Ferd Johnson, Longtime ‘Moon Mullins’ Cartoonist

Veteran cartoonist Ferd Johnson, whose “Moon Mullins” syndicated cartoon strip debuted when Calvin Coolidge was President and ran until George Bush occupied the Oval Office, has died after a brief illness. He was 90.

Johnson, a longtime Newport Beach resident, was 85 in 1991 when he finally stopped drawing the daily cartoon strip about a roughneck pool-hall regular named after moonshine whiskey. Johnson moved into a retirement home in Irvine 15 months ago but remained active with his painting and never lost his sense of humor. He died Monday.

“He was quite upbeat in nature and had the humor right up until the last time I saw him,” said Johnson’s son Tom, a Newport Beach graphic artist who assisted his father with the strip the last 33 years of its 68-year run.

Johnson was 17 when he left home in Spring Creek, a tiny village in rural Pennsylvania, to attend the Chicago Art Institute in 1923. There, he met Chicago Tribune cartoonist Frank Willard, who was teaching a cartoon class.

Impressed with Johnson’s work, Willard invited the young art student up to the Tribune office, then a mecca of legendary cartoonists, including Chester Gould (“Dick Tracy”), Harold Gray (“Little Orphan Annie”), Sydney Smith (“The Gumps”), and Frank King (“Gasoline Alley”).

Willard had started drawing “Moon Mullins,” which featured a colorful cast of characters who lived in a boarding house, only two months earlier.

Johnson once recalled, spening several hours watching Willard at the drawing board. Finally, Willard turned to him and said, “Ferd, if you’re going to hang around here all this time, I’m going to put you to work.”

Johnson remained Willard’s assistant for 35 years, following him through a series of hotels, apartments and farmhouses from Maine to Florida to Los Angeles. When Willard died in 1958, Johnson offically took over “Moon Mullins.”

Doris, Johnson’s wife of 57 years, whom he met in art school in Chicago, died in 1986. He is survived by his younger brother, George H. Johnson of Portland, Ore.; son Tom Johnson and his wife Anne of Newport Beach; four grandchildren and one great grandson.