Wild Oats cartoonist James A. Wales

‘The Evolution of Sympathy in Murder Cases,’ strip from July 28, 1880.

 

James A. Wales was born at Clyde, Ohio, on August 30, 1852. In Cleveland he worked as a stencil-cutter then joined Wining & Wales, wood engravers. He moved to Cincinatti where he drew mechanical drawings for a lithographer. Wales drew cartoons for the Cleveland Leader during the Greeley campaign. Moves continued, from Chicago, back to Cleveland, and on to New York where he joined the staff of Wild Oats. 

‘Those Horrid Sunday Papers.’

In 1875 he spent a year in Europe where he contributed to Vanity Fair. Wales returned to America where he joined Frank Leslie’s magazine staff for two years. In late 1878 he joined Puck magazine. In August 1881 he resigned to start The Judge with Frank Tousey. He returned to Puck at the beginning of 1886 and stayed six months. He died of heart failure, possibly aided by the taking of a patent medicine pottasium bromide, on December 6, 1886.

‘The Wild-Cat Mining Swindle,’ March 31, 1880.

“In his native town he was looked upon as a god, and when he was buried there in January last every store was closed, and the entire population attended the funeral.” — ‘Caricaturists, Sketches of Men Who Make Funny Pictures,’ Milwaukee Sentinel, December 11, 1881.
 

‘Uncle Sam Tries to Civilize the Indian,’ strip in Puck.