Harold Knerr
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Harold Hering Knerr (September 4, 1882 – July 8, 1949) was an American
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 ...
creator, who signed his work H. H. Knerr. He was the writer-artist of the comic strip '' The Katzenjammer Kids'' for 35 years. Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Harold Knerr's father was Calvin B. Knerr, a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
physician who had migrated to the United States. His mother was Melitta Hering, daughter of Constantine Hering, a pioneer of homeopathy. After attending the
Episcopal Academy The Episcopal Academy, founded in 1785, is a private, co-educational school for grades Pre-K through 12 based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Prior to 2008, the main campus was located in Merion Station and the satellite campus was located in D ...
, he studied for two years at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art and then became a newspaper illustrator. He recalled, "My first newspaper work was drawing pictures of gravestones atop the oldest graves in a local cemetery for '' The Philadelphia Record''. These were paid for at the fee of three dollars each."


Comic strips

According to Knerr authority James Lowe, Knerr was extremely prolific, producing more than 1,500 Sunday comic pages between 1901 and 1914 for a half-dozen continuing features in three different Philadelphia newspapers. He created his first comic strip, ''Zoo-Illogical Snapshots'', for the ''Public Ledger''. In 1899, when he was 18, he started working for '' The Philadelphia Inquirer''. In 1901, he drew the
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 ...
, ''Willie's Revenge'', followed by a number of comic strips, including the ''
Mr. Jack ''Mr. Jack'' is an American comic strip by Jimmy Swinnerton which ran in William Randolph Hearst newspapers from August 30, 1903 until 1935. Mr. Jack, a philandering playboy tiger, may be the first developed cartoon animal character, a type ...
''-inspired ''Mr. George and His Wife'' (1904–14). In 1906, he took over the strip ''Scary William'' and continued it until 1914. From June 15, 1913 to November 15, 1914, he drew ''The Irresistible Rag''. (The cartoonist Joe Doyle drew both ''Scary William'' and ''The Irresistible Rag'' after Knerr left these strips.) From 1903 to 1914, he drew ''The Fineheimer Twins'', an imitation of ''The Katzenjammer Kids'', which made it obvious he was the ideal artist to replace
Rudolph Dirks Rudolph Dirks (February 26, 1877 – April 20, 1968) was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists, well known for ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' (later known as ''The Captain and the Kids''). Dirks was born in Heide, Germany, to Joh ...
on ''The Katzenjammer Kids''.


''The Katzenjammer Kids''

Knerr took over ''The Katzenjammer Kids''
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 ...
in November 1914 when Dirks left the Hearst-owned ''
New York Morning Journal :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
'' after a legal dispute. During World War I, some newspapers retitled the strip as ''The Shenanigan Kids'', and the nationality of the characters was changed to Dutch instead of German because of World War I anti-German sentiments. It changed back to its original name and contents in 1920. He continued to write and draw the strip until his death in 1949, when it was taken over by
Charles H. Winner Charles H. Winner (December 18, 1885 – August 12, 1956), better known as Doc Winner, was an American cartoonist, notable for his comic strips ''Tubby'' and ''Elmer'', plus his contributions to ''Thimble Theatre'', ''Barney Google'' and other Ki ...
. Knerr's continuation of ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' has been praised as "a particularly brilliant job... true to the spirit of the original, and yet stylistically his own."


''Dinglehoofer und His Dog Adolph''

On May 16, 1926, Knerr started ' (sometimes titled ''Dinglehoofer und His Dog Adolph'' during the early 1930s), a topper that accompanied ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' until two years after Knerr's death. By 1936, to avoid any association with Adolf Hitler, the dog's name was changed to Schnappsy.


Personal life

Knerr never married. In New York during the 1940s, he lived in the Hotel Blackstone at 50 East 58th Street. On July 8, 1949, he died in Manhattan from heart disease, survived by a sister in Carmel, California, and a brother in Philadelphia. He is buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.


Bibliography

*''Zoo-Illogical Snapshots'' *''Mr. George and His Wife'' (1904–14) *''Hard Luck Bill'' (1903–04) *''Die Fineheimer Twins'' (1903–14) *''Scary William'' (1906–14) *''The Irresistible Rag'' (1913–14) *'' The Katzenjammer Kids'' (1913–49) *''Dinglehoofer und His Dog'' (1926–49) Books of ''Katzenjammer Kids'' comics were produced in the 1930s, including ''Katzenjammer Kids in the Mountains'' (1934, Saalfield Publishing) and ''The Katzenjammer Kids'' (1939,
Dell Publishing Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and ...
). In 1935, Whitman published ''Dinglehoofer und his Dog Adolph''.Knerr, H. H. ''Dinglehoofer und his dog Adolph''. Whitman, 1935.
/ref>


See Also

* The Katzenjammer Kids * List of American comics creators


References


External links


Lambiek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knerr, Harold 1882 births 1949 deaths American comic strip cartoonists University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni American people of German descent American male artists The Katzenjammer Kids