Cartoonist Frank Henry Willard, also known as "Dok" Willard, was born in Anna, Illinois, on September 21, 1893. After elementary school, Willard was an inconsistent student, dropping out of various schools opting to work, instead. After his family relocated to Chicago, he went to Union Academy where he found a love of illustrating and began working on the staff of the school's yearbook in 1912. He then enrolled in courses at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago for a year before taking a job as a cartoonist with the Chicago Herald. He worked alongside E.D. Segar and Billy DeBeck. 

With the advent of World War I Willard enlisted in the American Expeditionary Forces in 1917, building roads in France. After returning to the U.S. in 1919 he briefly lived with DeBeck and worked on DeBeck's "Barney Google" and "Snuffy Smith" strips for a year. In 1920, with DeBeck's help, he landed a job with King Features Syndicate where, in 1923, he developed the "Moon Mullins" cartoon as a "tough guy" strip to rival the popular "Barney Google." This proved successful endeavor and the strip was optioned as a radio program, a board game, and a comic book. In 1932, he became one of the first members of the National Cartoonists Society.

Willard continued the popular comic strip until declining health forced him to hand over the strip to his assistant, Ferdinand "Ferd" Johnson. Willard died on January 11, 1958 in Los Angeles, California.