School Days (1909–1932) Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn (1918–1931)
Clare Victor Dwiggins (June 16, 1874 – October 26, 1958) was an Americancartoonist who signed his workDwig. Dwiggins created a number ofcomic strips andsingle-panel cartoons for various American newspapers andnewspaper syndicates from 1897 until 1945, including his best-known strip, the long-runningSchool Days (which appeared under a number of different titles).
Born inWilmington, Ohio,[1] Dwiggins was on a path toward a career in architecture but detoured into cartooning when his artwork was published in theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch and theNew York World in 1897. He created a wide variety of gag panels, includingJ. Filliken Wilberfloss,Leap Year Lizzie,Them Was the Happy Days,Uncle Jim and Tad and Tim,Mrs. Bump's Boarding House,Ophelia and Her Slate[2] andBill's Diary.
Dwiggins died in a North Hollywood rest home on October 26, 1958, after a long illness.[3]
Dwig's first comic strip wasHome Wanted for Tags, a daily/Sunday strip for theMcClure Newspaper Syndicate, which ran from 1910–1919. His longest-running strip wasTom Sawyer and Huck Finn (1918–1931), which used more than a half dozen ofMark Twain's characters but employed very little content from his novels.
Dwig beganSchool Days circa 1909 as a single panel,[4] and it eventually evolved into aSunday strip with a storyline about school kids that continued until c. 1932 (including under the titlesOphelia's Slate,The School Days of Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn, andGolden Days).[5][6]
Dwig drewNipper (1931–37) for theLedger Syndicate. During that same period, he didFootprints on the Sands of Time for the Ledger Syndicate.[7] In 1940, he returned toHuckleberry Finn (also for the Ledger Syndicate), which was reprinted in the pages ofDoc Savage Comics andSupersnipe Comics (both published byStreet & Smith Comics). He also drewBobby Crusoe in 1945 forSupersnipe Comics.[5]
Toasts (1907) published by John C. Winston Co., was a hardcover collection of bawdy and intemperateEdwardian poems andlimericks, illustrated with line drawings. After 1945, Dwig focused on illustration, including five books published withAugust Derleth.[5]
