Charles Henry "Bill" Sykes (November 12, 1882 – December 19, 1942) was an American cartoonist associated with the Philadelphia ''Public Ledger'' and ''Evening Ledger'' from 1911 until its closing in 1942. Born in

Athens, Alabama Athens is a city in and the county seat of Limestone County, in the U.S. state of Alabama; it is included in the Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville, AL Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city is 25,406. Hist ...

, to William Henry and Jane Palmyra Sykes (''nee'' Hayes), Sykes attended the

Drexel Institute Drexel University is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony Joseph Drexel, Anthony J. Drexel, a financier ...

in Philadelphia, graduating in 1904. He did freelance work for two years before entering newspaper work in 1906, with the Philadelphia ''

North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...

'' and ''Williamsport News''. He then worked for the ''

Nashville Banner The ''Nashville Banner'' is a defunct daily newspaper of Nashville, Tennessee, United States, which published from April 10, 1876 until February 20, 1998. The ''Banner'' was published each Monday through Friday afternoon (as well as Saturdays unt ...

'' in Tennessee until 1911 before joining the ''Public Ledger'' later that same year. When the ''Public Ledger'' was reorganized into the ''Evening Ledger'' in 1914, he became that paper's first editorial cartoonist, and remained its only cartoonist until its dissolution in early 1942. He married Charlotte Kennedy Hannum on September 11, 1907. He was an editorial cartoonist for ''Life'' magazine from 1922 to 1928. He also designed insignia for several army units, and received a National Headliner Award in 1941. Sykes's early work was distinguished by usage of coquille board for shading. His later work incorporated crayon and wash. Cartoon historian Richard Marschall described Sykes's technique as "one of the most amiable styles in all cartooning. His perspectives were unique, his anatomy precise, and his shading almost theatrical." A 1918 cartoon promoting the fourth Liberty Loan won a gold medal from the Liberty Loan Committee. In 1980, over 300 of his cartoons and sketches were donated to Virginia Commonwealth University.

References

External links

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Charles Henry Sykes Cartoon Collection
at

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...

Charles H. Sykes Papers
at the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a historic research facility headquartered on Locust Street in Center City Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chron ...

1882 births 1942 deaths American editorial cartoonists People from Athens, Alabama Artists from Philadelphia Drexel University alumni {{US-cartoonist-stub