View source for Goofus and Gallant

{{Short description|American children's comic strip}}
{{good article}}
{{Infobox comic strip
| title       = Goofus and Gallant
| image       = Goofus and Gallant - October 1980.jpg
| caption     = ''Goofus and Gallant'' from the October 1980 issue of ''Highlights for Children''
| creator     = Garry Cleveland Myers (original)
| illustrator = Leslie Harrington (current)
| current     =
| url         = 
| status      = Running/monthly
| first       = {{start date|1940}}
| altnames    =
| syndicate   = 
| publisher= {{ubl|''[[Highlights for Children]]'' <small>(1946–present)</small>|''Children's Activities'' <small>(1940–1946)</small>}}
| genre       = [[Educational comic]]s
| rating      = 
| preceded by = 
| followed by = 
}}
'''''Goofus and Gallant''''' is an American children's comic strip appearing monthly in ''[[Highlights for Children]]''. The comic contrasts the actions of the eponymous characters, presenting Gallant's actions as right and good and Goofus's as wrong and bad. Created by Garry Cleveland Myers and first published in ''Children's Activities'' in 1940, ''Goofus and Gallant'' moved to ''Highlights for Children'' when the magazine was founded in 1946.

Throughout its history ''Goofus and Gallant'' has been interpreted as an effective [[didacticism|didactic]] comic. The strip has reflected changes in attitudes about American parenting styles. It has been used in several studies as a stimulus to prompt children to identify kind and unkind actions, and the characters of Goofus and Gallant, as archetypes of badness and goodness, have been referenced in several works by philosophers.

==History==
''Goofus and Gallant'' was created by Garry Cleveland Myers and was first featured in the magazine ''Children's Activities'' in 1940. According to family legend, the grandchildren of Myers and his wife Caroline, Kent Brown and Garry Cleveland Myers III, inspired the characters Goofus and Gallant respectively.<ref name="chicagotribune">{{cite news|last1=Zorn|first1=Eric|title=Goofus, Gallant–the inside story|url=http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2006/06/goofus_gallantt.html|access-date=December 22, 2016|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=November 4, 1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420030344/http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2006/06/goofus_gallantt.html|archive-date=April 20, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> At first, the comic's characters were depicted as elves. In 1946, when the Myerses founded ''[[Highlights for Children]]'', they brought ''Goofus and Gallant'' with them to the new magazine. By the 1950s, the strip's art style changed and Goofus and Gallant turned from elves to human boys.<ref name="chicagotribune" />

Throughout ''Goofus and Gallant''{{'}}s history, numerous artists have drawn for the strip. The first was Maurieta Wellman who drew the strip until 1952.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Knudde |first1=Kjell |last2=Schuddeboom |first2=Bas |title=Maurieta Wellman |url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/wellman_maurieta.htm |website=[[Lambiek Comiclopedia]] |publisher=[[Lambiek]] |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411181601/https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/wellman_maurieta.htm |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |date=April 10, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> She was succeeded by Marion Hull Hammel who had the strip's longest tenure as illustrator, working for 32 years until 1984.<ref name="chicagotribune" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Biography|url=http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bhammel/hammel_art/bio.html|website=The Art of Marion Hull Hammel|publisher=[[Virginia Commonwealth University]]|access-date=June 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060501005027/http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bhammel/hammel_art/bio.html|archive-date=May 1, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Knudde |first1=Kjell |title=Marion Hull Hammel |url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/hull_hammel_marion.htm |website=[[Lambiek Comiclopedia]] |publisher=[[Lambiek]] |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411181950/https://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/hull_hammel_marion.htm |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |date=April 10, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> Sidney Quinn, who since 1977 had already been illustrating ''The Timbertoes'', another ''Highlights'' feature, took over the art on ''Goofus and Gallant'' from Hammel and drew the strip for a decade until his death in 1994.<ref name="quinn">{{cite web |last1=Schuddeboom |first1=Bas |title=Sidney A. Quinn |url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/q/quinn_sidney.htm |website=[[Lambiek Comiclopedia]] |publisher=[[Lambiek]] |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411182741/https://www.lambiek.net/artists/q/quinn_sidney.htm |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |date=April 11, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> Kit Wray illustrated the comic for a year in 1995 until Anni Matsick took over from 1996 through 2005.<ref name="quinn" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Schuddeboom |first1=Bas |title=Anni Matsick |url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/matsick_anni.htm |website=[[Lambiek Comiclopedia]] |publisher=[[Lambiek]] |access-date=April 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411183040/https://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/matsick_anni.htm |archive-date=April 11, 2020 |date=April 11, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> Since 2006, ''Goofus and Gallant'' has been illustrated by Leslie Harrington.<ref name="quinn" />

