Suspended Animation - 11/3/06
November 03, 2006

The life work of Frederick Burr Opper/various publishers


Among the comics legends is Frederick Burr Opper, who in the early '30s was voted by his peers as "the funniest man that ever worked for the American press." Opper created newspaper comic strip characters with enormous popular appeal.

Opper was born in Madison, Ohio in 1857 to Austrian-American immigrant parents. When he was 14, he dropped out of school and was drawing cartoons for the Madison Gazette newspaper; at 20, he was a staff artist for Wild Oats magazine and was selling political cartoons to Puck and Harper's Bazaar.

In 1900 Opper's most famous creation, the comic strip "Happy Hooligan," began syndication in the Sunday comic sections of the New York and San Francisco Hearst newspapers. Happy Hooligan was an Irish tramp who wore a little tin can hat and whose simple good nature made him a national hero.

Other comic strips that Opper created were "And Her Name Was Maud" (1904, about the antics of a mule), "Alphonse and Gaston" (1902, about two Frenchmen whose title became a euphemism for exaggerated politeness), and Howsan Lott (1909, one of the earliest satires on suburban life in America). He also worked as political cartoonist at the New York American and Journal newspaper and did illustrative work for Mark Twain and other popular authors of the time.


The kind of humor Opper gets into his drawings tickles a certain joint in my risibility that forces a good honest laugh. Some comics create in us a gratifying smile on our insides; some please us on account of their ingenuity and good draftsmanship, but Opper's method of expression is purely an appeal to our sense of the ridiculous.--Richard F. Outcault, considered the inventor of the comic strip


All of Opper's work is 'bigfoot', abstract and minimalistic in style. Heavily steeped in the styles and events of his time, and certainly "politically incorrect" in ours because of ethnic stereotyping, his work remains entertaining and offers a visually valuable historical look into the early 1900s.

Poor eyesight forced Opper to discontinue working in 1932. He died at his home in New Rochelle, New York five years later.

Among his published works are: Happy Hooligan: a complete compilation, 1904-1905 (Hyperion Press, 1977); "Happy Hooligan" (pgs. 49 & 62 in The Comic Strip Century, Kitchen Sink Press, 1995, several weekly episodes); "Happy Hooligan's Honey-moon" (copyright 1917 and reproduced on p. 33 of Golf in the Comic Strips, General Publishing Group, 1997); The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, pgs. 9 & 159). "Happy" was merchandised in toys, games, mugs and pinbacks.

Frederick Opper's work is recommended for its historic importance as well as for his creation of comics techniques used even today. Find Opper's Happy Hooligan and more at storefront and on-line comics shops, possibly at your local library, and at online auctions.

Commentary by Michael Vance

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