948 - Comics

Comics Swinnerton, Jimmy Jimmy (comic series) — A set of 35 original color plates (inserts) from one of the first U.S. comic series. New York, 1904–1905. Landscape 4°. Each sheet mounted (removably) on heavy cardboard with a mat. In a modern cloth-bound volume in landscape folio with a screw-bound cover, together with a facsimile set in a cardboard folder inside a cloth-bound slipcase. An exceptionally rare, extensive set of 35 sheets from the early years of 1904 (34) and 1905 (1); sporadic supplements first appeared in the New York Journal and continued until 1958 in various newspapers, mostly later under the title “Little Jimmy.” The pages were sent to relatives in Germany by German-Americans before 1914. — Swinnerton created what was likely the first recurring character in American newspaper cartoons. With his strips about an adorable child who is always getting into trouble, he had a pioneering influence on the development of modern comic culture. James Guilford Swinnerton (1875–1974) is considered one of the true founding fathers of the American newspaper comic. As early as 1893–1897, with “The Little Bears” for the San Francisco Examiner, he created one of the earliest American comic series featuring talking animals and recurring characters—even before Richard Outcault’s famous “Yellow Kid.” After moving to William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal in 1896–99, Swinnerton first developed “The Little Tigers” and “Mr. Jack” before launching “Jimmy”—later “Little Jimmy”—on February 14, 1904 — his best-known and longest-running creation to this day. The series, which centers on a little boy who is notoriously prone to getting into trouble—regularly forgetting his errands or getting distracted by all sorts of quirky characters—first appeared sporadically as a Sunday supplement in the New York Journal and was—with interruptions —until Swinnerton’s retirement in 1958; it was distributed nationally by the King Features Syndicate starting in 1915 and, beginning in 1920, also as a daily strip. In his standard monograph *America’s Great Comic-Strip Artists*, Robert C. Marschall explicitly honors Swinnerton as one of the great pioneering cartoonists alongside F. B. Opper and R. F. Outcault, and emphasizes that he was one of the first to experiment with recurring, recognizable characters—an approach that shaped the entire subsequent development of comic culture as a serial narrative medium featuring established characters. Thus, “Jimmy” stands at the beginning of that tradition, which leads through characters such as the Yellow Kid to the narratively more complex series of the following decades. This exceptionally rare collection comprises 35 original color insert pages, 34 of which date from the series’ founding year, 1904, and one from 1905—that is, from the earliest, still irregularly published phase of the series, before it established itself as a regular Sunday feature. Of particular interest in terms of provenance is the fact that the pages were sent before 1914 by German-American emigrants to relatives in Germany —a vivid testament to transatlantic cultural exchange and the popularity of early American newspaper comics even outside the U.S., as well as the likely explanation for the exceptional state of preservation of these early original inserts, which have scarcely survived in the U.S. itself. The pages are mounted individually, in a removable manner, on sturdy cardboard with a mat and bound in a modern linen binding in landscape format—R. Marschall, *America’s Great Comic-Strip Artists*, pp. 14 and 60: “Swinnerton is one of the great pioneer cartoonists (like F.B. Opper and R.F. Outcault) and he was one of the first cartoonists to experiment with the use of recurring, identifiable characters.” - Most pages are in good condition (some slightly browned, with minor discoloration or missing sections along the outer margins; 4 with small missing sections within the image area; 7 pages with larger missing sections, mostly backed with Japanese paper). Jimmy (Comic Series). - An exceptionally rare, extensive series of 35 issues from the early years of 1904 (34) and 1905 (1); sporadic supplements first appeared in the New York Journal and continued through 1958 in various newspapers, mostly under the title Little Jimmy. The issues were sent by German-Americans to relatives in Germany before 1914. - Set of 35 original color plates (inserts) from one of the first U.S. comic series. New York, 1904–1905. Cross-4°. Each sheet is mounted (removably) on sturdy cardboard with a passe-partout. Presented in a modern cloth-bound volume in cross-folio format with a screw-bound cover, together with a facsimile edition in a cardboard folder inside a cloth-bound slipcase. - An extraordinarily rare, extensive set of 35 sheets from the earliest years, 1904 (34 sheets) and 1905 (1 sheet), consisting of sporadic supplements first published in the New York Journal and continuing until 195