He took a hands-on approach to managing the various comic strip properties in his papers. In 1921, he suggested the lead character of "Gasoline Alley" adopt a foundling child who became Skeezix, a central character in the strip. Patterson influenced Chester Gould's 1931 strip "Dick Tracy", changing the title from "Plainclothes Tracy", and he supported Gould's vision of a technical, grotesque and violent style of storytelling. Milton Caniff credited Patterson for suggesting a comic strip about the Orient, which led to the creation of Caniff's 1934 strip, "Terry and the Pirates".