Otto Soglow
American illustrator and cartoonist, 1900–1975
When his cartoon starring "The Lilttle King" appeared in The New Yorker in 1930, it was popular enough that the magazine soon asked him to make it a regular feature. Although Soglow created other cartoons, The Little King became his hallmark work.The KIng (captionless and silent) was a comically atypical monarch - gleefully informal, pleasant, and democratic. His personality was at odds with his requisite robe and crown. Each strip involved a plot wherein his ceremonial duties and regalia contrasted with his mundane activities, for example: when a dolphin in the royal aquarium refuses to eat alone, the king dispenses with his robe, (though not his crown), and joins the animal in the water. In 1934,The Little King left The New Yorker and was nationally syndicated as a Sunday-only comic.
Soglow continued to create other cartoons and comic strips. The Little King was discontinued on July 20, 1975, following Soglows death earlier that year.
Soglow was a founder of the National Cartoonists Society in 1946, where he was named cartoonist of the year in 1966, and a recipient of the Society’s Elzie Segar Award “for unique and outstanding contributions to the profession of cartooning” in 1972.
Sources and further references:
R. C. Harvey, Otto Soglow and the Little King: The Silent Runs Deep:
http://www.tcj.com/otto-soglow-and-the-little-king-the-silent-runs-deep/
Person TypeIndividual
Terms
- male
American cartoonist, 1857–1937
American illustrator, 1856–1915
American cartoonist, 1909–1956
English painter and designer, 1821–1893
German born American artist and designer, 1886–1953
American painter and printmaker, 1897–1977
