While everything that we post at Barnacle Press is certainly family-friendly, having first appeared in newspapers published in a more genteel era, not everything will appeal to the youngest members of your family. As wonderful as the works of Gluyas Williams are, they probably won’t hold the attention of young kids, with their wordy examinations of prosaic events from one hundred years ago.

So here’s a list of some of the more distinctly kid-friendly fare we’ve got in the Barnacle Press archives. Some are old friends I’m sure you’ve heard of, others are obscure features that we’ve rescued from the dustbin of history. All of them are delightful, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Several of the features we’re highlighting in this list aren’t comics, but illustrated stories and scissors-and-paper activities. We hope that you’ll print some of these out to give to your favorite young’n, but if you want to keep them for yourself, we won’t tell a soul; a common trait shared by the best of children’s art and literature is its wide appeal to grown-ups as well as its intended audience of youngsters.

Good Stories For Children
As the title of this feature implies, these are illustrated stories by Walt McDougall that first appeared in the kiddie section of the Sunday paper. Ranging from flights of home-grown fantasy to tales based on the folklore of other cultures, the illustrations are gorgeous and the stories are quick and clever. I would be remiss in neglecting to mention that there are some portrayals of ethnic types which would not be considered acceptable in today’s more enlightened multicultural environment. But though the characterizations are broad, they’re never mean-spirited, and would make a good stepping-off point for conversations about changing mores.

The Great Dot Mystery
This is a fun one, and an idea that I’m surprised hasn’t stuck around. Each is a single-panel cartoon whose art is largely made up of a dot-to-dot puzzle. The puzzles are actually pretty good, too! Too often, you can make out the image before setting pencil to paper, but C.L. Sherman is too good for that.

Just Dog
This is one of my favorite items on all of Barnacle Press, following the adventures of Robert L. Dickey’s irrepressible Boston Terrier, Buddie, and his canine companions Angus and Bucky. The art is terrific, and the dogs are adorable. What more can a dog-loving comic fan ask for?

Papercraft - LA Times
Long one of the most popular features on Barnacle Press, these papercraft models are whimsical fun for the activities crowd. We’ve provided each one in JPG format for viewing on your screen, and PDFs for printing out, coloring, and assembling. We’d love to see pictures of your finished products!

Polly Evans’ Story Page
Another series of illustrated stories, these pages also include puzzles, games, and cartoons, all created with a high degree of craft and care.

Terhune’s Dog Stories
Albert Payson Terhune’s Lad: A Dog has been in print and greatly popular ever since its first printing back in 1919. Our offerings are from the mid-twenties, at the height of his popularity, and feature the same wonderful tales of doggie derring-do, well-heeled and fetchingly illustrated.

Turr’ble Tales of Kaptain Kiddo
This could have been in Thrillmer’s roundup of Lesser-Known Works by Major Creators, but I wanted to save it for this list, since it’s so wonderful and kid-centric. The creator, Grace Wiederseim, would rise to great heights as the cartoonist behind Dolly Dimples and the illustrator who gave form to the Campbell’s Soup Kids, under her married name of Grace Drayton. Kaptain Kiddo, created in tandem with Miss Wiederseim’s sister Margaret G. Hays–no mean cartoonist in her own right–tells the story of a toddler pirate and his dog, Puppo, as they traverse a series of surreal settings. Cute overload, indeed.

Uncle Remus’ Stories
I’m sure that most of you are familiar with Joel Chandler Harris’s adaptations of slave folk narratives, the tales of Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and the rest of their animal brethren. While their popularity has waned in recent decades, these stories were an important link in preserving the stories and vernacular of the 19th century African American experience. Read on their own, they’re captivating and beautiful. In context, they’re an important piece of Americana.

Uncle Wiggily’s Adventures
Here’s another Uncle that you’re probably familiar with. Howard R. Garis’s book of Uncle Wiggilly’s Bedtime Stories was a staple of childhood for many decades. Today, many folks share my own initial exposure to this character, through the eponymous boardgame, in print consistently since 1916.

The Upside-Downs of Little Lady Lovekins and Old Man Muffaroo
Deliriously weird and endlessly inventive, Gustave Verbeek’s masterpiece is one of the most clever works to grace the comics pages. First, you read the strip right-side-up, then turn the page over and read the second half of the story, as the illustrations switch perspectives! We’ve got links to both views in the archive, so you can enjoy this terrific trip into surreality.