Editing Mutt and Jeff (section)

==Syndicated success==
[[Bud Fisher|Harry Conway "Bud" Fisher]] was a sports cartoonist for the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' in the early 1900s, a time when a newspaper cartoon was single panel. His innovation was to tell a cartoon gag in a sequence, or strip, of panels, creating the first American comic strip to successfully pioneer that since-common format. The concept of a newspaper strip featuring recurring characters in multiple panels on a six-day-a-week schedule actually had been created by [[Clare Briggs]] with ''[[A. Piker Clerk]]'' four years earlier, but that short-lived effort did not inspire further comics in a comic-strip format. As comics historian [[Don Markstein]] explained,
{{blockquote|Fisher's comic strip was very similar to ''A. Piker Clerk'', which cartoonist Clare Briggs ... had done in the very same daily format for ''[[The Chicago American]]'' in 1903. But tho Fisher was born in Chicago, it's unknown whether or not he ever saw the Briggs strip, so let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say he had an idea. Despite the Briggs primacy, ''A. Mutt'' is considered the first daily strip because it's the one that sparked a trend in that direction, which continues to this day.<ref name=toonopedia-fisher />}}

''A. Mutt'', the comic strip that became better known by its later title, ''Mutt and Jeff'', debuted on November 15, 1907 on the sports pages of the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]''. The featured character had previously appeared in sports cartoons by Fisher but was unnamed. Fisher had approached his editor, [[John P. Young]], about doing a regular strip as early as 1905, but was turned down. According to Fisher, Young told him, "It would take up too much room, and readers are used to reading down the page, and not horizontally".<ref>''The Comics Journal'' #289, April 2008, p. 175.</ref>

This strip focused on a single main character until the other half of the duo appeared on March 27, 1908. It appeared only in the ''Chronicle'', so Fisher did not have the extended lead time that syndicated strips require. Episodes were drawn the day before publication, and frequently referred to local events that were currently making headlines or to specific horse races being run that day. A 1908 sequence about Mutt's trial featured a parade of thinly-disguised caricatures of specific San Francisco political figures, many of whom were being prosecuted for [[Graft (politics)|graft]].

On June 7, 1908, the strip moved off the sports pages and into [[William Randolph Hearst|Hearst]]'s ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'' where it was [[print syndication|syndicated]] by [[King Features Syndicate|King Features]] and became a national hit, subsequently making Fisher the first celebrity of the comics industry.<ref name=toonopedia-fisher>[http://www.toonopedia.com/fishrbud.htm "Bud Fisher] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20120524153352/http://www.toonopedia.com/fishrbud.htm Archived] from the original on April 4, 2012.</ref> Fisher had taken the precaution of [[copyright]]ing the strip in his own name, facilitating the move to King Features and making it impossible for the ''Chronicle'' to continue the strip using another artist.

A dispute between Fisher and King Features arose in 1913, and Fisher moved his strip on September 15, 1915, to the [[John Neville Wheeler|Wheeler Syndicate]] (later the [[Bell Syndicate]]), who gave Fisher 60% of the gross revenue, an enormous income in those times.<ref name=toonopedia-fisher/> Hearst responded by launching a lawsuit which ultimately failed.<ref name=BDzoom>{{Cite web|last=Michel|first=Nathalie, ''BdZoom''|title=Conaissez-vous Mutt and Jeff?|url=http://www.bdzoom.com/index.cfm?page=display&class=article_general&object=dosx20070811114140&rub=interview|language=fr|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20070823051509/http://www.bdzoom.com/index.cfm?page=display&class=article_general&object=dosx20070811114140&rub=interview|archive-date=August 23, 2007|df=mdy-all}}</ref> By 1916, Fisher was earning in excess of $150,000 a year. By the 1920s, merchandising and growing circulation had increased his income to an estimated $250,000.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21568586-internet-has-unleashed-burst-cartooning-creativity-triumph-nerds|title=Triumph of the nerds|newspaper=The Economist|date=December 22, 2012}}</ref>

In 1918, ''Mutt and Jeff'' added a [[Sunday strip]] and, as success continued, Fisher became increasingly dependent on assistants to produce the work. Fisher hired Billy Liverpool and Ed Mack, artists Hearst had at one point groomed to take over the strip, who did most of the artwork.<ref name=lambiek-liverpool>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Billy Liverpool|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/l/liverpool_billy.htm}}</ref><ref name=lambiek-mack>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Ed Mack|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/m/mack_ed.htm}}</ref> Other assistants on the strip included Ken Kling, [[George Herriman]], and [[Maurice Sendak]] (while still in high school).<ref name=lambiek-herriman>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=George Herriman|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/h/herriman.htm}}</ref><ref name=lambiek-sendak>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Maurice Sendak|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/s/sendak_maurice.htm}}</ref>

Fisher appeared to lose all interest in the strip during the 1930s, and after Mack died in 1932, the job of creating the strip fell to Al Smith.<ref name=lambiek-fisher>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Bud Fisher|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/f/fisher_b.htm}}</ref><ref name=lambiek-smith>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Al Smith|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/s/smith_al.htm}}</ref> In c. 1944, the new Chicago-based [[Field Syndicate]] took over the strip. ''Mutt and Jeff'' retained Fisher's signature until his death, however, so it wasn't until December 7, 1954, that the strip started being signed by Smith.<ref name=BDzoom/>

Al Smith received the [[National Cartoonists Society]] [[National Cartoonists Society#Newspaper Comic Strips|Humor Comic Strip Award]] in 1968 for his work on the strip.<ref name=NCS>{{Cite web|last=National Cartoonists Society|title=Newspaper Comic Strips – Humor Strips|url=http://www.reuben.org/ncs/archive/divisions/strips.asp}}</ref> Smith continued to draw ''Mutt and Jeff'' until 1980, two years before it ceased publication.

In the introduction to ''Forever Nuts: The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff'', [[Allan Holtz]] gave the following reason for the strip's longevity and demise:

{{blockquote|The strip's waning circulation got a shot in the arm in the 1950s when President Eisenhower sang its praises, and then again in the 1970s when a nostalgia craze swept the nation. It took the 1980s, a decade focused on the here and now, and a final creative change on the strip when even Al Smith had had enough, to finally allow the strip the rest it had deserved for decades.<ref name=Nuts>''Forever Nuts: The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff'' by Bud Fisher, edited by Jeffrey Lindenblatt; {{ISBN|1-56163-502-2}}</ref>}}

During this final period it was drawn by George Breisacher.<ref name=lambiek-breisacher>{{Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=George Breisacher|url= http://lambiek.net/artists/b/breisacher_george.htm}}</ref> Currently, [[Andrews McMeel Syndication]] continues to syndicate ''Mutt and Jeff'' under the imprint ''Classic Mutt and Jeff'' (in both English and Spanish language versions) under the copyright of [[Pierre de Beaumont|Pierre S. de Beaumont]] (1915–2010), founder of the [[Brookstone]] catalog and retail chain. De Beaumont inherited ownership of the strip from his mother, Aedita de Beaumont,<ref>Fox, Margalit. [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/business/19beaumont.html "Pierre de Beaumont, Brookstone Founder, Dies at 95"]. ''The New York Times'', March 18, 2011.</ref> who married Fisher in 1925 (the couple parted after four weeks, but never divorced).<ref>"Private Lives", ''Life'' magazine, December 28, 1936, page 62</ref>
[[Image:Mutt and Jeff - motorcycle cop.jpg|thumb|610px|A ''Mutt and Jeff'' strip from 1913.]]