Charles Anthony Voight (April 28, 1887 – February 10, 1947) was an American cartoonist, best known for his

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of 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 terminology#Captio ...

''Betty''.

Early life

Born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, Voight was 14 when he dropped out of school and became an art staffer at the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

''. During this period, he also did advertising art.

Comic strips

In 1908, he drew his first comic strip, ''Petey Dink'', for the ''

Boston Traveler The ''Boston Evening Traveller'' (1845–1967) was a newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a daily newspaper, with weekly and semi-weekly editions under a variety of ''Traveller'' titles. It was absorbed by the '' Boston Herald'' ...

''.Lambiek
/ref> When it moved to the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the '' New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. Hi ...

'' it became simply ''Petey'' (sometimes titled ''Poor Little Petey''). He also drew for the ''

'', and for ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'', he created a series titled ''The Optimist''. His popular

glamour girl Glamour photography is a genre of photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensiti ...

Sunday strip The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in some Western newspapers. Compared to weekday comics, Sunday comics tend to be full pages and are in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, t ...

''Betty'' began in 1919 with the

McClure Syndicate McClure Newspaper Syndicate, the first American newspaper syndicate, introduced many American and British writers to the masses. Launched in 1884 by publisher Samuel S. McClure, it was the first successful company of its kind. It turned the mark ...

, moving to the New York Herald Syndicate with the April 4, 1920, edition. Comics historian

Don Markstein Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

described the strip and characters: ''Betty'' was an influential strip, notably for the illustrator and comic book artist

Bernard Krigstein Bernard Krigstein (; March 22, 1919 – January 8, 1990) was an American illustrator and gallery artist who received acclaim for his innovative and influential approach to comic book art, notably in EC Comics. His artwork usually displayed the si ...

Jerry Robinson Sherrill David "Jerry" Robinson (January 1, 1922 – December 7, 2011) was an American comic book artist known for his work on DC Comics' Batman line of comics during the 1940s. He is best known as the co-creator of Robin and the Joker and for ...

, in his book ''The Comics: An Illustrated History of the Comic Strip'', commented: :The classic beauty was seen in ''Betty''. Charles Voight employed an exquisite pen style in defining the visual delights of the long-legged, cool sophisticate in the extreme fashion of the day, including beachwear that revealed areas not previously shown in the comic pages.Robinson, Jerry. ''The Comics: An Illustrated History of the Comic Strip'', 1974. Voight continued to do artwork for advertising agencies, such as his 1932 Rinso Soap ads.

Comic books

After ''Betty'' ended its run in 1943, Voight began drawing for comic books, including He-Man in ''Tally-Ho Comics'' (1944) and work for ''

Prize Comics A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

'' (1945). In 1946, he drew Impossible Man for ''Captain Wizard'' and the superhero satire Captain Milksop for ''Atomic Bomb Comics'' #1. Voight lived for a time in

Pelham, New York Pelham is a suburban town in Westchester County, approximately 10 miles northeast of Midtown Manhattan. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 13,078, an increase from the 2010 census.United States Census Bureau, 2020 Report, Pelham to ...

. When

Fontaine Fox Fontaine Talbot Fox Jr. (June 4, 1884 – August 9, 1964) was an American cartoonist and illustrator best known for writing and illustrating his ''Toonerville Folks'' comic panel, which ran from 1913 to 1955 in 250 to 300 newspapers across North ...

first came to visit his friend Voight, he rode the Pelham trolley that inspired him to create the Toonerville Trolley for his long-running cartoon panel, ''

Toonerville Folks ''Toonerville Folks'' ( ''The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains'') is a newspaper comic strip feature by Fontaine Fox, which ran from 1908 to 1955. It began in 1908 in the ''Chicago Post'', and by 1913, it was syndicated nationally by ...

''.

References

External links

Animation Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Voight, Charles 1887 births 1947 deaths American comic strip cartoonists American advertising artists and illustrators American comics writers American comics artists American humorists Artists from Brooklyn People from Pelham, New York