Fontaine Fox - Life Before Toonerville

Life Before Toonerville

Born near Louisville, Kentucky, Fox started his career as a reporter and part-time cartoonist for the Louisville Herald. He spent two years in higher education at Indiana University, Bloomington; nevertheless, he continued sketching one cartoon a day for the Louisville Herald. After two years of college, he abandoned his studies in favor of his true calling, writing and illustrating comics. From 1908, Fox started a series of daily cartoons about kids for the Chicago Evening Post. His panel was noted by the Wheeler Syndicate, which started distributing his work nationwide, this eventually led to the creation and distribution of Toonerville Folks. The panel, which expanded its circulation from a few papers to hundreds between 1915 and the mid-1920s, spawned several merchandising efforts, including cartoon books, cracker boxes, magic picture folders, paper masks, gum wrappers, bisques and cutout sheets.