Billy DeBeck - Caricature of Moon Mullins Cartoon Frank Willard - 1935

DeBeck drew this pencil caricature of Frank Willard in 1935. Willard, of course, is known for his wonderfully lowbrow Moon Mullins comic strip, so we have two Kings of the Lowbrow together! The image was printed in Brian Walker's book, "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith", and came courtesy of Fred Lasswell. 1935 would have been right around the time Uncle Fred started assisting DeBeck, so it's another cool association.

According to Brian's book, Willard was probably DeBeck's best and oldest friend, going back to when they first met in 1915. Willard even lived for a while with the DeBecks in NYC, and Willard assisted briefly on Barney Google. Even as he neared the end of his life in 1942, DeBeck asked Ferd Johnson to make sure and take care of his old friend.