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Blatant knock-offs were quite common in the early days of comic strips, and even the biggest syndicates were known to copy popular strips by launching their own. Little Orphan Annie was an extremely popular strip published by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, and which ended up running for an impressive 86 years, as well as spawning a broadway musical with 3 movie adaptations to date. It was popular enough a mere 3 years after it debuted that King Features Syndicate decided to publish their own comic strip about an orphan girl and her dog, called Little Annie Rooney.

While the concept was nearly identical, the execution was a bit different. Little Orphan Annie was adopted by Daddy Warbucks, but Annie Rooney was constantly running from her evil caretaker Miss Meaney and fending for herself. She was fortunate enough now and then to have kind people allow her to stay with them for a short while, as we see in this strip. As we also see, both Annies are incredibly positive and optimistic despite their circumstances. While Annie Rooney didn't achieve the same fame as the Annie that came before her, the strip did run for 39 years under various writers and artists, which isn't bad at all.

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Muggs McGinnis was an attempt by the small Central Press Association syndicate to capitalize on the popularity of King Features syndicate's Skippy by creating an extremely similar comic strip. Unfortunately, it didn't do well enough to keep the CPA syndicate afloat, as King Features acquired them, and Muggs McGinnis, in 1930, merely three years after the strip debuted. CPA remained a subsidiary of King Features and retained control of most of their strips. In 1936, however, King took over Muggs McGinnis, renaming it "Muggs and Skeeter." As we can see here, however, not all newspapers printed it with the new name right away, as this paper was still running it under the old name in 1937.

As for this strip, I wonder why it is that Peewee isn't happy that a halo has appeared over his head. I guess he doesn't want grown-ups' expectations of him to be too high. Either that, or it shines too brightly and keeps him awake at night.

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Here's another High Pressure Pete, which was published exactly a year after the last one. Here, Officer 6 7/8 (whose civilian name is Joe) tries his best to help out his friends with their Christmas decorating, but is too dimwitted to do it right. It's not a total loss, though. There's nothing stopping them from hanging some things from that, uh, trunk. Plus, they can use the rest for firewood.

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I posted a High Pressure Pete strip a few years ago, but I can't get enough of George Swanson.

One of the more popular characters that Swanson created for the strip was Officer 6 7/8, who, as shown here, eventually found his way into the title. As we see, he's a good hearted fellow, though not too bright. I guess we know where all of his Christmas money is going.

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Here we see the Lady Plushbottom mentioned in the other Moon Mullins strip I posted a few days ago. The "Moonshine" mentioned is the full name of the title character, Mr. Mullins. I think Moon is actually doing some smart thinking here; Lord Plushbottom is the one who should be getting her the beads that last a lifetime. Moon is just getting a token obligatory gift for his landlord. No need to spend too much on that, right?

Also, Kayo sitting on a fire hydrant is adorable.

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Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Christmas comic strips are very weird. Instead of doing what a lot of action and adventure cartoonists did and show a drawing of the whole cast together saying "Merry Christmas," he would have to tie in the detective theme somehow, with varying results. I think this one works pretty well. It's kind of awkward, but I appreciate the effort.

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I love Jerry On the Job, because it's cute and funny, but also quite bizarre. It stars Jerry, a kid who looks no older than 6 years old, as he does various jobs over the course of the strip's run. He starts out as an office boy at a train station, and later becomes a messenger boy and even later a retail clerk, all while maintaining the same age and stature. I like him for the same reason I like Kayo from Moon Mullins: he's a kid who acts like a kid, but can still stand toe to toe with the adults.

Here, he gives you everything you need to celebrate Christmas, including "turk" and "S. Claus," my favorite Christmas abbreviations.

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I've posted some Gasoline Alley Christmas strips a couple of times previously, so here's another one, because I can't get enough. I love Frank King's artwork, and I love the bumbling way that Walt does things for Skeezix, because he just wants to make him happy. I also get the feeling that maybe Skeezix knows it wasn't really Santa but is playing along for Walt's benefit. It makes this a very cute strip all in all.

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Here's another one from Harry Hershfield (whose name the paper erroneously spells "Herstfield"). This is clearly some kind of dream sequence, where Abie is flying with Santa Claus above the world and doing a crossword puzzle with the land below. It's still a bit odd that a Jewish immigrant would dream of this, but I guess Christmas is such a large part of American culture in December that it's very difficult to avoid it.

Also, I just love the hatching and crosshatching in this strip. It's a thing of beauty.

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Harry Hershfield, creator of Abie the Agent, was a Jewish American, and the comic strips he created featured Jewish people, often immigrants, and how they assimilated, and didn't, into American culture. It's very interesting, then, that Hershfield drew at least one Christmas comic strip a year. In searching for Christmas strips, I really didn't expect to find any Abie the Agent ones, but they were definitely there.

Also, Hannukah starts on December 22 this year, in case you wondered.