The Most Famous Cartoonist in the World

       

1907 [1] September 30.

‘The Most Famous Cartoonist in the World,’ 
by George Ade, 
Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, 
March 29, 1910

1915 [2] October advert.

1904 [3] John Tinney McCutceon.

IN THESE DAYS of factory journalism with the Archimedean lever being worked by motors and the ‘department’ displacing the old time editor, it means something when a regular day-to-day newspaper worker attaches to himself a real following of faithful believers. Many a brash young specialist can do the mushroom act. He bounds into the Sunday supplement with a brand-new conception entitled ‘Tikey the Tuff,’ or possibly ‘The Brutal Twins,’ (the ones that fire buckshot into their grandmother) and for a few weeks he is a vogue, then he dwindles from a necessary evil to an unmistakable pest and winds up as an unpleasant reminiscence.

1934 [4] January 7.

Most of the geniuses who make pictures for the newspapers are so funny they cannot last. Furthermore, they seem to think that the cranial angle of the regular subscriber corresponds to that of the African ant-eater. It is a relief to find a newspaper artist who is not straining to be irresistibly comical — who is content to catch the tableaux from the passing show and submit them to us in a mood that is simple, kindly and human. 

    

1915 [5] July 25, ‘Father and Son,’ Chicago Tribune.

John McCutcheon began making cartoons for Chicago newspapers about fifteen years ago. He has taken long jumps into all parts of the world since then, but whenever he can be strapped down in Chicago he is good for a daily contribution to the first page of the Tribune. Some say that he is a habit; others that he is an institution, the same as Hull-house or the Board of Trade. There is no denying that his work is immensely popular and that his sermonizing, although genial and apologetic, is most effective. Politicians sigh for the favoring stroke of his crow-quill pen, and the faithful who are working to lift up and cleanse and beautify Chicago hail him as their most valuable ally. He has the courage to find his topics among the little events that make up existence instead of hammering away at huge issues or fussing with public men who are already advertised beyond their merits. He never loses his temper and he has the rare gift of directing a cartoon against an opponent without tacking on a personal insult.

ca. 1900 [6] George Ade (b. 1866) & John T. McCutcheon (b. 1870).

1915 [7] June 5, ‘Moloch,’ Chicago Tribune.

A good many thousands of people in the Middle west wait every day for McCutcheon’s cartoon and miss him when he goes traipsing off to Africa to hunt big game. No cartoonist since Nast has had such a steadfast and loyal following. His salary, as newspaper salaries go in Chicago, is so large that many people refuse to believe it.

1915 [8] Wartime Comic Valentine, WWI.

2016 [9] Cover of the new 284-page book on McCutcheon and his work, Slow Ball Cartoonist, by Tony Garel-Frantzen, published by Purdue University Press, see HERE.

See more of McCutcheon’s World War I Comic Valentines, HERE.

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Bang! Bang!

"Let us take a second look at our hero as he sits on the elegant divan chatting with the Chief of Police. He has an open countenance, a flashing eye and a determined look. such is the youth who at the age of nine has made himself a most celebrated detective in the great city of Chicago, the terror of all criminals."

Our master of disguise is the ever-popular Eddie Parks, the Newsboy Detective. Eddie was nine years old, (ten in the second story) smoked cigars, carried a revolver, and helped the Chicago police solve the most perplexing cases. One of his disguises was -- you guessed it -- an old man.

Eddie was written by George Ade (1866-1944) , in humour columns for the Chicago Record, and published in book form as Bang! Bang! A Collection of Stories Intended to Recall Memories of the Nickel Library Days When Boys Were Supermen and Murder a Fine Art. They were funnily Illustrated by his friend and compatriot, cartoonist John T. McCutcheon. (New York: J. H. Sears & Co., Inc., Publishers, [1928.] 147p.) Cartoonists Mcutcheon, H. T. Webster and J.R. Williams were all "ruined" by the dime novels.

Here is the introduction ;

These stories were first printed in the Chicago Record in the late nineties. They are boiled-down imitations of the haymow literature which was denounced by parents and encouraged by boys from the time of Horace Greeley up to the golden age ushered in by the comic strip. the nickel library came after the yellow-back novel, which dealt mostly with smoking tepees, crouching savages and trappers who were deadly with the rifle and wore fringe on their buckskin suits. One reason for the enduring popularity of the nickel library was that it could be spread open inside of a school geography and entirely concealed from any teacher who did not approach from the rear.

For the first time Eddie Parks, Cyril Smith, Clarence Allen and their brave colleagues are being put into a book. Because these narratives are a reminder of thirty years ago, they have not been revised or brought up to date. The allusions to the Spanish-American War, the Klondike, William McKinley and the League of American Wheelmen have been retained because of their historical flavor.

These stories will mean nothing to juveniles who have been pampered with the roadsters and fed up on movies - who never heard of Oliver Optic, Horatio Alger, Jr., and Jack Harkaway, to say nothing of "Shorty," "Silver Star, the Boy Knight," "Skinny, The Tin Peddler," and Frank, who ivented the mechanical horse. To some of the older people they may come as a happy reminder of the days when all of us were ruined by reading books which could not be obtained at the Public Library.

The Author.

CONTENTS:

Handsome Cyril; or, The Messenger Boy with the Warm Feet.

The Glendon Mystery; or, Eddie Parks, the Newsboy Detective.

Eddie Parks to the Rescue; or, The National Bank Robbery.

Clarence Allen, the Hypnotic Boy Journalist; or, The Mysterious Disappearance of the United States Government Bonds.

The Steel Box; or, The Robbers of Rattlesnake Gulch.

Rollo Johnson the Boy Inventor; or, The Demon Bicycle and Its Daring Rider.

The Boy Champion; or, America's Fair Name Defended.

The Great Street-car Robbery; or, The Newsboy Detective on the Trail.

The Klondike Rescue; or, The Mysterious Guide.

The Goodlot Murder Case; or, Solving the Mystery.

The Avenger and General Bolero; or, The Spanish Plot Foiled.

Three tales were issued individually in a series called "The Strenuous Lad's Library,"

Handsome Cyril; or, The Messenger Boy With the Warm Feet, by George Ade. Author of "Eddie Parks, the Newsboy Detective," Etc. [Phoenix, Arizona: The Bandar Log Press,] Copyright 1903 by George Ade. 28p. (The Strenuous Lad's Library, No. 1)

Clarence Allen, the Hypnotic Boy Journalist; or, The Mysterious Disappearance of the United States Government Bonds, by George Ade. Author of "Eddie Parks, the Newsboy Detective," Etc. [Phoenix, Arizona: The Bandar Log Press,] Copyright 1903 by George Ade. 28p. (The Strenuous Lad's Library, No. 2)

Rollo Johnson, the Boy Inventor; or, The Demon Bicycle and Its Daring Rider, by George Ade. Author of "Eddie Parks, the Newsboy Detective," Etc. [Phoenix, Arizona: The Bandar Log Press,] Copyright 1903 by George Ade. 24p. (The Strenuous Lad's Library, No. 3)

More about Ade can be found at Illinois, Illinois ;

http://mccoy.lib.siu.edu/illinois/chap3-a.htm

Continued in next post >

Bang! Bang! Continued