Scamp

Scamp is a canine Disney comics character, the son of Lady and Tramp, all of whom appear in the 1955 animated film Lady and the Tramp. Scamp is featured in comic strips and comic books of his own since the 1950s. In the final scene of the film, the dogs have a litter of puppies, including three girl pups who look like Lady, and a mischievous, restless boy pup who resembles Tramp. The puppies are unnamed in the film and only appear in one scene, but the little boy puppy made an impression, and King Features Syndicate launched a comic strip a few months after the film's release. Scamp's comic strip ran for more than 30 years, from October 31, 1955 to June 25, 1988. He first appeared in a comic book in Dell Comics' Four Color #703 (May 1956); this turned into a regular comic book series which reached issue #16 (Dec 1960). A second series was launched by Gold Key Comics in 1967; this ran for 45 issues, ending in January 1979. In 2001, Scamp was animated for the first time since his brief appearance in Lady and the Tramp, being the protagonist in a direct-to-video film by Walt Disney Television Animation, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure. Comic strip The first daily strip featuring Scamp as the main character was published on October 31, 1955, four months after the movie opened. A Sunday strip was added a few months later, on January 15, 1956. The final Scamp comic strip was published June 25, 1988. For the first eight months, Scamp had continuity and was written by Ward Greene, the King Features Syndicate editor whose 1945 short story Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog contributed to the development of the storyline for Lady and the Tramp. Advance publicity for the strip noted Greene's participation and the strip carried the byline "By Ward Greene". Disney historian Jim Fanning notes Scamp likely is "the only strip written by the original author of the work from which it sprang". Greene and artist Dick Moores wrote the strip with a continuing storyline, but less than a year later, new creative personnel were doing it in a gag-a-day format.