When someone produces a comic strip of such magnificence as Jimmy Dodge-a-Job you want to know more about him. But this strip is by a mysterious cartoonist by the name of James Stewart — try typing that name into a search engine and you’ve got a few hundred million links to peruse at your leisure. 

All I know about the fellow is that he did this lovely strip for the New York Herald in 1918, and that I am willing to bet heavily he is also the cartoonist behind the Chicago Tribune strip Economical Bertie of almost a decade earlier, which was signed only ‘Stewart’. While the styles of the two strips are very different, the signatures are a pretty good match, and a cartoonist of this caliber could certainly adapt his style to the material. But what this master penman did other than these two short-lived strips is a mystery, and one that someone should try to solve — my meager attempt being anything but Sherlockian by any means.

Anyhoo, Jimmy Dodge-a-Job (my laziness prohibits me from typing that full title) ran in the New York Herald from February 3 to August 11 1918*. The plot is a direct and near-exact rip-off of Slim Jim and the Force, but who cares? This strip isn’t about the plot, it’s about drinking in that magnificent art and layout *sigh*. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Alex Jay offers us an Ink-Slinger Profile on his best guess to the actual identity of Mr. James Stewart. Spoiler alert: this Stewart is not the artist on Economical Bertie.

* Source: Ken Barker’s New York Herald index in StripScene #20.