Ryan Walker (December 26, 1870 in Springfield, Kentucky
in the ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were ...

''; published June 25, 1932; archived at Stripper's Guide, June 28, 2006; retrieved October 31, 2016 - June 23, 1932 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

) was an American political activist and cartoonist. A prolific artist who published

political cartoons A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine ...

in a variety of radical newspapers and magazines in the United States, Walker is best remembered as the creator of the recurring character "Henry Dubb", an American worker who ambled through life blithely being victimized by capitalism ostensibly as a result of his blind acceptance of the ideas of the ruling class. A member of the Socialist Party of America during his younger years, Walker's political views hardened with the coming of the Great Depression in 1929 and he joined the Communist Party USA the following year, joining the editorial staff of the party's English-language daily newspaper in New York City. Walker died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

in June 1932 while on a visit to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Biography

Early years

Ryan Walker was born in

Springfield, Kentucky Springfield is a home rule-class city in and county seat of Washington County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,846 at the 2020 census. History Springfield was established in 1793 and probably named for springs in the area. The h ...

, on December 26, 1870.Michael Cohen, "Cartooning and American Popular Radicalism", in Marjolein t'Hart and Dennis Bos (eds.), ''Humour and Social Protest''. London: Cambridge University Press, 2008; pg. 51. His father, Edwin Ruthwin Walker, was a farmer who later became a lawyer and moved the family to the

Midwestern The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

metropolis of Kansas City, Missouri, where Ryan attended public school.Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole, ''The American Labor Who's Who''. New York: Hanford Press, 1925; pg. 239. Showing a proclivity for art from an early age, submitting his first freelance cartoons to '' Judge'' in 1883, at the age of 13.B.O. Flower
"Ryan Walker: A Cartoonist of Social Protest"
''The Arena'', vol. 33 (April 1905), pp. 399–400. These were not of sufficiently finished quality to appear in the pages of the magazine, but the ideas were accepted and redrawn into a two-page center spread and back cover cartoon by a house artist, for which Walker received a royalty check of $15. He received

positive reinforcement In behavioral psychology, reinforcement is a consequence applied that will strengthen an organism's future behavior whenever that behavior is preceded by a specific antecedent stimulus. This strengthening effect may be measured as a higher fr ...

from the magazine's editor to continue at the cartooning craft and to hone his drawing skill.Flower, "Ryan Walker", pg. 400. Upon leaving school Walker studied for a time at the Art Students' League in New York City,"Ryan Walker", in Albert Nelson Marquis (ed.), ''Who's Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States: Volume 9, 1916–1917''. Chicago: A. N. Marquis and Co., 1916; pg. 2563. before working for a number of years in a series of manual jobs, refining his drawing in his spare time. Walker's private portfolio grew until in 1895 he was finally able to land his first permanent artistic job, a position in the advertising department of the ''

Kansas City Times The ''Kansas City Times'' was a morning newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri, published from 1867 to 1990. The morning ''Kansas City Times'', under ownership of the afternoon '' Kansas City Star'', won two Pulitzer Prizes and was bigger than its p ...

''. He showed aptitude with a pen and took an acute interest in political issues and he was shortly made an

editorial cartoon A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine a ...

ist for that paper, remaining in that position until 1898. In 1898 he moved to

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, to take a position as cartoonist for the '' St. Louis Republic,'' where he would stay until 1901, taking time to marry his Kansas City sweetheart, journalist Maud Helena Davis, in October 1899. The year 1901 saw a move to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, where he did a stint as cartoonist for ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

,'' leaving after one winter. He subsequently worked as a freelance cartoonist, publishing work in a variety of prominent newspapers and magazines of the day, including the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

,''''

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'', '' The Arena'', and '' The Bookman''. Walker moved from freelance to syndicated work in 1904, joining with the Baltimore-based International Syndicate as a cartoonist. He would stay with that firm for the better part of a decade, contributing as many as 18 drawings a week during the Presidential election of 1912.Louis Gardy
"The Making of a Socialist Cartoonist — 'Henry Dubb'"
''Northwest Worker'' verett, Washington whole no. 239 (Aug. 5, 1915), pg. 1. His health broke down from the strain, however, and he resigned his position as a syndicated cartoonist to pursue political pursuits full-time.

Socialist years

During his Kansas City years, Walker approached the proprietor of a new

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

weekly, the '' Appeal to Reason,'' established there in the summer of 1895 seeking employment as the paper's cartoonist. Although Julius Wayland was not able to pay Walker at the time, he nevertheless published the first few of Walker's cartoons in the pages of the ''Appeal'' . While making his living as an artist for the mainstream press, in 1902 Walker began to contribute material to a glossy socialist monthly published in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

during the first five years of the 20th Century, '' The Comrade.'' Walker turned a close eye to the social problems of his day and developed politically radical views, declaring in a 1905 interview that

"My aim, hope, and life-work is the betterment of my brother man. Nothing else counts. I believe the present economic system is cruel, unjust, and essentially wrong, and wrong is wrong, no matter how it may be disguised ... I am a Socialist because I believe that Socialism will lead to the development of the greater self, to the out-blossoming of all that is finest and highest in individual life, and that it will secure for all the people a measure of prosperity, happiness, and freedom ..."

