Little Sad Sack

(Harvey, 1964-1967)
™ and ©1964 Harvey Hits, Inc.

George Baker’s Sad Sack was a long-running humor strip based on the deathless patriotic premise of making fun of the military. As such, it remained one of Harvey’s top features for a long time, but Army life may have seemed somewhat distant from the concerns of Harvey’s primary readership, very young kids. The answer? Little Sad Sack, the adventures of the crafty layabout buck private when he was five years old! What seems like an editorial contrivance actually works because Sad Sack and his crew are so goofy looking that the transition from the barracks to the playground is practically seamless from a stylistic point of view. From there, it’s child’s play to insert the Sad Sack family into the typical domestic comedy antics of the kid strip.

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