===Format===
The comic, published monthly in ''Highlights for Children'', consists of two panels depicting the actions of two children, Goofus and Gallant.{{efn|Harold Schechter and Jonna Gormely Semeiks described Goofus and Gallant as twin brothers;<ref name="sourcebook">{{cite book|last1=Schechter|first1=Harold|last2=Semeiks|first2=Jonna Gormely|title=Patterns in Popular Culture: A Sourcebook for Writers|date=1980|publisher=Harper & Row|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=0-06-045761-9|page=25}}</ref> however, ''[[The Atlantic]]'' states that the boys' relationship to each other is unclear.<ref name=beck/>}} Gallant's actions are always virtuous and respectful, in contrast to Goofus's, which are always rude and selfish. They are presented side by side with a brief caption (e.g., "Goofus turns on the television when there are guests; whenever guests arrive, Gallant turns off the television at once.") The direct results of their actions, good or bad, are never depicted.<ref name="chicagotribune" /> For many years, a short line of text reading "Gallant shows correct behavior" was included at the bottom of the comic.<ref name="sourcebook" />

The strip's protagonists have varied in age and appearance over time, variously shown with long or short, or dark or light hair and aged twelve or eight or five years old. Goofus and Gallant have never appeared in the same panel of the comic.<ref name="chicagotribune" />

According to Brown, who was editor of ''Highlights for Children'', "Without Goofus, Gallant would be bland and no one would pay attention. But kids see parts of themselves in both characters. No one is as good as Gallant, and no one is as bad as Goofus. But being more like Gallant is something to strive for."<ref name="chicagotribune" /> By the 2020s, the comic included a line echoing this sentiment at the top of each installment: "There's some of Goofus and Gallant in us all. When the Gallant shines through, we show our best self."<ref name="beck">{{cite news |last1=Beck |first1=Julie |title=The Comic Strip That Explains the Evolution of American Parenting |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2023/06/goofus-and-gallant-american-parenting-highlights/674536/ |access-date=June 29, 2023 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |date=June 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230628140703/https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2023/06/goofus-and-gallant-american-parenting-highlights/674536/ |archive-date=June 28, 2023|url-access=subscription|url-status=live}}</ref>

''Goofus and Gallant'' has reflected shifts in American parenting styles and attitudes about how children (especially boys) ought to behave.<ref name="beck" /> While strips from the 1950s highlighted Goofus crying in pain and Gallant suppressing tears, strips from 2000 onward showed Goofus ignoring or reacting badly to hurts while Gallant expressed his emotions more openly to himself and others.<ref name="beck" /> Older installments of the comic also reflected a greater degree of autonomy for both Goofus and Gallant to explore unsupervised, while comics from 2000 onward rarely showed either child outdoors unsupervised by an adult.<ref name="beck" />

==Reception==
The children's author and philosophy professor [[Claudia Mills]] wrote that ''Goofus and Gallant'' is heavily [[didacticism|didactic]] but is nonetheless effective at imparting its lessons to children.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Introduction|encyclopedia=Ethics and Children's Literature|last1=Mills|first1=Claudia|editor1-first=Claudia|editor1-last=Mills|date=2014|publisher=Ashgate Publishing Company|location=Burlington, VT|pages=1–12|isbn=978-1-4724-4073-0}}</ref> According to author and professor of literature and pop culture [[Harold Schechter]], "though Goofus is clearly meant to be obnoxious, even destructive–a bundle of unbridled aggression–he generally seems more appealing than the do-gooder Gallant", which Schechter believed necessitated the explanatory caption below each strip to confirm which character children should be emulating.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schechter|first1=Harold|title=The New Gods: Psyche and Symbol in Popular Art|date=1980|publisher=Bowling Green University Popular Press|location=Bowling Green, OH|isbn=0-87972-868-X|page=40|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2WZh77heXdgC&pg=PA40}}</ref> Donald Kaul writing in ''[[The Des Moines Register]]'' described Gallant as "an awful [[:wikt:prig|prig]]" and wrote that while the children he observed reading ''Goofus and Gallant'' "continue to exhibit an average amount of Goofus behavior, [they] always identify completely with Gallant, the goody-goody. They jeer at Goofus's shortcomings and pat themselves on the back whenever Gallant turns himself in to do an onerous chore like taking music lessons."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kaul |first1=Donald |title=Good Ol' Fashioned Fun Is Gone |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/129224830/ |access-date=April 11, 2020 |work=[[The Des Moines Register]] |date=March 2, 1965 |page=18|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Alan A. Block wrote that ''Goofus and Gallant'' presents uncritical assumptions about what constitutes right and wrong, and rarely or never interfaces with situations of real-world prejudice.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Leer revistas infantiles: cultura infantil y cultura popular|encyclopedia=Cultura infantil y multinacionales: La consctrucción de la identidad en la infancia|first1=Alan A.|last1=Block|date=2000|pages=153–162|language=es|publisher=Ediciones Morata, S. L.|location=Madrid|isbn=84-7112-439-4|editor1-first=Shirley R.|editor1-last=Steinberg|editor2-first=Joe L.|editor2-last=Kincheloe}}</ref>

