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Marvin & Family is a daily newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Tom Armstrong and distributed in the U.S. by Hearst's King Features Syndicate. It debuted in 1982. It revolves around the life and times of a young baby boy named Marvin, his father and mother, Jeff and Jenny Miller, and their dog Bitsy. Other characters include Megan, Marvin's cousin; Janet, who is Megan's mother and Jenny's sister (she and her husband were divorced); Ming Ming, Janet's adopted daughter from China; Bea and Roy, Marvin's grandparents; Bea and Roy's toy schnauzer named Junior; and Roy's pill-addict friend Bernie. Prior to 2013 the strip's name was simply Marvin.

Characters do not age, although in early strips Marvin was identified as a baby, and sometimes as less than one year old, whereas the website as of May 2015 identifies him as a 2-year-old.

In 1989, CBS aired a special, "Marvin, Baby of the Year." There was an earlier strip named Marvin, which was created by Pat Moran and syndicated in 1973.

Creator Tom Armstrong has made what some fans consider not so subtle changes to the strip's character design including changes to the faces and even changing the size of the characters' noses, In one e-mail to a fan Armstrong explains why he made these changes.

Events

The location of the strip is not explicitly defined, other than that in one strip Marvin himself states that he is in Indiana. However, in another strip, his mother is reading The Sacramento Bee.

Bea and Roy Arnold lost their retirement savings in the 2008 recession and had to move in with Jeff and Jenny; Janet did not have enough room.

In 2010, the Millers got new neighbors, the Purfects, who are so perfect they make the Millers feel inadequate. Rodney Purfect has a Ph.D. and is a company president, has won the Heisman Trophy and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He is six feet five inches tall and very manly. Barbie Purfect is a blonde housewife who attended cooking school in Paris, was a cheerleader, class president and sorority president. Rodney Purfect II is two and a half years old but reads at a third grade level, performed his piano composition for Queen Elizabeth II and was potty trained at 6 months. He also has blond hair.

In 2009, Marvin's daycare playmate Warren had developed "Cryspace".

Jeff has a macho friend, Ted.

In 2005, Marvin guest starred in the comic strip Blondie for their 75th anniversary.

References

1. "Marvin". DailyINK. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
2. Tom Armstrong (w, a). Marvin. May 31, 2014, King Features Syndicate.
3. e.g. http://marvincomics.com/comics/december-16-1999/ where he states it is his first Christmas.
4. Schwarz, Rick (June 10, 2003). "Google Contributor posts email from Marvin creator Tom Armstrong". Retrieved May 11, 2014.
5. ^ Tom Armstrong (w, a). Marvin. December 8, 2008, King Features Syndicate.
6. Tom Armstrong (w, a). Marvin. March 30, 2010, King Features Syndicate.
7. Tom Armstrong (w, a). Marvin. December 12, 2008, King Features Syndicate.
8. Tom Armstrong (w, a). Marvin. August 15, 2010, King Features Syndicate.
9. http://marvincomics.com/comics/january-20-2009/
10. Tom Armstrong (w, a). Marvin. May 9, 2014, King Features Syndicate.

Sources

• Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, California: Comics Access, 1995. ISBN 0-9700077-0-1

External links

• King Features
• The Washington Post

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