Mr. Twee Deedle: The Forgotten Fantasy Masterpiece of Johnny Gruelle

Plot

Mr. Twee Deedle, Johnny Gruelle’s masterpiece, has been unjustly forgotten by history. Gruelle’s creation was the successor to Little Nemo in the New York Herald. The title character in the Sunday color page, Mr. Twee Deedle, is a magical wood sprite that only appeared before the strip’s two human children, Dickie and Dolly. Gruelle depicted a charming, fantastical child’s world, filled with light whimsy and outlandish surrealism.

Yet the wood sprite and his fanciful world have been strangely overlooked, partly because Gruelle created Raggedy Ann immediately after the strip’s run, eclipsing not only Mr. Twee Deedle, but almost everything else the cartoonist ever did. Mr. Twee Deedle stands as a bizarre time-warp: at a time when most children’s literature and kids’ comic strips were somewhat violent or starkly moralistic (the Brothers Grimm; the Katzenjammer Kids; and even Little Nemo itself, which often depicted nightmares, fears, and dangers), Mr. Twee Deedle was sensitive and whimsical. Instead of stark moralizing, it presented gentle lessons. It reads today like a work for the 21st century... indeed for all times, all ages.