Tubby

Tubby is the pudgy, self-important best friend and foil of Little Lulu, the beloved girl from Marge's comic strips. A boastful schemer with a big imagination, he leads the boys-only club that constantly clashes with Lulu's equally determined gang.

Few comic characters earn their own title straight out of the Golden Age and keep readers coming back for nearly three decades, but Tubby manages exactly that. Debuting in Four Color #430 in 1952 under the skilled hand of John Stanley, this Dell favorite quickly proved popular enough to anchor Marge's Tubby as a standalone series while remaining a fixture in Marge's Little Lulu as well. Across 58 catalogued appearances and a publishing run stretching all the way to 1981, Tubby shares his world with a lively cast — Alvin, Knotknee, Iggy, Gloria, and Kathy among them — giving the book a warm, neighborhood-gang energy that defined the best of mid-century all-ages comics. With a key issue to his name and that remarkable longevity, Tubby is a genuine gem of the Dell era well worth seeking out.