Barfy

Few characters capture the cozy, newspaper-strip warmth of the Bronze Age quite like Barfy, who first bounded onto the page in The Calgary Herald Comic Book #5 in 1979, courtesy of creator Bill Hinds. A fixture of The Family Circus world — sharing those gentle, rounded panels with the likes of Billy, Dolly, P.J., Sam, and Thel — Barfy represents the kind of beloved background presence that gives a family comic strip its lived-in heart. With appearances catalogued across The Calgary Herald Comic Book and Love, the Family Circus, this character may have a modest footprint in our catalog, but that's all part of the charm of discovering the quieter corners of comics history.