Little Iodine

Little Iodine, created as a supporting character for Jimmy Hatlo's single-panel newspaper comic strip "They'll Do It Every Time," was an earlier, female equivalent of Hank Ketcham's "Dennis the Menace". She appeared during the 1930s, the daughter of Henry Tremblechin and his wife, Cora. Her purpose was to serve as a pesky nuisance to the strip's star, Henry, and her antics caused endless misery for her mild-mannered, easily unsettled father.

However, Iodine proved to be popular in her own right, stealing the strip from her parents, and she received her own strip in 1943. This strip was created by Hatlo himself from 1943-1966. Al Scaduto also contributed to the strip in 1966, with Hy Eisman and Bob Dunn taking the strip from 1967 through its end. She also appeared in a series of 56 Dell Comics

Film adaptation

In 1946, Comet Productions, a company established by Mary Pickford, her husband, Charles Rogers and Columbia executive Ralph Cohn, produced a 56-minute feature film starring Hobart Cavanaugh as Henry, Irene Ryan as Cora and Jo Ann Marlowe as Little Iodine.

In the movie, Iodine thinks that her mother is having an affair with Professor Simkins, played by Leon Belasco. Consequently, she tries one antic after another to break up the adulterous couple. Her efforts backfire when they cause conflict between Henry and his employer, Mr. Bigdome, played by Emory Parnell. According to the IMDb web site, the film was scheduled for release earlier than October 20, 1946 (its actual distribution date), but this date was posponed due to an epidemic of polio that prevented children across the United States from attending films. The film is currently believed to be lost.

The strip was discontinued in 1983.

References

Strickler, Dave. "Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index." Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. ISBN 978-0-9700077-0-4.

External links

* [http://www.toonopedia.com/iodine.htm Don Markstein's Toonopedia entry]
* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=99797 Review of the "Little Iodine" movie] at The New York Times
*Imdb title|id=0038695|title=Little Iodine