It’s Jack Kirby Tribute Month 2025, and the theme is the Fantastic Four and related characters. You might have realized that we’re in the midst of a grouping of allies and supporting characters. And today’s prompt is the Baxter Building’s mailman, Willie Lumpkin.
Willie first shows up in Fantastic Four #11, in the short slice-of-life story “A Visit with the Fantastic Four.” We first meet the poor little guy trying to lug in a ginormous mailbag of fan letters for the FF. Interacting with them in the lobby, he gets to show them his own special ability…
The lovable Mr. Lumpkin only showed up a couple of times during Jack and Stan’s FF run, both of those fairly early on. But later creators liked the character, and so he would show up again from time to time.
For some reason in that first appearance, the colorist made the strange choice to color his uniform green. I don’t recall ever seeing a U.S. mailman with a green uniform. So I did some Googling to see if I could find out what mailmen were wearing in the early ’60s, and used that instead. I also took my color cues from that uniform reference, getting as close as I could within the limited palette.
Willie was fun to draw! Hope you liked him. Check back tomorrow to see who our last ally/supporting cast member is.
Yeah, not only was the uniform green, it was almost iridescent. I remember the wiggling ears issue you worked with for your piece today. My 8th grade art teacher would have loved Kirby. He may be known for his goofy machinery, but I love his bizarre characters more. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed my take on Willie, Joe. He only appeared a couple times during Jack and Stan’s run on FF, but he was definitely something of a beloved character. Later Marvel creators seemed to like to bring him back from time to time.
Much earlier, Stan had collaborated with artist Dan DeCarlo on a shortlived newspaper strip about Willie Lumpkin. So although the two characters look nothing alike, Willie in the FF appears to be something of an inside joke that maybe a few fans who had seen the newspaper strip might have gotten.