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Little Orphan Annie. Little Orphan Annie was created by Harold Gray and appeared in the comic strip “Little Orphan Annie” (1924-2010).

Annie is a tough orphan girl adopted by billionaire industrialist Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks. Annie has adventures around the world, accompanied by Warbucks and Punjab, Warbucks’ nine-foot-tall Indian valet.

* I'm including "Little Orphan Annie" in the Best of the Encyclopedia category because it's fun. Harold Gray had some talent as an artist and writer, and the adventures Annie, Warbucks, and Punjab go through are great pulpy fun. Unfortunately, I can't rank "Little Orphan Annie" higher than "great pulpy fun," or put it on the same level as "Terry and the Pirates" (see Terry Lee) and "Flash Gordon" because of the strip's politics. Never mind that Harold Gray was a dyed-in-the-wool conservative--lots of artists have regrettable politics. Gray put his politics into his strip, voiced by Warbucks and Annie at different times, and made "Little Orphan Annie" into an anti-FDR, anti-New Deal comic strip. You're damn right I'm taking marks away from "Little Orphan Annie" because of its politics; when a creator's politics adversely affect the creation's artistic quality, then the politics become fair game for critical judgment--and Gray's politics made "Little Orphan Annie" into conservative agitprop rather than the great adventure strip it could and should have been. 

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