''Mr. Jack'' is 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 ...

by Jimmy Swinnerton which ran in

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

newspapers from August 30, 1903 until 1935. Mr. Jack, a philandering playboy tiger, may be the first developed

cartoon animal Talking animals are a common element in mythology and folk tales, children's literature, and modern comic books and animated cartoons. Fictional talking animals often are anthropomorphic, possessing human-like qualities (such as bipedal walkin ...

character, a type that has since become a staple in the

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

medium. The character emerged in Swinnerton's Hearst feature, ''The Little Tigers'', which began on February 20, 1898. Mr. Jack first appeared on May 17, 1903, and took over the strip; soon, the title of the feature changed to ''Mr. Jack''.

History

Jimmy Swinnerton began his career in 1892 as a young

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

for the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'', one of

's newspapers. Starting in 1893, he drew illustrations of a cute bear cub for the paper, originally to accompany the paper's coverage of the San Francisco Mid-Winter Exposition of 1894. After the fair, Swinnerton continued to draw bear cartoons to appear with the weather forecast. The bears became popular enough that Swinnerton created a regular feature, ''

The Little Bears ''The Little Bears'' is an American comic strip created by Jimmy Swinnerton, one of the first American comic strips featuring talking animals and one of the first with recurring characters – the titular bears. The feature emerged from a series ...

'', that began on June 2, 1895 and continued through June 7, 1897. This feature is apparently the first American comic strip with recurring characters. Swinnerton's talents drew attention in the Hearst chain, and in 1898 he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to draw cartoons for the ''

New York 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 ...

''. Apparently at Hearst's request, he shifted his characters from bears to tigers, the emblem of

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

, creating ''The Little Tigers''. The ''Tigers'' strip debuted on February 20, 1898. At first fairly generic, over time individual characters began to emerge, the most popular being the womanizing playboy "Mr. Jack", who first appeared on May 17, 1903. The first use of ''Mr. Jack'' as the title of the strip was on August 30, and that title was used consistently starting with the October 4, 1903 strip. While previous animal characters in art and fiction were often given some human features, such as clothing and speech, Swinnerton went a step further with Mr. Jack by giving him an essentially human body below his tiger head, complete with hands rather than paws and an upright stance. As such, comics historian Don Markstein wrote that he was probably "the first realized funny animal", a character type that would soon become very well established in comics and other media. Jack's rakish ways made him a target of protests that he was a bad example for children, and after 1904 his strip was moved to the sports section, seen as a more adult and male area of the paper. It also ran less frequently, as Swinnerton focused on his new strip, the more popular ''

Little Jimmy ''Little Jimmy'', originally titled ''Jimmy'', is a newspaper comic strip created by Jimmy Swinnerton. With a publication history from February 14, 1904, to April 27, 1958, it was one of the first continuing features and one of the longest running ...

''. After a hiatus, ''Mr. Jack'' returned to the Sunday pages in January 1905, and then occasionally until January 21, 1906. ''Mr. Jack'' was revived as a weekday strip starting October 3, 1907, although it appeared sporadically during some periods (particularly in 1912 and 1915). From March to September 1916, it appeared as ''The Escapades of Mr. Jack''. Returning to the ''Mr. Jack'' title, the strip continued until at least 1919. The latter date is given in some sources for Swinnerton's work, though Markstein notes that some later strips depicting Jack surreptitiously drinking alcohol behind the backs of police officers appear to date them to the Prohibition era of the 1920s. Starting January 24, 1926, Mr. Jack's strip became a topper above the ''Little Jimmy'' Sunday page and was toned down. It ran until 1935, when it was discontinued, replaced by ''Li'l Ole Orvie''. Swinnerton continued to draw ''Little Jimmy'' until 1958, and died in 1974.

Characters and story

The central character is Mr. Jack, a married but philandering tiger who would flirt with any nearby lady. His long-suffering spouse, "Wifey", often has to beg forgiveness for her husband's misbehavior, only to beat him senseless afterward. Though his shameless behavior is usually punished, generally by his wife or the boyfriends of his victims, he generally concludes that it was all worth it. On the whole, he is a popular figure among the less conservative characters in his universe: he is often seen as the jovial life of the party, charming to women and admired by men.

Influence

''Mr. Jack'', while never as popular as ''Little Jimmy'', still had a considerable influence. One clear derivative was ''Mr. George'' by

Harold Knerr Harold Hering Knerr (September 4, 1882 – July 8, 1949) was an American comic strip 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, H ...

, the second author of the '' Katzenjammer Kids''.

References

Sources

Barnacle Press: ''Mr. Jack''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mister Jack 1903 comics debuts 1935 comics endings American comics characters American comic strips Comics about animals Comics about bears Comics about cats Comics spin-offs Fictional tigers Gag-a-day comics Male characters in comics