The strip came into being because of a United Features Syndicate talent search contest for new comic strips. Lazarus recalled, “I scanned the papers, and there was nothing about schools, so I invented Miss Peach.” Although he did not win the United Features contest, Miss Peach was launched in the New York Herald Tribune and eventually was published internationally in 300 newspapers. The daily strips often contained only a single panel. The format was "gag-a-day". The drawing was stylized: the children had tiny bodies and large heads with flounder faces (both eyes on the same side of the nose).