Harry J. Tuthill (May 10, 1885 – January 25, 1957) was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip ''

The Bungle Family ''The Bungle Family'' is an American gag-a-day comic strip, created by Harry J. Tuthill, that first appeared in 1918. Originally titled ''Home, Sweet Home'', it first appeared as part of a series of rotating strips in the ''New York Evening Mail' ...

''.

Biography

Born in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, he grew up in the tenements and worked as a newsboy, quitting when a tough guy muscled in on his corner. At age 15, he traveled the midwest, finding employment with a foot surgeon, selling baking powder, patented eggbeaters and pictures, plus working as a medicine show barker in a street carnival. As he recalled, he left "to work on and at such things as selling enlarged pictures, soliciting for a corn doctor, and for one delirious season carrying on with a medicine show. I would not mention these things except that I feel what may be a pardonable pride in their diversity." During his late teens, he settled in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, where he was employed for $10 a week as a foreman at the St. Louis Dairy, where he washed milk cans for seven years."Harry J. Tuthill,"
''Lambiek's Comiclopedia''. Accessed Nov. 25, 2017. By the age of 30, he still had not sold any cartoons. Finding encouragement on his artwork from Bob Grable of World Color Printing, he worked for the ''

St. Louis Star The ''St. Louis Star-Times'' was a newspaper published in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded as ''The St. Louis Sunday Sayings'' in 1884, it operated independently until 1951, when it was purchased by the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis P ...

'' and then moved to the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...

''. He took night classes at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

, studying engineering and art, and signed on as a full-time cartoonist with the ''

'' during World War I, doing a strip titled ''Lafe'' about a lazy handyman, and attracting national attention for his editorial cartoons.

Comic strips

In 1918, Tuthill launched ''Home Sweet Home'', a strip about apartment life, in the ''

New York Evening Mail The ''New York Evening Mail'' (1867–1924) was an American daily newspaper published in New York City. For a time the paper was the only evening newspaper to have a franchise in the Associated Press. History Names The paper was founded as the ' ...

''.Marschall, Rick. "Harry J. Tuthill", ''

Nemo, the Classic Comics Library ''Nemo, the Classic Comics Library'' was a magazine devoted to the history and creators of vintage comic strips. Created by comics historian Rick Marschall, it was published between 1983 and 1990 by Fantagraphics. ''Nemo'' ran for 31 issues (the ...

'' 5 (February 1984) During the six-year run, it introduced George and Josephine Bungle, and he retitled it as ''The Bungle Family'' in 1924. Distributed initially by 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 ...

and later by the

McNaught Syndicate The McNaught Syndicate was an American newspaper syndicate founded in 1922. It was established by Virgil Venice McNitt (who gave it his name) and Charles V. McAdam. Its best known contents were the columns by Will Rogers and O. O. McIntyre, the ...

, the strip was carried by 120 newspapers. Comics historian

Rick Marschall Richard "Rick" Marschall (born February 3, 1949) Miller, John Jackson"Comics Industry Birthdays" ''Comics Buyer's Guide'', June 10, 2005. Accessed January 10, 2011. . is an American writer, editor, and comic strip historian, described by ''Bostoni ...

praised Tuthill's work, "Seldom has there been a strip (''

Moon Mullins ''Moon Mullins'' is an American comic strip which had a run as both a daily and Sunday feature from June 19, 1923, to June 2, 1991. Syndicated by the Tribune Media Services, Chicago Tribune/New York News Syndicate, the strip depicts the lives of ...

'' comes to mind) registering a sustained, masterful indictment of ''petite-bourgeois'' sensibilities and preoccupations as did ''The Bungle Family''." He also drew ''Alice and Her Bothersome Little Brother'' and ''Napoleon Blunder'' during the 1920s. ''Little Brother'' ran as a topper strip to ''The Bungle Family''. Tuthill's strips from 1919 to 1926 were created in his home studio at 4537 Tower Grove Place in St. Louis, eventually moving to

Ferguson, Missouri Ferguson is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 18,527, and is predominantly Bla ...

outside St. Louis. His sister, Irene Morrisson, also lived in the St. Louis area. Tuthill continued to draw ''The Bungle Family'' for McNaught until he had a dispute with the syndicate in 1939, which no longer carried the strip in 1942. After a hiatus, the strip returned — syndicated by Tuthill himself — on May 16, 1943, with newspapers running a promotional banner, "The Bungles Are Back!" It ran for two more years until 1945 when Tuthill retired. In 1946, Tuthill applied for a U.S.

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

for a "shading process." The detailed application, which Tuthill illustrated with a drawing of George Bungle shaded in various ways, stated that the "principal objects of the present invention are to devise a simple and economical process of quickly and easily applying such lines or shading to any fairly smooth and solid surface." This was the last of four lifetime patents that Tuthill was granted, approvals coming in 1935, 1937, 1938, and 1948. All these patents related to drawing. He died of heart disease in 1957. His son, Harold Tuthill, who worked for 47 years as a ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' sports writer, died of a heart ailment in 1988 at the age of 82.

References

External links

Harry J. Tuthill Editorial Cartoons Collection
at St. Louis Public Library
Harry J. Tuthill Editorial Cartoons Collection
finding aid at th
St. Louis Public Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuthill, Harry J. American comic strip cartoonists American comics writers St. Louis Post-Dispatch people 1880s births 1957 deaths Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts alumni McKelvey School of Engineering alumni