Clare Victor Dwiggins (June 16, 1874 – October 26, 1958) was an American
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
who signed his work Dwig. Dwiggins created a number of
comic strips
A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...
and
single-panel cartoons for various American newspapers and
newspaper syndicates from 1897 until 1945, including his best-known strip, the long-running ''School Days'' (which appeared under a number of different titles).
Biography
Born in
Wilmington, Ohio,
[Rath, Jay (May 1985). "Dwig, A Pen-and-Ink Poet". '']Nemo, the Classic Comics Library
''Nemo, the Classic Comics Library'' was a magazine devoted to the history and creators of vintage comic strips. Created by comics historian Rick Marschall, it was published between 1983 and 1990 by Fantagraphics.
''Nemo'' ran for 31 issues (th ...
'', No. 11.
Dwiggins was on a path toward a career in architecture but detoured into cartooning when his artwork was published in the ''
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...
'' and the ''
New York World'' in 1897. He created a wide variety of gag panels, including ''J. Filliken Wilberfloss'', ''Leap Year Lizzie'', ''Them Was the Happy Days'', ''Uncle Jim and Tad and Tim'', ''Mrs. Bump's Boarding House'', ''Ophelia and Her Slate'' and ''Bill's Diary''.
Dwiggins died in a North Hollywood rest home on October 26, 1958, after a long illness.
[
]
Comics
Dwig's first comic strip was ''Home Wanted for Tags'', a daily/Sunday strip for the McClure Newspaper 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 ...
, which ran from 1910–1919. His longest-running strip was ''Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn'' (1918–1931), which used more than a half dozen of Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
's characters but employed very little content from his novels.
Dwig began ''School Days'' circa 1909 as a single panel,[Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, 1977, page 26] and it eventually evolved into a 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 ...
with a storyline about school kids that continued until c. 1932 (including under the titles ''Ophelia's Slate'', ''The School Days of Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn'', and ''Golden Days'').["Clare Victor Dwiggins: Dwig"]
''Lambiek Comiclopedia'' (lambiek.net). Retrieved 2016-09-01.
''Don Markstein's Toonopedia'' (toonpedia.com). Retrieved 2016-09-01.[Dwiggins entry]
''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Accessed Nov. 23, 2017. In 1940, he returned to ''Huckleberry Finn'' (also for the Ledger Syndicate), which was reprinted in the pages of '' Doc Savage Comics'' and ''Supersnipe Comics Supersnipe is a fictional character who appeared in a series of comic books published by Street & Smith from 1942 to 1949. Supersnipe was the imagined alter ego of Koppy McFad, "the boy with the most comic books in the world." He was created by writ ...
'' (both published by Street & Smith Comics
Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among th ...
). He also drew ''Bobby Crusoe'' in 1945 for ''Supersnipe Comics''.[
]
Comic strips and panels chronology
1897-1899
* ''Adventures of Bobby Crusoe''
* ''J. Filliken Wilberfloss''
* ''Leap Year Lizzie''
* ''Them Was the Happy Days''
1900s
* ''Ophelia and her Slate'' (Sunday gag panel for the '' New York World'', 1900–1911)
* ''In the Jungle'' (Sunday gag panel, 1900–1901)
* ''Pinochle Twins'' (for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' (1900-1901)
* ''Child Book of Jungle Lore in Limericks'' (Sunday gag panel for '' The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 1900)
* ''Bolivar'' (Sunday gag panel for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 1901)
* ''Gallant Cholly'' (Sunday gag panel for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 1901)
* ''The Nabobs'' (Sunday gag panel for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 1901)
* ''Professor Gesla'' (Sunday gag panel for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 1901)
* ''Little Roland'' (Sunday gag panel for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', 1901–1902)
* ''School Days / Ophelia's Slate'' (Sunday strip, 1909-1911)
1910s
* ''Day by Day with the Deys'' (1910-1919)
* ''Home Wanted for Tags'' (Daily/Sunday, for the McClure Syndicate, 1910–1919)
* ''Pip Gint'' (Sunday strip for the ''New York World'', 1911)
* ''White Fibb'' (Sunday strip, 1911)
* ''Willie Fibb'' (Sunday strip, 1911)
* ''Wunst Upon a Time'' (Sunday, 1911)
* ''Makin' Believe'' (Sunday strip for the ''New York World'', 1912–1913)
* ''Uncle Jim and Tad and Tim'' (Sunday gag panel for the McClure Syndicate, 1913–1914)
* ''Mrs. Bumps Boarding House'' (Sunday gag panel for the McClure Syndicate, 1913)
* ''The District School'' (Sunday strip for the McClure Syndicate, 1914)
* ''Kidsburg'' (1915–1916)
* ''School Days'' (for the McClure Syndicate, 1917) — also known as ''The School Days of Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn''
1920s
* ''A Dog's Life'' (Sunday strip for the McClure Syndicate, 1926–1929)
* ''Ophelia's Slate'' (Daily gag panel for the McClure Syndicate, 1927–1929)
* ''School Days'' (McClure Syndicate, 1927-1929)
* ''Footprints on the Sands of Time'' (Sunday strip; topper for the Mcclure Syndicate in 1929; for the Ledger Syndicate 1931-1937)
1930s
* ''Golden Days'' (Daily strip for the McNaught Syndicate
The McNaught Syndicate was an American newspaper syndicate founded in 1922. It was established by Virgil Venice McNitt (who gave it his name) and Charles V. McAdam. Its best known contents were the columns by Will Rogers and O. O. McIntyre, the ' ...
, 1930–1931)
* ''Nipper'' (Daily/Sunday strip for the Ledger Syndicate, 1931–1937)
* ''Bill's Diary'' (Daily gag panel, 1938)
1940s
* ''Huckleberry Finn'' (Daily strip for the Ledger Syndicate, 1940–1942)
Books
''Toasts'' (1907) published by John C. Winston Co., was a hardcover collection of bawdy and intemperate Edwardian poems and limericks, illustrated with line drawings. After 1945, Dwig focused on illustration, including five books published with August Derleth.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dwiggins, Clare Victor
American comic strip cartoonists
1958 deaths
1874 births
People from Wilmington, Ohio
20th-century American artists
Artists from Ohio