No good deed goes unpunished, a Ferd'nand strip from March 5, 2000.

Ferd'nand is a comic strip, notable for both its lack of word balloons, lack of continuity, and for its longevity. This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Four different shapes of speech or thought balloons Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used in comic books, strips, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing the speech or thoughts of a given character... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Background

Ferd'nand was first published 1937 by the Presse-Illustrations-Bureau of Copenhagen. Created by Henning Dahl Mikkelsen, Ferd'nand features the adventures of the title character, his unnamed wife, unnamed son, and family dog. Unlike nearly every other comic strip, there is no dialogue in the strip -- the characters only "speak" via the occasional set of exclamation points or question marks. This enabled the strip to achieve a wide distribution throughout Europe and, starting November 10, 1947, in the United States. At present, the strip is said to appear in 100 different newspapers in 30 countries.

Author

Mikkelsen, or "Mik" as he became known, soon moved to the United States, becoming a citizen in 1954. Mikkelsen died in 1982, but not before he turned over the strip to others, including Frank Thomas (no relation to Disney's Frank Thomas) who was reputed to have drawn the strip from 1955 until the mid-1960s, and Al Plastino, who drew it from 1968 until 1989. Strips after Mikkelsen's death were signed "Al + Mik". Franklin Thomas (September 5, 1913, Fresno, California - September 8, 2004, Flintridge, California) was one of Walt Disneys team of animators known as the Nine Old Men. ...

Henrik Rehr, a European illustrator and painter and current author, took over the strip in 1989. Rehr's strips are signed "Rehr.Mik".

Characters

The main character, presumably named Ferd'nand, is a round, mustachioed, middle-aged father and husband, recognized by his conical hat. Ferd'nand's son also sports a similar hat, while his wife and dog are rather unremarkable in appearance.

Unlike most strips, Ferd'nand lacks basic continuity or any cast of recurring characters other than the immediate Ferd'nand family. Ferd'nand himself has been seen working in nearly every occupation and in any location imaginable. Similarly, each strip stands alone - no story spans multiple strips. This lends a rather fantasy-like, ephemeral air to the strip.

External links

• Current Ferd'nand strips at comics.com
• Very early Ferd'nand strips at a Danish website