Before authoring one of the most beloved children's book series of all time - Harold and the Purple Crayon - cartoonist Crockett Johnson created the comic strip Barnaby (1942 to 1952). Barnaby revolved around a precocious five-year-old named Barnaby and his fairy godfather Jackeen J. O'Malley. Yet O'Malley, a cigar-chomping, bumbling con-artist, was not your typical protector; his grasp of magic was usually specious at best! Barnaby's deft balance of fantasy, political commentary, sophisticated wit and elegantly spare images expanded the sense of what comics could do.
