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Brother Juniper is a unique comic strip with a unique origin, and I don't say that lightly. The creator of the strip, Fred McCarthy, became a Franciscan friar in 1944. He had been drawing cartoons from a young age, and continued doing so while attending St. Bonaventure College in New York. He would often draw a short, stout friar that he originally called "Friar Sad Sack" for posters and signs around campus, though he eventually would name him "Brother Juniper." He was named after one of the first followers of St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order. Juniper was known among the Franciscans as the "renowned jester of the Lord," and of whom many humorous stories are told, so it seemed to fit as the name of a cartoon friar. At first Brother Juniper only appeared in the national Franciscan magazine Friar, but in 1958 it was picked up by Publishers Syndicate and nationally syndicated. It ran for an impressive 31 years, until it ended in 1989.

This is fascinating to me as someone who isn't Catholic and who, frankly, didn't even realize until writing this post that the Franciscan order still exists. It's also interesting that a sincere comic strip about the order was so well received, and for so long, across the country and even internationally. I also appreciate that the gags are actually clever and funny. I've seen some other overtly religious comics before, and even as a religious person I found them to be quite stale and uninteresting. You would expect a comic about an order of friars to be so, too, but somehow McCarthy was able to make it fun and interesting, and enjoyable to look at.