Frank King was a cartoonist in the early 20th century. You’ve never heard of Frank, but that’s ok.
His great success was the comic strip, Gasoline Alley. It debuted in 1918 and grew to a daily readership of 27m. It was the second longest-running comic strip in history, making a millionaire out of Mr. King at a time when being a millionaire really meant something.
I remember the comic strip as a kid and, frankly, I wasn’t a fan of it. But that’s not the reason I’m writing this.
Why I bring up Frank King is not for his long-standing success, but for the brief failure that preceded it.
In 1914, before the Gasoline Alley phenomena, he created a short-lived comic strip that, in some ways, has far outlived his great Gasoline success.
The comic strip was called “My Little Pet Peeve.”
You see, Frank invented the term “pet peeve.” That failure of a comic strip introduced the term to the world.
Though the comic strip kinda sucked and didn’t last for more than two