Franklin Morris Howarth (1864–1908) was an American cartoonist and pioneering comic strip artist.
F. M. Howarth | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Born | 27 September 1864  |
| Died | 22 September 1908 (aged 43) |
| Occupation | Comics artist |
Howarth was born in Philadelphia on September 27, 1864. He was the oldest of four children of William and Sarah (Iseminger) Howarth. His father was a pattern maker and an English immigrant, his mother a native Philadelphian. Howarth attended Central High School.[1]
By age 19 Howarth was drawing for the Philadelphia Call and other papers, after which he began to be employed by national periodicals such as Munsey's Magazine,[2] Life,[3] Judge, and Truth.[4] He joined the staff of Puck in 1891, and moved to the New York World in 1901.[3]
Howarth, whose style for figures frequently featured big heads on little bodies, was among the first generation of cartoonists to create serial cartoons, which came to be called comic strips.[3] According to author Jared Gardner, "F. M Howarth's work is representative of the development of sequential graphic narrative during this period... Howarth fractured the single panel that had previously dominated in the United States".[5]
Among Howarth's strips are the critically acclaimed courtship strip The Love of Lulu and Leander created in 1902 for the New York American,[6] and eternal con-man target Mr. E. Z. Mark, created in 1903 for the American Journal-Examiner and which ran at least until his 1908 death (it might have been continued by another cartoonist).[7] He also created the strip Ole Opey Dildock in 1907, which was taken over by W. L. Wells on Howarth's death and continued to 1914.[4][8]
Howarth died September 22, 1908, in Germantown, Philadelphia, at age 43, of pneumonia.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b Alex Jay (November 4, 2014). "Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: F.M. Howarth". Stripper's Guide. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
- ^ Payne, Harold (February 1894). "Our Caricaturists and Cartoonists". Munsey's Magazine. Vol. X, no. 5. Madison Square, New York: Frank A. Munsey and Company. p. 550. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
- ^ a b c Curtis, Thomas E. (May 1902). "The Humorous Artists of America". The Strand Magazine. Vol. XXIII, no. 137. p. 551. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
- ^ a b "F.M. Howarth". Comiclopedia. Comic Shop Lambiek. July 27, 2007. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
- ^ Gardner, Jared (2012). Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty-First-Century Storytelling. Stanford University Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0804771474. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
- ^ Don Markstein. "THE LOVE OF LULU AND LEANDER". Don Markstein's Toonpedia. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
- ^ Don Markstein. "MR. E.Z. MARK". Don Markstein's Toonpedia. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
- ^ "W. L. Wells". Comiclopedia. Comic Shop Lambiek. July 27, 2007. Retrieved September 10, 2016.