Charles Anthony Voight (April 28, 1887 – February 10, 1947) was an American cartoonist, best known for his

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 ...

''Betty''.

Early life

Born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, Voight was 14 when he dropped out of school and became an art staffer at the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...

''. During this period, he also did advertising art.

Comic strips

In 1908, he drew his first comic strip, ''Petey Dink'', for the ''

Boston Traveler The ''Boston Evening Traveller'' (1845–1967) was a newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a daily newspaper, with weekly and semi-weekly editions under a variety of ''Traveller'' titles. It was absorbed by the ''Boston Herald'' i ...

''.Lambiek
/ref> When it moved to the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

'' it became simply ''Petey'' (sometimes titled ''Poor Little Petey''). He also drew for the ''

'', and for ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'', he created a series titled ''The Optimist''. His popular glamor girl

Sunday strip The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies. The first US newspap ...

''Betty'' began in 1919 with the

McClure Syndicate McClure Newspaper Syndicate, the first American newspaper syndicate, introduced many American and British writers to the masses. Launched in 1884 by publisher Samuel S. McClure, it was the first successful company of its kind. It turned the marke ...

, moving to the New York Herald Syndicate with the April 4, 1920, edition. Comics historian

Don Markstein Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonop ...

described the strip and characters: ''Betty'' was an influential strip, notably on the illustrator and comic book artist

Bernard Krigstein Bernard Krigstein (; March 22, 1919 – January 8, 1990), was an American illustrator and gallery artist who received acclaim for his innovative and influential approach to comic book art, notably in EC Comics. His artwork usually displayed the s ...

Jerry Robinson Sherrill David Robinson (January 1, 1922 – December 7, 2011), known as Jerry Robinson, was an American comic book artist known for his work on DC Comics' Batman line of comics during the 1940s. He is best known as the co-creator of Robin and ...

, in his book ''The Comics: An Illustrated History of the Comic Strip'', commented: :The classic beauty was seen in ''Betty''. Charles Voight employed an exquisite pen style in defining the visual delights of the long-legged, cool sophisticate in the extreme fashion of the day, including beachwear that revealed areas not previously shown in the comic pages.Robinson, Jerry. ''The Comics: An Illustrated History of the Comic Strip'', 1974. Voight continued to do artwork for advertising agencies, such as his 1932 Rinso Soap ads.

Comic books

After ''Betty'' ended its run in 1943, Voight began drawing for comic books, including He-Man in ''Tally-Ho Comics'' (1944) and work for ''

Prize Comics A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

'' (1945). In 1946, he drew Impossible Man for ''Captain Wizard'' and the superhero satire Captain Milksop for ''Atomic Bomb Comics'' #1. Voight lived for a time in

Pelham, New York Pelham is a suburban town in Westchester County, approximately 10 miles northeast of Midtown Manhattan. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 13,078, an increase from the 2010 census. Historically, Pelham was composed of five villages ...

. When

Fontaine Fox Fontaine Talbot Fox, Jr. (June 4, 1884 – August 9, 1964) was an American cartoonist and illustrator best known for writing and illustrating his ''Toonerville Folks'' comic panel, which ran from 1913 to 1955 in 250 to 300 newspapers across North ...

first came to visit his friend Voight, he rode the Pelham trolley that inspired him to create the Toonerville Trolley for his long-running cartoon panel, ''

Toonerville Folks ''Toonerville Folks'' ( ''The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains'') was a popular newspaper cartoon feature by Fontaine Fox, which ran from 1908 to 1955. It began in 1908 in the ''Chicago Post'', and by 1913, it was syndicated nationall ...

''.

References

External links

Animation Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Voight, Charles 1887 births 1947 deaths American comic strip cartoonists Artists from Brooklyn People from Pelham, New York