Goofus and Gallant is an American children's comic strip appearing monthly in Highlights for Children. The comic contrasts the actions of the eponymous characters, presenting Gallant's actions as right and good and Goofus's as wrong and bad. Created by Garry Cleveland Myers and first published in Children's Activities in 1940, Goofus and Gallant moved to Highlights for Children when the magazine was founded in 1946.
Throughout its history Goofus and Gallant has been interpreted as an effective didactic comic. The strip has reflected changes in attitudes about American parenting styles. It has been used in several studies as a stimulus to prompt children to identify kind and unkind actions, and the characters of Goofus and Gallant, as archetypes of badness and goodness, have been referenced in several works by philosophers.
History
Goofus and Gallant was created by Garry Cleveland Myers and was first featured in the magazine Children's Activities in 1940. According to family legend, the grandchildren of Myers and his wife Caroline, Kent Brown and Garry Cleveland Myers III, inspired the characters Goofus and Gallant respectively. At first, the comic's characters were depicted as elves. In 1946, when the Myerses founded Highlights for Children, they brought Goofus and Gallant with them to the new magazine. By the 1950s, the strip's art style changed and Goofus and Gallant turned from elves to human boys.
Throughout Goofus and Gallants history, numerous artists have drawn for the strip. The first was Maurieta Wellman who drew the strip until 1952. She was succeeded by Marion Hull Hammel who had the strip's longest tenure as illustrator, working for 32 years until 1984. Sidney Quinn, who since 1977 had already been illustrating The Timbertoes, another Highlights feature, took over the art on Goofus and Gallant from Hammel and drew the strip for a decade until his death in 1994. Kit Wray illustrated the comic for a year in 1995 until Anni Matsick took over from 1996 through 2005. Since 2006, Goofus and Gallant has been illustrated by Leslie Harrington.
Format
The comic, published monthly in Highlights for Children, consists of two panels depicting the actions of two children, Goofus and Gallant. Gallant's actions are always virtuous and respectful, in contrast to Goofus's, which are always rude and selfish. They are presented side by side with a brief caption (e.g., "Goofus turns on the television when there are guests; whenever guests arrive, Gallant turns off the television at once.") though the direct results of their actions, good or bad, are never depicted. For many years, a short line of text reading "Gallant shows correct behavior" was included at the bottom of the comic.
The strip's protagonists have varied in age and appearance over time, variously shown with long or short, or dark or light hair and aged twelve or eight or five years old. Goofus and Gallant have never appeared in the same panel of the comic.
According to Brown, who was editor of Highlights for Children, "Without Goofus, Gallant would be bland and no one would pay attention. But kids see parts of themselves in both characters. No one is as good as Gallant, and no one is as bad as Goofus. But being more like Gallant is something to strive for." By the 2020s, the comic included a line echoing this sentiment at the top of each installment: "There's some of Goofus and Gallant in us all. When the Gallant shines through, we show our best self."
Goofus and Gallant has reflected shifts in American parenting styles and attitudes about how children (especially boys) ought to behave. While strips from the 1950s highlighted Goofus crying in pain and Gallant suppressing tears, strips from 2000 onward showed Goofus ignoring or reacting badly to hurts while Gallant expressed his emotions more openly to himself and others. Older installments of the comic also reflected a greater degree of autonomy for both Goofus and Gallant to explore unsupervised, while comics from 2000 onward rarely showed either child outdoors unsupervised by an adult.