(Original 'Felix the Cat' comic paste-up with 'Laura' topper)

Pat Sullivan

While it is signed by comic artist Pat Sullivan, there is every possibility this Felix the Cat comic strip and it's "topper," Laura, were actually created and drawn by Sullivan Studio's main animator and strip artist, Otto Messmer. By 1931, when this was published, Sullivan was largely absent from the studio he had successfully opened in 1919. An alcoholic who struggled with the recent death of his wife, myriad health problems, and a dark past, Sullivan would die just two years later from liver disease and pneumonia.

In fact, the lore of the Felix character, which remains iconic despite eventually being outpaced in popularity by Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, continues to stir debate among comic strip and animation historians. Credit for Felix is often given to Messmer, who was there at the beginning of the character's development in 1919 when it started as an animated short. His cartoons of the mischevious cat - the first fully-realized animal character in animation history - launched the character into worldwide popularity on par with leading Hollywood actors, and soon led to the development of the strip.

As such, Felix ended up in many famous places: as a stuffed animal, he was in the cockpit of Charles Lindbergh's famous non-stop Atlantic flight and a test subject for NBC's first television broadcast; as a subject of praise by writer Aldous Huxley, actor Charlie Chaplin, and French literary critic Marcel Brion; and as the star of several jazz tunes penned in the 1920s. In 1946, Norman Rockwell painted him into his work, "Boy in a Diner," as the comic book sticking out of the main subject's pocket.

Messmer continued the strip after Sullivan's death for a total of thirty-one years. Since then, numerous artists have carried on the Felix story, and he continues to be regarded as the godfather of cartoon characters.