Something I loved especially about the Little Lulu comics were the stories-within-the-stories she told Alvin, the “poor little girl” fables which were always inventive and funny. “Lulu In Distress, a Tragedy” is from Dell Four Color #110 (1946), early in John Stanley’s brilliant career as Lulu’s scribe. He did the artwork for the story, also.
Stanley set many of these stories in a Dickensian world of poor children. In her narration, Lulu makes herself the main character. As befits the word “tragedy” in the title, Lulu is a poor child living with a wicked stepmother, forced to do all the work. Lulu has it so bad that even though the candy store owner cries at her plight, he also chases her out the door! Man, that’s some bad times! What usually happened in these stories was that Lulu prevailed in the end. She showed that smarts and pluck will win, and smarts and pluck Lulu had in spades.
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Another Lulu story-telling time story. Click the thumbnail.
