Percy Lee Crosby (1891 – 1964)

Percy Lee Crosby was an American author, illustrator and cartoonist best known for his comic strip Skippy, which was adapted into movies, a novel and a radio show. An inspiration for Charles Schulz's Peanuts, the strip is regarded as a "classic... which innovated a number of sophisticated and refined touches used later by Charles Schulz and Bill Watterson."
(source: wikipedia)