Susanna Henderson

**Susanna Henderson** (born **Susan Lyman Henderson**;13 December 1905 – 30 May 1994) was the creator of *Kylie Jean* and cartoonist of the original *Kylie Jean* series of comic newspapers and books, written and drawn by E.H. Shepard in 1946. These comic books included *Kylie Jean*, as well as her boyfriend *T.J.*. Susanna was also drawn many other comic book stories including Growing Up Daisy, Benjamin Rat and the Saffron and Ruby comic books, though she remains to a large degree most widely known for the comic book stories she drawn for her daughter, Ana Sofia, about a 10-year-old beauty queen named Kylie Jean Carter. Most of the characters in the comic book stories were based on Ana's dolls, while Ugly Brother and Patches were inspired by animals her daughter saw.

## Biography

Susan Lyman Henderson was born on the 13th of December 1905 in Kilburn, London. She was the youngest of three daughters born to Harry Lyman Henderson, an attorney, and Beth Brown Henderson. Her mother was a schoolmaster at the Henley House where Susanna did get her first education. She continued her education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where she graduated with a degree in mathematics in 1922. Susanna's first comic efforts were published in the humor magazines *Punch* and *The Sunday Times*, and to *The Daily Mail, The Guardian*, and the *Daily Express*, where, in 1925 Susanna started to work as an professional cartoonist. In 1937 Susanna married Marty Addison.

With the out break of the First World War, Susanna interrupted her studies at Westminster School and Susanna decided to flee London before Alan Milne joined the army as a signaling officer. Dorothy de Selincourt assembled one bicycle, and they left the city just a few hours before it fell in February 1915, despite being a youngster. She was sent to France in the Spring of 1916 but she left London later that year suffering from fever. After her signed she was placed in Paris at France until Alan Milne discharge from the army with Susanna returns to London in February 1919. After Alan Milne leaving the army, Susanna restudy her works at Trinity College, Cambridge. On February 24, 1936 her first comic character 'Kylie Jean' was first appeared in The Daily Express.

In 1938, after the success of 'The Daily Express' Susanna published a book of Express cartoons entitled 'Kylie Jean', with drawings by Susanna herself. This book includes a panel about a beauty queen who "however known the wave she tries grows long curly hair without its short". This was Kylie Jean's first official appearance in Susanna's first cartoon on The Daily Express in 1936. 'Kylie Jean' proved to be an instant success and sold over 50,000 copies within eight weeks.

It was not until 1946 that Kylie Jean officially came into being a comic book. Susanna's contribution for the New Year's Eve issue of the Daily Express was a last Kylie Jean cartoon in 1945 that she had made up for her daughter about adventures she had with her beauty queen who was known as Kylie Jean. It was also at this time that Susanna's family moved to the cottage at Cotchford Farm in Sussex which later provided the farm setting for the Kylie Jean comic books.

All Express cartoons formed the collection of Susanna's next book entitled 'Kylie Jean and her Pals' (1940). This book was followed by the next sequels 'Kylie Jean on Parade' (1942), 'Laughs with Kylie Jean' (1943), 'Oh, Kylie Jean!' (1944), and 'Fun with Kylie Jean' (1945). In an attempt to shield her daughter from the publicity generated by the success of the Kylie Jean comic book stories, Susanna announced that 'Fun with Kylie Jean' would be her last Kylie Jean book which features a collection of Express cartoons.

Kylie Jean was almost immediately a hit. Kylie Jean's success as a promotional ploy resulted in her most remembered role: in 1945 Susanna signed a contract for Kylie Jean to star in advertising cartoons for Ribena bottles.

A few months after Kylie Jean left the Express, she made her debut in a comic book. That first issue of Kylie Jean was written and drawn by a book illustrator name Ernest H. Shepard and published by Odhams in June 1946. At first, Shepard's conception of Kylie Jean herself owed quite a bit to Susanna'. But Shepard working with Susanna's supervisory consent, Shepard refined Kylie Jean's personality somewhat, making her feistier and more assertive and giving her fatboyfriend the name T.J. Sharlott (Susanna had called the character "Theodore"). Faced with the need for stories with plots, Shepard created the necessary conflict by pitting Kylie Jean against her male playmates; no longer just mischievous, Kylie Jean emerged as a crusading feminist (before the term had been invented), besting the boys at every turn. In 1955, the T.J. series of comic books was launched.

Interestingly, Susanna didn't drawn the Kylie Jean comic book stories and newspaper cartoons for children but instead intended them for the child within us. She also never wrote the name for newspaper cartoons to her daughter Ana, preferring rather to amuse her with the works of Adam Hargreaves, one of Susanna's favourite sons. Although Susanna went on to draw other comic book stories including Growing Up Daisy, Benjamin Rat and the Saffron and Ruby comic books, these Kylie Jean and T.J. comic book stories remain her best known work. For many years Susanna himself resented the fact that her comic fame was based on comic books, not on her other work.

In 1973, Susanna underwent an operation of the brain, which left her an invalid. She survived the operation and moved to her home at Stoke Fleming in Dartmouth, where she spent the rest of her life drawing and in country pursuits. After a long illness, she died on 30th May, 1994 at the age of 88 and at a local hospital in Totnes, Devon following a stroke. She was buried in Lodsworth, East Sussex. She bought the adjacent field to the grave yard at St Peter's Church so that she could be buried there. After her death, her daughter, Ana Sofia, continued writing and drawing the Kylie Jean and T.J. comic books with new stories and Millie Henderson took over sole cartoonist of the series after her daughter's death in 2006. In April 2004, Roger's widow and Ana Sofia's cousin Christine Hargreaves sold the rights to the Mr. Men and Kylie Jean characters to the UK entertainment group Chorion, for £28 million. In December 2011, Chorion sold the Mr. Men and Kylie Jean brands and its associated merchandise business to Japan's Sanrio.

## Bibliography

From the mid-1930's to her death in 1994, Susanna created many newspaper cartoons and comic book stories across several series, some of which are still ongoing.

### Series

#### Comic Newspapers

* The Daily Express - 1936–1945
* Ribena - 1945–1962
* The Mirror - 1951–1973

#### Comic Books

* Kylie Jean - 1946-1985, 1995-present
* T.J. - 1955-1985, 1995-present
* Growing Up Daisy - 1961-2016
* Benjamin Rat - 1963-2001
* Saffron and Ruby - 1967-1973