Fabulous Toons of Fontaine Fox

You can consider this a sidebar to today's featured book over at the Chicago History Online Library: Own Your Own Home by Ring Lardner (1919)I thought the illustrations were terrific; reminiscent of John T. McCutcheon's Bird Center cartoons.


Anyone remember the Toonerville Folks? It was an extremely popular newspaper cartoon series drawn by Fontaine Fox which ran from 1908 to 1955. Hugely popular during WWI, the cartoons featured the humorous daily lives of the fictional suburban folks. It was so popular that in the 1920s it spawned a series of films from Sigmund Lubin's Betzwood Film Company, characters were used to pitch numerous products and like today, tie-in merchandising hit the stores with a bang!And, be sure to check out the animated Toonerville toon showing on CHJ YouTube at the right --->

And it began in Chicago at the Chicago Evening Post; the illustrator of Ring Lardner's satirical take on suburban life. Lardner and Fox had previously joined talents in 1915 on Bib Ballads.

Recommended reading:
Fontaine Fox (Wikipedia)
Toonerville Folks (Toonopedia)
Selection of ads featuring Fontaine Fox cartoons
Toonerville Folks (Wikipedia)