“A few months after Zippy debuted in ‘I Gave My Heart to a Pinhead and He Made a Fool Out of Me,’ [Bill] Griffith was doing a strip about another of his primary characters, ‘Mr. Toad,’ and thought the egomanical reptile could use a sidekick who was his opposite. ‘Zippy was devoid of ego, as well as linear thought, and he seemed like an ideal fit,’ Griffith notes. ‘Within a year or so, Mr. Toad had become Zippy’s sidekick’.”