The immensely popular Buttercup beat Gasoline Alley'''s Skeezix into print by three months, but Skeezix beat Buttercup to adulthood by a much greater margin. In fact, while Skeezix was in the U.S. Army, fighting World War II, the Hawkins kid was finally getting into grammar school—which is about as old as he ever got. Like the era's quintessential domestic strip, The Gumps, the Hawkins family (the three humans, plus a dog named Spare-Ribs) got into continuing stories as the 1920s rolled on.
Buttercup, an immensely popular comic strip character, was published ahead of Skeezix from Gasoline Alley by three months but lagged behind in reaching adulthood. Meanwhile, while Skeezix served in World War II, the Hawkins child began elementary school—essentially as old as he would ever be. Similar to The Gumps, a quintessential domestic strip of its time, the Hawkins family (consisting of three humans and a dog named Spare-Ribs) continued their storylines throughout the 1920s.