Before Harold Knerr took over The Katzenjammer Kids (when it's creator left the Hearst company to continue it under a new name at another syndicate), he was best known for doing many different strips. Wikipedia tells it quite well: "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, Willie's Revenge, followed by a number of comic strips, including the Mr. Jack-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 on The Katzenjammer Kids."
I recently came across two papers carrying thse early strips and it occurred to me that I would love to see a book devoted to those. I would call it The Many Different Phases of Harold Knerr. This lot includes the aforementioned Feinheimer Kids. I guess the Jocko strip is actually from the same series, but as you can see most of these strips did not have a logo, just a new title every week.
4 comments:
Somebody is always getting whacked in those strips! A great selection. Thanks Ger!
Yep, I love that! With the weirdly bent hand, as in the last panel of the first balck and white one!
These are simply amazing! I always enjoy these old strips, definitely from a different time and place.
Knerr was a terrific cartoonist, and prolific. Besides "Mr George and Wifey" and "The Irresistible Rag" (which I believe I misidentified as "Irresistible Rags" in the World Encyclopedia of Comics) he created others; and many one-shots.
He remained in Philadelphia even after joining Hearst and succeeding Dirks. For all the happy mayhem and slapstick in his pages, he was reserved and dignified in person, with trademark waxed moustache.
By the way, besides Joe Doyle succeeding Knerr, Joe Gallagher, an Inquirer cartoonist who had lost both his legs, inherited his creations too.
Good work, Ger!
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