Fay King (cartoonist)

Fay Barbara King (March 1889 – presumed dead [after 1954])[1] was an American illustrator, journalist, and cartoonist. Some of her work represents an early example of autobiographical comics.

Fay King
Fay King circa 1913
BornMarch 1889
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Diedpresumed dead [after 1954]
NationalityAmerican
Known forillustration, cartoons, reportage
Spouse(s)Oscar "Battling" Nelson (1913–1916)
1918 autobio strip ("Cartoonist's Confessional", in Cartoons Magazine). Second-to-last cartoon refers to her marriage with boxer Oscar "Battling" Nelson.
1911 self-cartoon of her future husband (Oscar "Battling" Nelson) and herself.
Fay King in 1913.

King worked for newspapers and magazines in the early twentieth century (at least from 1912 to 1937), moving to New York City in 1918. She was one of the popular Jazz Age cartoonists appearing in the 1924 comedy The Great White Way.

Biography

King was born in Seattle, Washington in March 1889, to John and Ella King. She was raised in Portland, Oregon, and went to college at Seattle University. The young King was adventurous, being one of the first women in the Portland area to own an automobile,[2] and in 1912 had announced plans for a balloon ascension with noted early parachutist Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick, before the plan was rejected by her parents, according to an article in The Oregonian.[3]

King's father had been an employee at a Turkish bath, as well a trainer of athletes, and she seems to have had a deep affinity for sport.[2] King married boxer Oscar "Battling" Nelson in 1913, in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago.[4] Their 1916 divorce was widely covered by the press.[5][6][7] The Veteran Boxing Association paid for part of the cost of Nelson's 1954 funeral; King paid the remainder, in addition to purchasing "beautiful arrangements" for the ceremony.[1]

King worked for The Denver Post from April 1912 to 1918, leaving for The San Francisco Examiner. She later became feature writer and cartoonist for the New York Evening Journal.

In 1924, she appeared as herself in the comedy The Great White Way (alongside other cartoonists, such as Winsor McCay and George McManus).

Work

King's cartoons are recalled as an early example of autobiographical comics within the genre of newspaper cartooning. She frequently depicted herself in her comics, using a spindly, gangly caricature that bore a strong resemblance to the character of Olive Oyl, who would later be created by E.C. Segar for his Thimble Theater strip.[8]

In addition to her autobiographical reporting, she is known to have created two strips, both of which ran in the New-York Mirror: "Mazie" (which ran briefly in 1924) and "Girls Will Be Girls" (which ran between 1924 and 1925).[9]

References
  1. Baker, Mark Allen (2016). Battling Nelson, The Durable Dane: World Lightweight Champion 1882–1954. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-4766-6372-2.
  2. Holtz, Allan (January 22, 2013). "Ink-Slinger Profiles: Fay King".
  3. "Fay King Not To Soar". The Oregonian. August 12, 1911.
  4. "Battling Nelson Married". The New York Times. January 24, 1913.
  5. "Wife Platonic, "Bat" Testifies; Wins a Divorce". Chicago Daily Tribune. March 2, 1916.
  6. "Battling Nelson Granted Divorce From Fay King". Boston Daily Globe. March 8, 1916.
  7. "Would Sue Nelson: Father of Battler's Wife Says She Will Institute Divorce Proceedings". The Washington Post. March 1, 1913.
  8. "Fay King". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Lambiek.net. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  9. Allan, Holtz (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472117567. OCLC 819171150.

Further reading
  • Trina Robbins, Nell Brinkley and the New Woman in the Early 20th Century (2001), McFarland and Company, Inc.
  • Trina Robbins, A Century of Women Cartoonists (1993), Kitchen Sink Press

Scrapbook, compiled by cartoonist and journalist, Fay King, 1916–1919 (from Digital Library@Villanova University)

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