Carl Frank Ludwig Ed (July 16, 1890 – October 10, 1959) was a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

artist best known as the creator of ''

Harold Teen ''Harold Teen'' is a discontinued, long-running American comic strip written and drawn by Carl Ed (pronounced "eed"). Publisher Joseph Medill Patterson may have suggested and certainly approved the strip's concept, loosely based on Booth Tarkingt ...

''. His name is pronounced ''eed''. Born in

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline, Illinois, East M ...

, Ed graduated from Augustana College in

Rock Island, Illinois Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is now called Rock Island Arsenal, Arsenal Island. The popul ...

. He was 22 years old when he worked on the baseball strip ''Big Ben'' in 1912. Returning to Rock Island, he signed on as a reporter with the ''Rock Island Argus'', where he was soon promoted to sports editor and then became the newspaper's city editor, while also drawing another baseball strip, ''Luke McGlook, the Bush League Bearcat'' (a.k.a. ''Luke McGluke''), distributed by the World Color Syndicate. He moved on to Chicago as a sports cartoonist on the ''

Chicago American The ''Chicago American'' was an afternoon newspaper published in Chicago, under various names until its dissolution in 1974. History The paper's first edition came out on July 4, 1900, as '' Hearst's Chicago American''. It became the ''Morning ...

'' where he also drew the strip ''The Tener Alley Gang''.

''Harold Teen'' begins

He drew samples for a strip titled ''Seventeen'', loosely based on

Booth Tarkington Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1918) and '' Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitze ...

's successful novel ''

Seventeen Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...

''. After publisher

Patterson Patterson may refer to: People * Patterson (surname) Places ;Canada * Pattersons Corners, Ontario *Patterson Township, Ontario *Patterson, Calgary a neighbourhood in Calgary, Alberta. ;United States of America * Patterson, Arkansas *Patterson, C ...

renamed it ''Harold Teen'', it debuted in the New York ''Daily News'' during February 1919. Asked in the late 1930s why he had started the strip, Ed answered, "Twenty years ago, there was no comic strip on adolescence. I thought every well-balanced comic sheet should have one."Waugh, Coulton. ''The Comics'', 1947.
/ref> Carl Ed's strip was widely read in the 1920s, and his readers became familiar with such slang as "shebas", "sheiks" and
pantywaist
. Some of these were words and phrases created by Ed, such as, "Fan mah brow." With the popularity of the strip, Ed profited from merchandising of games, figurines and other products. He added ''Josie'' as a topper strip beneath ''Harold Teen'' and also found time to work as an instructor at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

Changing times

Interest in the strip began to fade by the 1940s. When Ed, who lived at 711 Michigan Avenue in Evanston, Illinois, died October 10, 1959, his once-popular comic strip died with him. (He retired in the last week of September 1959, and ''Harold Teen'' continued until his final strips ran out on November 18, 1959.) His widow, Ellen Ed, died in July 1975.

Bibliography

*Ed, Carl. ''The Adventures of Harold Teen and His Old Side-kick Pop Jenks''. New York: Cupples & Leon, 1931.

References

Sources

Lambiek: Carl Ed

External links