Ralph Briggs Fuller (March 9, 1890 – August 16, 1963) was an American cartoonist best known for his long-running
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 ...
''
Oaky Doaks
''Oaky Doaks'' was an American newspaper comic strip, which ran between June 17, 1935, and December 30, 1961. It was distributed by AP Newsfeatures for more than 25 years, illustrated by veteran magazine cartoonist Ralph Fuller and scripted by ...
Capac, Michigan
Capac is a village in Mussey Township, Michigan, Mussey Township, St. Clair County, Michigan, St. Clair County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,890 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census.
History
Capac was founded and pla ...
, Fuller was the oldest child of six children born to Louise and Arthur Fuller. The Fuller family lived in
Richmond, Michigan
Richmond is a city within Metro Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 5,735 at the 2010 census. Most of the city is located in Macomb County, though there is a small portion in neighboring St. Clair County. The city is adja ...
, where his father was a druggist. He was 16 when he sold his first cartoon to ''
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 ...
'' for $8. In the following mail, he received a letter from ''Life'' requesting the return of the $8 because they had previously used that gag. He did send back the $8. However, he soon sold ''Life'' another cartoon and followed with contributions to 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 ...
s ''Fun'' supplement in 1910.Marschall, Rick. "When Knights Were Bold But Moreso the Damsels... Oaky Doaks", ''
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 ...
'' 20 (July 1986).
Fuller studied at the
Chicago Academy of Fine Arts
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...
and went to work as a staff artist for the ''
Chicago Daily News
The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...
''. While he was at the ''Daily News'', he received $100 for the first color picture ever published by ''Life''. That triggered a desire to work in magazine illustration, and he moved to New York, where he lived at 17 Livingston Street. After a 1914 trip to England, Fuller and his wife Alexa lived at 217 East 16th Street in
Brooklyn
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 ...
. By 1920, the couple and their children Robert and Elizabeth were living at 170 Ames Avenue in
Leonia, New Jersey
Leonia is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 8,937,Puck'', ''
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
'', ''
Collier's
''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...
Liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
'', ''
Ballyhoo
The ballyhoo halfbeak or ballyhoo (''Hemiramphus brasiliensis'') is a baitfish of the halfbeak family (Hemiramphidae). It is similar to the Balao halfbeak (''H. balao'') in most features. Ballyhoo are frequently used as cut bait and for trolli ...
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''. He had his own feature, ''Fuller Humor'', in ''Judge'' during the 1920s. With the collapse of ''Judge'' and other humor magazines, Fuller's freelance markets were diminishing, so he considered doing a comic strip.
AP Newsfeatures
AP Newsfeatures, aka AP Features, was the cartoon and comic strip division of Associated Press, which syndicated strips from 1930 to the early 1960s.
History Origins
In February 1930, I. M. Kendrick, executive assistant to AP president Kent ...
offered him a detective strip, but Fuller wanted to take a humorous approach.
''Oaky Doaks''
In 1935, Fuller had a syndicate offer to take over a top humor strip because it was believed the creator was planning to leave. However, Fuller had a tough decision to make, since AP Newsfeatures was auditioning several artists to draw ''Oaky Doaks'', scripted by the syndicate's comics editor, Bill McCleery. Fuller recalled that AP handed him several pages of ''Oaky Doaks'' script to look over. He walked to the Roosevelt Hotel, where he sat in the lobby reading the script. When he finished, he had made his decision; he saw the comic possibilities of ''Oaky Doaks'', and he also would have the opportunity to do a strip displaying his name as the artist.
''Oaky Doaks'' was launched on June 17, 1935, many months before the start of ''
Prince Valiant
''Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur'', often simply called ''Prince Valiant'', is an American comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretc ...
''. For two years, Fuller and McCleery collaborated (with no credit given to McCleery as scripter). Fuller eventually took over the writing as well as the art, along with other writing by M. J. Wing.
The ''Oaky Doaks''
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 ...
, which began in 1941, was initially drawn by Bill Dyer (who also worked on ''
The Adventures of Patsy
''The Adventures of Patsy'' was an American newspaper comic strip which ran from March 11, 1935, to April 2, 1955. Created by , it was syndicated by AP Newsfeatures. The Phantom Magician, an early supporting character in the strip, is regarded by ...
'') and later by Fuller. Oaky Doaks visited Camelot in the 1940s, but he later went to the Kingdom of Uncertainia, where he remained until the strip ended in 1961.
Fuller was also an accomplished watercolorist and a member of the
Leonia, New Jersey
Leonia is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 8,937,Tenafly, New Jersey
Tenafly () is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 census the borough had a population of 15,409,
, where his studio, painted light green and curtained in gold, overlooked his back lawn. In 1950, he reflected:
''Oaky Doaks'' came to an end when the comics division of AP Newsfeatures folded in 1961.
Later life and death
A resident of
Tenafly, New Jersey
Tenafly () is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 census the borough had a population of 15,409,
, Fuller died two years later in
Boothbay Harbor, Maine
Boothbay Harbor is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,027 at the 2020 census. It includes the villages of Bayville, Sprucewold, and West Boothbay Harbor. During summer months, the entire Boothbay Harbor regio ...
Asbury Park Press
The ''Asbury Park Press'' is a daily newspaper in Monmouth and Ocean counties of New Jersey and has the third largest circulation in the state. It has been owned by Gannett since 1997.
Its reporting staff has been awarded numerous national hon ...
'', August 17, 1963. Accessed May 16, 2016. "Ralph B. Fuller, 73. the cartoonist who drew the former Associated Press comic strip ''Oaky Doaks,'' died in a hospital here yesterday after a brief illness. Mr. Fuller drew the comic strip from 1935 until it was discontinued at the end of 1961. He resided at Tenafly, N.J., and maintained a summer home here."