Otto Soglow (December 23, 1900 – April 3, 1975) was an American cartoonist best known for his
comic strip
A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...
''
The Little King
''The Little King'' is a 1930-1975 American gag-a-day comic strip created by Otto Soglow, telling its stories in a style using images and very few words, as in pantomime.
Publication history
Soglow's character first appeared on June 7, 1930, i ...
''.
Born in
Yorkville, Manhattan, Soglow grew up in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, where he held various jobs as a teenager and made an unsuccessful effort to become an actor. His first job was painting designs on baby rattles. While studying with
John Sloan
John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best known ...
at the
Art Students League of New York, his first cartoon was printed in 1919. Throughout the 1920s, his drawings were seen in numerous magazines.
Soglow's artwork was published in ''
New Masses
''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA. It succeeded both ''The Masses'' (1912–1917) and ''The Liberator''. ''New Masses'' was later merged into '' Masses & Mainstream'' (19 ...
'', ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...
'', ''
Collier's'', ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
Judge'' and ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
''. He illustrated more than 35 books, and did five books of his own, including ''Wasn't the Depression Terrible?'' (1934).
''The Little King''
His character The Little King first appeared in ''The New Yorker'' in 1930.
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
lured Soglow away for his
King Features Syndicate, but contractual obligations to ''The New Yorker'' prevented The Little King from appearing immediately. Soglow then produced a knock-off strip called ''
The Ambassador'' from 1933 to 1934. After ''The Little King'' debuted on September 9, 1934, it ran until Soglow's death in 1975. It is still available today through King Features' email service,
DailyINK
DailyINK was an online service created by King Features Syndicate to email many classic and current comic strips directly to subscribers for an annual fee of $19.99. King Features described it as "the all-inclusive subscription service for the true ...
.
National Cartoonists Society
In 1941, Soglow lived at 330 West 72nd Street in Manhattan. He was a co-founder of the
National Cartoonists Society and served as president for the 1953–54 term.
He died in New York City in 1975. Otto and Annie Soglow had one daughter, Tona.
Awards
He received the National Cartoonists Society's
Reuben Award
The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...
in 1966, followed by their Elzie Segar Award in 1972.
See also
*
Harry Hanan
Harry Hanan (14 December 1916 - 19 January 1982) was a British cartoonist, best known as the creator of the pantomime comic strip ''Louie'' which he began in 1947. Louie was a small chap, a loser who was constantly annoyed by life's little viciss ...
*
Henning Dahl Mikkelsen
Henning Dahl Mikkelsen (1915 – June 4, 1982) was a Danish cartoonist, best known for creation of the long running newspaper comic strip '' Ferd'nand'', which he signed as Mik.
He was born in Skive, Denmark, and began the pantomime humor stri ...
External links
LambiekReuben bioNCS AwardsCollection of mid-twentieth century advertising featuring Otto Soglow illustrationsfrom the TJS Labs Gallery of Graphic Design.
Historic film footage shows Otto Soglow drawing and talking at the American Theatre Wing Merchant Seaman's Club, NY, during World War 2
1900 births
1975 deaths
American cartoonists
American comics artists
Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery
The New Yorker cartoonists
Reuben Award winners
People from Yorkville, Manhattan
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