Ella Cinders

Chris Crusty ran above Ella Cinders as a topper strip from July 5, 1931 to July 6, 1941.

• Title — Ella Cinders • Author — William Conselman • Illustrator — Charles Plumb • Status — Concluded daily & Sunday strip • Syndicate — Metropolitan Newspaper Service (1925–1930) United Feature Syndicate (1930–1961) • Genre — Humor

Ella Cinders was launched in 1925 by the Metropolitan Newspaper Service (MNS). In the summer of 1925, Max Elser, Jr., the president of MNS, introduced Ella Cinders and Conselman to the readers of Cartoons & Movies magazine: United Features acquired MNS in 1930, taking over syndication of Ella Cinders. The credited artists on the strip were creator Charles Plumb (June 1, 1925 - May 13, 1950), Fred Fox (May 15, 1950 - 1960) and Roger Armstrong of Scamp (1960 - December 2, 1961). However, the comic strip had numerous ghost writers and ghost artists. Comic strip historian Allan Holtz notes, "Very seldom did the credited writer or artist perform the task claimed - though they were usually involved in some capacity." The ghosts included children's book author Hardie Gramatky, Morton Traylor, Henry Formhals (of Freckles and His Friends) and Texas artist Jack W. McGuire. His son, Jack W. McGuire, Jr., recalled: • His first strip was Jane Arden in 1934, followed by Bullet Benton, a cowboy boxer similar to Joe Palooka; then the Red Knight. After the Red Knight in 1943, Dad began drawing Ella Cinders as a ghost artist for the original artist, Charles Plumb. He drew this strip until he died in December 1945.

Initially, as the name implies, the strip presented a variation on the classic Cinderella story, but then it diverged into other plotlines, as noted by comics historian Don Markstein: • Illustration — The characters are introduced in the first Ella Cinders strip (June 1, 1925)