It's Mad Professor week here on Stripper's Guide, featuring three, count 'em, three, wacky genius inventors. Leading off with ...
It's impressive to me that there was a time when a freelance cartoonist, probably a kid who had just completed a mail order course, could walk into a newspaper of the first stature, like the New York World, get an appointment to see the features editor, and sell him on a new comic strip series.
I know basically nothing about E. Burton Johnson, the cartoonist of today's obscurity, but given that Scientific Sam - Have You Met Him? is his only known newspaper credit, it seems likely that he somehow managed to get that much sought after audience with an editor, and with a not particularly original series, and decent though by no means spectacular cartooning, got himself a berth in one of the globe's highest circulation papers. Wow, that's an incident that would strain the credulity of even Horatio Alger
I suppose you could say the same thing is possible today, but the odds against you seem almost infinitely worse. But as far as I know, you can still show up at The New Yorker and get yourself an audience with the cartoon buyer. Or, with a lot of chutzpah and luck, you could see a features editor at the New York Times, or the Washington Post, and maybe, just maybe, they might take pity on you. But you better arrive with something a lot better than Scientific Sam!
Anyhow, Scientific Sam - Have You Met Him? ran as an occasional weekday feature in the New York Evening World from August 16 to October 6 1909. What happened to Mr. E. Burton Johnson after that? Did he keep on as a cartoonist in some other capacity? Sorry, I haven't a clue. But hopefully he didn't use up his whole lifetime's quota of luck at the New York World, and the rest of his career was also replete with bright spots.
New York Times, March 30, 1914: "EVAN B. JOHNSON FREE - Cartoonist Released from Prison and Has a Job in Sight. Evan Burton Johnson, newspaper cartoonist, and until Thursday Convict 8,734 at Folsom Penitentiary, arrived in San Francisco today en route to a job. Johnson cartooned his way out of the penitentiary, after having been sentenced for an admitted forgery committed while he was intoxicated. The sentence was commuted by Gov. Hiram W. Johnson. Johnson has a place with an advertising concern in Portland, Ore. He is 33 years old. He began drawing at the age of 15 on the staff of the Philadelphia Inquireer. Afterward, he was employed by The New York Evening World, The Philadelphia Press, and other newspapers."
ReplyDeleteAncestry dot com has a World War I draft registration that lists an Evan Burton Johnson, born January 21, 1881, married, and working at the Continental Illustrating Company on Rector Street in New York City as an artist and advertising writer. So he may have gone straight after his bad experience.
ReplyDeleteThe Buffalo Courier, May 17, 1914, has an interview with him where he describes his past and his prison experiences. Apparently, he signed a check while drunk that he couldn't make good on. He cites a story about the owner of one paper he worked for getting fined for contempt owing to a cartoon he, Johnson, drew.
ReplyDeleteThere's an Evan B. Johnson listed as working in advertising, and living on East 24th Street in Manhattan as of the 1950 census, so even though he was divorced, he seems to have come through all right. He appears to have died, age 75, on March 21, 1956 in New York City, according to the March 23, 1956 News of Cumberland County.
ReplyDeleteJeez, I'm a dummy. I didn't think to check if you'd profiled him. Which you have. http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2016/06/ink-slinger-profiles-by-alex-jay-e.html
ReplyDeleteOh jeez. I thought that sounded like a familiar story! I blame Google, since it did not bring that post up for me when I was searching around! Sorry to send you on a wild goose chase.
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