''The Little Bears'' is an American comic strip created by

Jimmy Swinnerton James Guilford Swinnerton (13 November 1875 – 8 September 1974) was an American cartoonist and a landscape painter of the Southwest deserts. He was known as Jimmy to some and Swinny to others. He signed some of his early cartoons Swin, and on on ...

, one of the first American comic strips featuring

talking animals Talking may refer to: * Speech, the product of the action of ''to talk'' * Communication by spoken words; conversation or discussion Other uses * "Talking" (The Rifles song), 2007 * "Talking" (A Flock of Seagulls song), 1983 * "Talking", a son ...

and one of the first with recurring characters – the titular bears. The feature emerged from a series of spot illustrations of a bear cub that began appearing in ''

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 ...

'' starting October 14, 1893. The strip was launched as a regular feature on the children's page starting June 2, 1895, and ran through June 7, 1897.

History

started his career in 1892 as a young illustrator for the '' San Francisco Examiner'', one of

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 ...

's newspapers. His chief task was to provide drawings for news stories in the days before

photoengraving Photoengraving is a process that uses a light-sensitive photoresist applied to the surface to be engraved to create a mask that protects some areas during a subsequent operation which etches, dissolves, or otherwise removes some or all of the mat ...

, however, he also drew

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 ...

s and other illustrations for the paper. In 1893, the ''Examiner'' used an illustration by Frank "Cozy" Noble of a bear as the paper's mascot for the San Francisco Mid-Winter Exposition of 1894. Following this, Swinnerton was asked to provide a bear illustration every day to accompany the paper's coverage of the fair. Swinnerton's first bear illustration appeared on October 14, 1893, and rapidly evolved into a cute little bear cub. When the fair closed, the Little Bear disappeared from the paper, but he returned on September 10, 1894, and started accompanying the weather report from October 2, 1894 until May 1895. Starting June 2, 1895, ''The Little Bears'' became a regular feature on the children's page; each strip consisted of multiple illustrations of the bears, connected by a theme for the day. Human children were introduced to the strip on January 26, 1896, and the title changed to ''Little Bears & Tykes''. It was probably the first American comic strip to include recurring characters. The ''Little Bears'' strip continued until June 7, 1897, when Swinnerton moved to

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 ...

to draw cartoons for another Hearst paper, 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 ...

''. In the ''Journal'', Swinnerton's feature switched from bears to tigers as he launched '' The Little Tigers'' on February 20, 1898. The change of animals apparently took place at the request of Hearst. Gradually a defined, philandering character emerged from the strip, and on October 4, 1903, the Sunday feature was retitled '' Mr. Jack''. After Swinnerton ended the regular ''Little Bears'' strip, he continued to draw sporadic strips for the ''Examiner''. The Little Bear continued to appear in spot cartoons and with the weather forecast for several years, drawn by other artists including Grant Wallace, Ralph Yardley and Bob Edgren. ''The Little Bears'' was an obvious influence on Gene Carr whose ''Bearville'' (aka ''Bear Land'') which ran in the ''New York Evening Journal'' from April 19 to May 7, 1901.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Bears, The American comic strips American comics characters Fictional bears Comics about animals Comics about bears Comics set in forests 1890s comics Comic strips started in the 1890s Works originally published in the San Francisco Examiner Gag-a-day comics Children's comics