Mopsy was a comic strip created by Gladys Parker in 1939. It had a long run over three decades. Parker modeled the character of Mopsy after herself. In 1946, she recalled, "I got the idea for Mopsy when the cartoonist Rube Goldberg said my hair looked like a mop. That was several years ago, and she has been my main interest ever since."[1]
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Parker had studied fashion illustration, and Mopsy always had a stylish look. During World War II, Mopsy held such wartime jobs as a nurse and a munitions-plant worker, and the feature grew in popularity. With the Sunday strip, added in 1945, Parker was able to expand her fashion concepts into a sidebar series of paper dolls.
After WWII ended, Mopsy was fired from her defense job in 1947 and went back to civilian life. By the end of the 1940s, Mopsy was published in 300 newspapers.
In 1947, Mopsy began in St. John Publications' Pageant of Comics #1. Two years later, St. John gave her a title of her own, and Mopsy ran for 19 issues (February 1949 to September 1953). Charlton Comics reprinted several of those comic books in 1951.
Berkley Books published a Mopsy paperback collection in 1955.
When Parker retired in 1965, Mopsy retired with her.