==Other uses==
''Goofus and Gallant'' strips have been used for research purposes. A 2006 study gauging the development of ideas of respect and disrespect among American children used strips from the comic as stimuli to which the subjects could provide qualitative responses regarding why they believed Goofus's or Gallant's actions were respectful or disrespectful.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Shwalb|first1=Barbara J.|last2=Shwalb|first2=David W.|title=Concept development of respect and disrespect in American kindergarten and first- and second-grade children|journal=New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development|date=2006|volume=2006|issue=114|pages=67–80|doi=10.1002/cd.176|pmid=17302356|doi-access=free}} {{closed access}}</ref> A 2012 study used the strips to prompt [[autism|autistic]] and [[allistic]] children to identify whether the depicted child (either Goofus or Gallant) was behaving badly while researchers used an [[fMRI]] to measure the neural networks used in reaching their conclusions.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Carter|first1=Elizabeth J.|last2=Williams|first2=Diane L.|last3=Minshew|first3=Nancy J.|last4=Lehman|first4=Jill F.|last5=Zalla|first5=Tiziana|title=Is He Being Bad? Social and Language Brain Networks during Social Judgment in Children with Autism|journal=[[PLOS ONE]]|date=2012|volume=7|issue=10|page=e47241|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0047241|pmid=23082151|pmc=3474836|bibcode=2012PLoSO...747241C|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The concepts of Goofus and Gallant have also appeared in contexts divorced from the comic. Philosopher [[Theodore Sider]] used the characters in an argument against the notion of a binary heaven or hell conception of the afterlife.<ref name="sider">{{cite journal|last1=Sider|first1=Theodore|title=Hell and Vagueness|journal=[[Faith and Philosophy]]|date=2002|volume=19|issue=1|pages=58–68|doi=10.5840/faithphil20021918|doi-access=free}} {{closed access}}</ref> Sider conceived of Goofus and Gallant as near-equals, with Gallant only marginally better than Goofus, in arguing that sending the former to heaven and the latter to hell is antithetical to God's justice.<ref name="sider" /> Other philosophers such as Matthew Konieczka and Casey Swank have also called upon Goofus and Gallant as archetypes of bad and good when formulating arguments.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Konieczka|first1=Matthew|title=Hell Despite Vagueness: A Response to Sider|journal=[[Sophia (journal)|Sophia]]|date=2011|volume=50|issue=1|pages=221–232|doi=10.1007/s11841-009-0115-6|s2cid=159747092}} {{closed access}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Epistemic Vice|encyclopedia=Knowledge, Belief, and Character: Readings in Contemporary Virtue Epistemology|last1=Swank|first1=Casey|editor1-last=Axtell|editor1-first=Guy|pages=195–204|date=2000|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|location=Lanham, MD|isbn=978-0-8476-9653-6}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

[[Category:American comic strips]]
[[Category:Comics characters introduced in 1940]]
[[Category:1940 comics debuts]]
[[Category:Educational comics]]
[[Category:Comic strip duos]]
[[Category:Text comics]]
[[Category:Fictional twins]]
[[Category:Male characters in comics]]
[[Category:Child characters in comics]]
[[Category:Comics about children]]