(NOTE! Clicking on the cartoon should advance you to the next one.)

When I first discovered the work of Clare Briggs I knew less about comics of the early 20th century than I do now. I still can't say I know a lot. I can't tell you whether he was influential, or simply working in the style of the day. I do know he was pretty damned good. Wikipedia:

Clare A. Briggs (August 5, 1875 – January 3, 1930) was an early American comic strip artist who rose to fame in 1904 with his strip A. Piker Clerk. Briggs was best known for his later comic strips When a Feller Needs a Friend, Ain't It a Grand and Glorious Feeling?, The Days of Real Sport,and Mr. and Mrs..

It must have been a hell of a grind - a big panel every day.

He did okay:

Briggs was a popular lecturer, earning $100 for a single speech. He accepted a five-week contract for $500 a week to appear on the vaudeville circuit in 1914. In 1919, he produced four comedy film shorts for Paramount Pictures. The Mr. and Mrs. radio series, based on Briggs' strip, starred Jack Smart and Jane Houston as Jo and Vi. The series was broadcast on CBS from 1929 to 1931.

He was around long enough to chronicle the domestic & social milieu of the teens and twenties. Died too early - went into the hospital for "neuritis of the optic nerve" towards the end of '29, and never made it out. Died of pneumonia on January 3, 1930.

He left a daughter . . . named Clare. Who became a cartoonist herself.

Since I finished this site I’ve found more work, which I’ll post in 2021 or so. In addition to the daily strips, I’ve found the huge Sunday pieces. As I said when I first wrote this entry, I don’t know if he was influential, or just the most successful working in the style of the day. What matters most at this point is that his work is remembered - and that’s the point of this site.

Lileks
01.01.20