Comic Strip Artists in American Newspapers, 1945-1980 by Moira Davison Reynolds

Author:Moira Davison Reynolds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland

Bill Holman

Firemen fascinated this cartoonist; in turn, his outrageous stories about them fascinated readers for almost four decades.

Bill Holman was born in 1903 in Nappanee, Indiana. He did not finish high school. His first job was tending the popcorn machine in the town’s five and dime store.He did take the Landon correspondence course in cartooning. Then when the family moved to Chicago in ¡9¡8, he was able to take night courses at the Academy of fine Arts. The next year he worked for $6 a week as copy boy for the Chicago Tribune, providing him contact with such persons as Harold Gray, E.C. Segar and Frank King.

Holman’s next job was in Cleveland with NEA. In 1922, NEA syndicated his first strip, Billville Birds, a daily that featured animals. Here, also, he met noted cartoonists.

He went to New York in 1923, doing a strip titled G. Whiz Jr.for the Herald-Tribune. He also began to draw features for magazines in the United States and England. The cartoonist focused on firefighters,apparently only because he found it amusing. As luck would have it, Patterson wanted a fireman for the Sunday strip of the Daily News. Thus March 10, 1935, was the birthday of Scorchy Smith, which appeared as a Sunday feature. In its entire history, it ran as a daily strip for only a short time.

Holman has been described as “a naturally funny guy.” Generous with his time, he entertained at army camps and drew booklets for local fire-safety projects. His colleagues elected him president of the National Cartoonist Society from 1961 to 1963. When he retired in 1973, Smokey Stover ceased to exist. Its fans believe that the wacky type of humor could not be emulated.

Smokey’s creator died on February 27, 1987, in New York City.

Smokey Stover derived its title from the name of the lead character, a fireman. He lives with his wife Cookie and son Earl in a house with odd furniture and crazily tilted wall pictures. Home to a cat named Spooky, to a dog with a glove on its tail, and to mice carrying signs with puns on them, the firehouse is a focal point. Its chief is Cash U. Nutt, whose name exemplified Holman’s love of puns.

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