Stripper's Guide: Obscurity of the Day: The Spotty Twins

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Obscurity of the Day: The Spotty Twins

The Spotty Twins by Art Bowen ran as part of the Chicago Daily News' daily comics and cartoons page. Bums and hoboes were a popular subject for cartoon hijinks in the day, especially at the Daily News, where these fellows cavorted in the company of fellow ne'er-do-wells Brainy Bowers and Circus Solly. The strip ran sporadically for a year starting in January 1905.

Art Bowen was an excellent cartoonist with a fine eye for visual comedy (which was a good thing since he wasn't much as a gag writer). He never really made a big impression in newspaper cartooning. The Spotty Twins was his first continuing series (he did lots of one-shots for the Daily News as well), and then he drops off my radar until 1910 when he arrived in New York and got a few minor newspaper cartooning gigs there. That only lasted until 1913 when he disappeared once more, this time for good.

Labels: Obscurities

# posted by Allan Holtz @ 9:03 AM

Comments:

Allan, I have an Arthur Bowen, a Chicago cartoonist attempting suicide in 1916. My citation is The Day Book, November 24, 1916, p. 8.

Sara Duke

# posted by

Anonymous : 7/05/2012 7:53 PM

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My name is Allan Holtz. I am a comic strip historian, and author of "American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide." This blog is my outlet for all manner of interesting, oddball and rare material related to comic strip history. It is also a forum where others interested in comic strip history are encouraged to participate through the comments, or even by contributing articles. Have some information about a strip or cartoonist you'd like to share? I'd love to hear from you! You can post a comment on any post (click on 'Post a Comment' at the end of any post), or email me (see below). Note: All images on this blog are thumbnails - click on the images to see full size readable versions. Some browsers may require you to click on the image a second time to see the image at absolute full size (not reduced to fit your screen).

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