Frederick Burr Opper
Pioneer of American newspaper comic strips
Frederick Burr Opper is regarded as one of the pioneers of American newspaper comic strips, best known for his comic strip Happy Hooligan. His comic characters were featured in magazine gag cartoons, covers, political cartoons and comic strips for six decades. Born to Austrian-American immigrants Lewis and Aurelia Burr Oppers in Madison, Ohio, Frederick was the eldest of three children. At the age of 14, he dropped out of school to work as a printer's apprentice at the local Madison Gazette, and at 16, he moved to New York City where he worked in a store and continued to draw. He studied briefly at Cooper Union, followed by a short stint as pupil and assistant to illustrator Frank Beard. Opper's first cartoon was published in Wild Oats in 1876, followed by cartoons and illustrations in Scribner’s Monthly and St. Nicholas Magazine. He worked as illustrator at Frank Leslie's Weekly from 1877 to 1880. Opper was then hired to draw for Puck by publishers Joseph Keppler and Adolph Schwarzmann. He stayed with Puck for 18 years, drawing everything from spot illustrations to chromolithograph covers. Opper married Nellie Barnett on May 18, 1881. They had three children, Lawrence, Anna and Sophia.
Artworks by this artist (79 total)
- New York’s St. Patrick 1895
- A hint to the Hebrews – how they may make themselves independent of the watering place hotels 1881
- Found at last! 1883
- An unpromising pair of racers 1894
- All aboard for the millennium! 1896
- A free feast for the congressional colored boys – they are all after a slice 1882
- Over-production 1896
- Some people who ought to ‘swear off’ this new year’s 1895
- Cupid’s candidate 1896
- Poor Tammany! 1896
- Old jokes in new political clothes 1895
- Drowned in the flood 1893
- McKinley has almost all the chips; – but the game is young, yet 1894
- We are getting there fast 1895
- Happy Hooligan makes a grand hit! 1911
- The glad Thanksgiving of some personages from Puck’s pages 1894
- Puck’s presidential possibilities. No. II, Old-man-ready-to-be-struck 1894
- Father Sandow Kickerbocker’s terrific feat 1894
- Poor paterfamilias – the family rises and he has to pay the freight 1895
- Puck’s suggestion to the congress of religions 1893