Cartoonist struck jackpot with bald, pot-bellied boy
Posted By GLEN R. GOODHAND SPECIAL TO THE LINDSAY POST
Posted 2 months ago
Carl Anderson was a freelance cartoonist for several decades, before he hit the jackpot with his "Henry" feature.
He had previously contributed toLifeandColliers,as well as other publications for years. But when the Great Depression hit every enterprise, he headed home to Wisconsin to accept a position teaching cartooning in a vocational school. One day, he casually sketched a bald-headed, potbellied boy, which caught the eye of his students. On a whim he submitted a sample to the Saturday Evening Post.The editors liked it, and invited him to contribute weekly to the established magazine.
His first offering, on Dec. 17, 1934, was a single panel of "Henry" running away from the front of a butcher shop--on the door of which hung a sign, "boy wanted". On the step stood a rather overbearing butcher, beckoning--with a meat cleaver in his hand.--creating a rather frightening misunderstanding.
Because Anderson mainly limited these panels to pantomime, foreign papers began to clamour for his work. In fact, it was in a German publication that King Feature's executive, William Hearst, spied the feature. He quickly signed Anderson, who was by then 69 years old, to contribute to the dailies in his newspaper chain.
Typical of mainline cartoons, Sunday features involved a story line. But the daily comics be limited to single panel--occasionally upwards of three or four.
Because dialogue was rare-- especially after the early years-- there were few continuing characters. His mother is an obvious personality; he was often seen with a nameless puppy; but "Butch the Bully", and "Henrietta" (his "girl friend"), appear to be the only other individuals singled out.
In the early "funnies" indications of the era in which it was drawn were obvious--like coal wagons and horse-drawn milk wagon--and five cent ice cream cones. Occasionally a motor car or a telephone would enter the picture, but the time frame was never of consequence.
Another earlyPostsubmission pictured Henry sitting on the top of a big bass drum, facing the drummer, and holding the sheet music for his benefit.
Still another, which bore the caption, "Seat is Occupied", has the lad protruding from a mother kangaroo's pouch, while at the same time pushing the animal's baby away.
In a newspaper four-panel edition Henry has spied a poster advertising a contest for the "best candid camera shot". He promptly is seen coming out of a stable leading a racehorse toward a Steeple Chase race. In the final sequence he is sitting astride the nag backwards, snapping a picture of one of the competitors charging down the track.
In another of equal length, he had noticed a little girl heading to the court with her tennis racket. He quickly snatches up his own, and passes by his mother in pursuit. The third panel finds Henrietta standing in his way-- and the final one pictures him wearing the bat, with his head stuck through the mesh, on a return trip past his startled mom!
In a rare singling out of the boy's lack of hair, Anderson sketches him in a barber chair. The best the barber can do is use the brush, which he usually uses for flicking the fallen follicles from a customer's shoulders, to polish off Henry's bald pate.
While Dell picked up on the comic book element in 1948, the t-shirted, short-panted character never starred in animation, either on TV or the big screen.
Anderson's arthritis forced him to retire from his pursuits in 1942. John Liney and Don Trachte carried on until the former retired in 1979, and Trachte died in 2005.
A few newspapers still publish the feature.
