James Guilford SWINNERTON/Louise SCHER Family Group Sheet

1920 Federal Census enumerated this family in Flagstaff, Coconino, Arizona (ED 139, sheet 4A, line 5).

Biography of Jimmy Swinnerton from Comic Strip Artists in American Newspapers, 1945 – 1980, by Moira Davidson Reynolds, p. 7 ff:

Jimmy Swinnerton was one of the earliest strip cartoonists; moreover, he created one strip that lasted for more than five decades – but with a four year hiatus.

James Guilford Swinnerton was born on November 3, 1875, in Eureka, California. His father was a judge who also founded the Humboldt Star, a weekly newspaper. He was known to be a Republican.

Raised in Stockton, Jimmy studied at San Francisco’s California Art School. By 1892, he was working for the San Francisco Examiner, Hearst’s first newspaper. Swinnerton made sketches for sports, parades and the like, as well as doing some comic art. Inspired by the bear on the California state flag, he introduced “the California bear,” using drawings of the bear in various parts of the paper, such as the advertisement section. According to Blackbeard and Williams, Little Bears on the children’s page represented “the first continuously presented graphic character feature in a newspaper.” And Hearst liked them. But when the cartoonist asked for a weekly raise of $2.50, he was turned down by his editors. This prompted him to move to New York City.

For several years he worked for the New York American, owned since 1895 by Hearst. There Swinnerton did a strip – Mr. Jack – about a domesticated tiger with a flirtatious nature; he also drew sports cartoons. At the American, Swinnerton had the advantage of working with several well known cartoonists.

Jimmy began as a Sunday page when there was still some doubt about whether the popularity of color would compensate for its expense. However, the new work had great appeal, and Swinnerton was ultimately relieved of his duty as sports cartoonist to devote his time to the strip. In 1920, a daily was added and the title changed to Little Jimmy.

When early in the twentieth century Swinnerton became seriously ill with tuberculosis, he followed the advice of friends to try a stay in Arizona. (In pre-antibiotic days, there were no real remedies for this deadly disease.) He loved the atmosphere and spent much of his life in that state. Even when he had a home in Palo Alto, California, he returned frequently to Arizona, visiting Navajo and Hopi country.

The scenery was reflected in his art; for instance, it appeared in Canyon Kiddies, a color page he did for Hearst’s Good Housekeeping, and for much of the time, the fictional Jimmy’s locale was Navajo territory. Swinnerton often painted the Arizona outdoors for his own enjoyment, and his pursuit produced coast-to-coast exhibits of his works. In 1940, an animated cartoon of Canyon Kiddies appeared.

From 1941 to 1945 he replaced Little Jimmy with Rocky Mason, Government Marshal, a cowboy Western set in Arizona. The switch was instigated by King Features, but in the end, Swinnerton prevailed. He was drawing Jimmy, which he enjoyed doing, when he reached old age. An injury to his hand finally made him quit drawing cartoons. Little Jimmy lasted until 1958.

The well-liked Swinnerton was proud of the fact that, according to his estimate, he had helped more than three dozen artists get started.

He died on complications from a broken leg on September 8, 1974, in Palm Springs, California. He was 98.

Little Jimmy Thompson was a curious, likeable child whose interests often caused detours in the tasks he was expected to do immediately. Such actions exasperated his father in particular. Other members of the cast included Jimmy’s pal Pinkie, the bulldog Beans and L’il Ol’ Bear, who appeared some years after the strip’s inception.

One well-remembered panel from the feature shows Little Jimmy, Pinkie and Beans at the scene of a symphony concert. Jimmy says, “What’s a symphony concert?” Pinkie’s balloon reply states, “It’s a concert for simps. Haw, haw!” (“Simp” meant simpleton.)

According to Maurice Horn, internationally recognized authority on the comics, “Little Jimmy was a meditative, almost ruminative strip, and in this regard it has few peers in the history of the comics and should be recognized as one of the true originals of the medium.”

Little Jimmy was a personal favorite of its creator.