Frank Willard was the creator of the classic American newspaper bum 'Moon Mullins'. Frank Henry Willard was born in Anna, Illinois. He was expelled from school and reduced in rank three times from sergeant to private in the Army. He worked as an operator on a floating hamburger stand at county fairs before taking on cartooning. He started his artistic career in 1914, working freelance for several Chicago newspapers. In 1916, he got a permanent job at the Chicago Herald, where he worked on the Sunday strip, 'Tom, Dick and Harry'.
After serving in World War I, Willard created the daily strip 'The Outta-Luck Club', which earned him a job at the News and Chicago Tribune. At the Tribune, Willard launched his most popular comic, about lowbrow 'Moon Mullins' in 1923, accompanied by the topper 'Kitty Higgins'. Willard often drew upon his own roustabout background. Together with his assistant Ferd Johnson, he made the strip into a huge success. The money that the strip earned him enabled Frank Willard to pursue his greatest obsession, golf.
