Comic history Comic strips

Origins: Marmaduke

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D. D. Degg Updated: June 14, 2025 at 10:03 am EDT 1 minute 4 comments

Phil Leeming (ca. 1915 – 1962) has disappeared from the history books, or at least has been demoted to assistant gagwriter after the fact. From the 2004 syndicate promotional ad for the Marmaduke panel:

[Brad] Anderson created the character of Marmaduke in 1953.

While cartoonist Brad Anderson (1924 – 2015) was certainly integral to the comic dog’s popularity the creator credit has changed over the years with Phil Leeming’s role fading as time goes by.

15 months after Marmaduke’s debut Leeming is taking credit for the creation.

From the Orlando Sentinel dated February 16, 1956:

Marmaduke is his own creation, [Leeming] says … Artist Brad Anderson carries the pen after Leeming gets Marmaduke into the situations.

Twenty-five years later in a Jud Hurd interview Anderson still credits Leeming with originating the idea:

In 1953. Bill [sic] Leeming sent me some dog gags and we used them.

This is not meant to discount Anderson’s vital contributions as co-creator, especially the visuals of a Boxer’s head on a Great Dane’s body.

However five years later the disappearing of Leeming has started as Phil becomes an unnamed gag writer:

From Shel Dorf’s interview with Brad Anderson in Comics Interview #32 (1986):

A gag writer sent me some gags with a dog.

With the deaths in the 1960s of Phil and Dorothy Leeming (???? -1969), the adult homeowners in the Marmaduke panel were named Phil and Dottie, their credits soon dropped from the panel.

Now Phil Leeming has been demoted to assistant gag writer after the creation. From Wikipedia:

The strip was created by Anderson, and sold to the John F. Dille Co. (later known as the National Newspaper Syndicate) in 1954. Anderson said he drew on Laurel and Hardy routines for his ideas. Anderson illustrated the strip, writing it with help from Phil Leeming (1955–1962) and later Dorothy Leeming (1963–1969).

The ghosting of Leeming extends to the syndicate’s “about” page of Marmaduke.

Amazingly Phil got credit in the 2010 Marmaduke live-action movie, though not the 2022 animated movie.

Oh, one more thing.

Thanks to Maurice Horn’s entry for Marmaduke in his “100 Years of American Newspaper Comics” an incorrect debut date for the Marmaduke panel has become ingrained in comics history. Said Horn:

The already long list of newspaper dogs increased by one in June 1954, with the irruption of Brad Anderson’s Great Dane, whose name – Marmaduke – is as impressive as the gigantic meat-hound who bears that moniker.

That is wrong, the comic Marmaduke actually first appeared in newspapers on November 15, 1954.

In The Cincinnati Enquirer it appeared as a small one column wide cartoon on an eight column wide page. Below are the first three panels undated but numbered – 1,2,3 – in the lower left corner from The Enquirer.

The first panel shows that the Winslow family apparently bought Marmaduke from a pet shop.

Further reading:

Cartoonist David Mudrick would like to set the record straight.

If you ask most people with any knowledge of the comic strip Marmaduke, “Who created the strip?” they will most likely say, “Brad Anderson”.  If they do, they are wrong, even if Anderson may have said so himself.  The originator of both the character and the strip was cartoon gag writer Philip Leeming.