features Syndicate First Appeared: 1965 Creator: Bob Weber Sr. image: © King Features. |
In many ways, Moose Miller is just a typical husband in a comic strip sitcom, no different from Roger Fox, George Bungle or Hi Flagston. The big difference is that with all their faults, those guys always worked to support their families, whereas Moose has never held onto a job for more than a day — nor wanted to, tho he's sometimes forced to go through the motions by his wife, Molly.
Moose's creator, Bob Weber Sr., had a similar personal history, with a succession of less-than-satisfying jobs before he went into cartooning full time. After he'd established himself as a magazine cartoonist and a frequent contributor of gags to Laff-a-Day, Snuffy Smith and other King Features cartoons, he was invited by editor Sylvan Byck to submit a strip of his own. King began distributing the daily-only Moose Miller (titled simply Moose during its first six years) on September 20, 1965.
Sloth is not the only one of the Seven Deadly Sins in Moose's repertoire. He is also an ardent practitioner of Gluttony, always ready to mooch a meal off his next-door neighbors, Chester and Clara Crabtree. Moose and Molly have three kids, Bunky (teenage boy, and no relation), Blip (younger boy) and Cindy (youngest girl). Bunky seems to have latched onto his dad as a role model, but there may still be time for the others to be saved. The family is rounded out by a dog named Bowser and several more exotic pets (such as a goat, a snake and a duck).
Once the strip was a success, Weber settled in for life. Longer, in fact, as cartooning became a generational thing in his family (his son, Bob Jr., is the man behind King's Slylock Fox & Comics for Kids). In 1998, Moose was re-titled Moose & Molly in recognition of her increasing role in it. It's now down from its peak of about 200 newspapers, but still appears in a respectable 75.