It was through the pages of the

'' Appeal to Reason,'' a mass circulation weekly published in Southeastern Kansas to which he began regularly contributing in 1906, that Walker first gained popular fame. It was in those pages that he first introduced the character "Henry Dubb," an American worker who unthinkingly rejected the ideas of unionism and socialism, only to accept as inevitable his victimization by the violence and corruption of the social system around him.Cohen, "Cartooning and American Popular Radicalism," pg. 53. Exposed as a dupe and a fool by his worldly wife and somehow cognizant child, the oblivious and intractable protagonist would respond to his latest existential insult with an unblinking stare into space and the

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

"I'm Henry Dubb!" — an easy-to-understand depiction of the effects resulting from so-called

false consciousness In Marxist theory, false consciousness is a term describing the ways in which material, ideological, and institutional processes are said to mislead members of the proletariat and other class actors within capitalist societies, concealing the ...

among the working class. Walker would come to publish two collections of Henry Dubb cartoons in hard covers, ''Adventures of Henry Dubb'' (1914) and ''New Adventures of Henry Dubb'' (1915), testimony to the character's enduring appeal among American radicals during the decade of the 1910s. In addition to a steady stream of cartoons, beginning in 1912 Walker toured the country as a stump speaker on behalf of the Socialist Party of America,"Ryan Walker,"
''Clayton MNews,'' vol. 9, no. 6 (Feb. 5, 1916), pg. 7. Walker was effective in his role as a socialist lecturer, so much so that his abilities were lauded by party orator

Eugene V. Debs Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate of the Soc ...

, who called him "accurate and resourceful",Homer Simpson Marches On Washington: Dissent through American Popular Culture
by Timothy M. Dale and Joseph J. Foy; published September 1, 2010 by University of Kentucky Press and declared him a "great cartoonist" and "equally great" public speaker, who could delight and hold an audience of socialists and non-socialists alike. Walker was directly employed by the National Office of the Socialist Party as one of the touring speakers for its Lyceum Bureau from 1915 to 1916, working in close association with Lyceum director and future Communist Party leader L. E. Katterfeld. In 1914, Walker participated in

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...

's picket of the Standard Oil building in New York City in the wake of the Ludlow Massacre, and — after Sinclair's arrest — led the other picketers when

Mary Craig Sinclair Mary Craig Sinclair (1882–1961) was a writer and the wife of Upton Sinclair. Early life and education She was born Mary Craig Kimbrough in Greenwood, Mississippi on February 12, 1882, the oldest child of Mary Hunter (Southworth) and Allan McCas ...

was unable to be present.''Southern Belle''
by

, first published 1957 by

Crown Publishers The Crown Publishing Group is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House that publishes across several fiction and non-fiction categories. Originally founded in 1933 as a remaindered books wholesaler called Outlet Book Company, the firm expanded int ...

; republished 1999 by

University Press of Mississippi The University Press of Mississippi, founded in 1970, is a publisher that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi. Universities *Alcorn State University *Delta State University * Jackson State University *Mississippi State U ...

(via

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Following a conservative turn of the editorial line of the ''Appeal'' during the years of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Walker took his art and the Henry Dubb character to the pages of the New York City socialist daily ''

New York Call The ''New York Call'' was a socialism, socialist daily newspaper published in New York City from 1908 through 1923. The ''Call'' was the second of three English-language dailies affiliated with the Socialist Party of America, following the ''Chica ...

'' and later to its successor, the ''

New Leader ''The New Leader'' (1924–2010) was an American political and cultural magazine. History ''The New Leader'' began in 1924 under a group of figures associated with the Socialist Party of America, such as Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas. It was p ...

.'' The left wing press being notoriously underfunded, Walker supplemented his socialist-related work with regular employment as the Director of the Art Department of the '' Evening Graphic'' newspaper in New York City, where he was employed from 1924 to 1929.

Communist years

In the fall of 1930 Walker joined the Communist Party USA and the

John Reed Club The John Reed Clubs (1929–1935), often referred to as John Reed Club (JRC), were an American federation of local organizations targeted towards Marxist writers, artists, and intellectuals, named after the American journalist and activist John ...

, and assumed a position as a staff cartoonist for ''

The Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were m ...

,'' the party's New York City-based newspaper."Ryan Walker is Dead: Revolutionary Cartoonist for 32 Years,"
June 24, 1932; reprinted by Strippers Guide, June 28, 2006. In conjunction with his new role, Walker created a new regularly recurring character for his cartoons, a stolid proletarian known as Bill Worker.Allan Holtz

Strippers Guide, June 29, 2006.

Death and legacy

During a visit to the

in the spring of 1932, Ryan Walker fell ill and was forced to be hospitalized. He died of

at Rotkinsky hospital in

on June 22, 1932. He was 61 years old at the time of his death.

Footnotes

Works

* ''The Social Hell.'' Rich Hill, MO: The Coming Nation, 1902. * ''Jim and James.'' Girard, KS: Appeal to Reason, 1906. * ''The Socialist Primer: A Book of First Lessons for the Little Ones in Words of One Syllable.'' (Illustrator.) Girard, KS: Appeal to Reason, 1908. * ''The Red Portfolio: Cartoons for Socialism.'' Girard, KS: The Coming Nation, 1913. * ''Adventures of Henry Dubb: Cartoons.'' New York: Ryan Walker, 1914.
''New Adventures of Henry Dubb: Cartoons.''
Chicago: Socialist Party, 1915.

External links

Allan Holtz Allan Holtz () is a comic strip historian who researches and writes about newspaper comics for his Stripper's Guide blog, launched in 2005. His research encompasses some 7,000 American comic strips and newspaper panels. In addition to his contribu ...

"Ryan Walker, Part 2,"
Strippers Guide, June 29, 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Ryan 1870 births 1932 deaths Artists from Kansas City, Missouri Artists from New York City American editorial cartoonists American socialists American Marxists Members of the Socialist Party of America Members of the Communist Party USA Deaths from pneumonia in the Soviet Union American expatriates in the Soviet Union