'Sherlocko the Monk' (1904).
Charles Augustus Mager was an American painter of German descent, who also had a career in cartooning under the name "Gus Mager". For the Hearst newspapers, he created a great many short-lived newspaper gag comics. Many of them starred monkey characters, of which the humorous detective strip 'Sherlocko the Monk' (1910-1913) had the most durability. By the time Mager moved from the Hearst to the Pulitzer newspapers, his signature strip evolved into 'Hawkshaw the Detective' (1913-1922, 1931-1947). For the McNaught Syndicate, Mager additionally made the soap opera adventure strip 'Oliver's Adventures' (1926-1934). Together with Rudolph Dirks and Lyonel Feininger, Gus Mager was one of the most notable early German-American comic pioneers.
Early life and career
Charles Augustus "Gus" Mager Jr. was born in 1878 in Newark, New Jersey, as the son of German immigrants. The son of a jewelry stone-setter, Charles also began working in this profession at age 20. While he made a good living in the jewelry trade, he continued to submit ideas and sketches to New York papers, which eventually launched his cartooning career. Their relatives in Germany often sent the Mager family local humor magazines, exposing Mager to the cartoons and comics of German artists like Wilhelm Busch and Karl Arnold. From the US newspapers, he was influenced by T.S. Sullivant's funny animal comics. Gus Mager married Matilda Stunzl in 1907. When the US joined the First World War, Mager was drafted in late 1918, and served during the final stages of the war.
'In Jungle Society'.
In Jungle Land
In April 1904, Mager became a cartoonist for The New York American and the New York Evening Journal, newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst. Mager's early drawings were one-panel gag-a-day cartoons featuring charming anthropomorphic versions of monkeys and hippopotamuses. These eventually evolved into comic strips under the title '(In) Jungle Land' (1904-1906), and sometimes as '(In) Jungle Society'. Early installments still had text captions, but the characters quickly used word balloons. Mager's strip was not related to later features with a similar title, such as 'In Jungleland' by Leo O'Mealia for the Associated Newspapers (1915-1915) and 'In Jungle Land' (1927-1928) by Whitey for the Paramount Newspaper Feature Service.
'What Little Johnny Wanted And What Little Johnny Got', 1906.
Short-lived features
During the 1900s, Gus Mager created many daily/weekday newspaper comics for the Hearst papers that never quite caught on, and most barely lasted a few weeks or months. They were: 'And Then Papa Came' (11 September-9 October 1904), 'Foxy Reynard' (6-9 December 1904), 'Trouble Bruin' (16-19 December 1904), 'It's Too Bad that Willie Stammers' (20-28 January 1905), 'Everyday Dreams' (2-29 May 1905), 'Cecil in Search of a Job' (29 July -27 September 1905), 'Oily John the Detective' (20 September-10 October 1905), 'Louis and Franz' (23 December 1904-3 January 1905), 'What Little Johnny Wanted (And What Little Johnny Got)' (30 September-28 October 1906), 'Troubles of Pete the Pedlar' (11 November-16 December 1906), 'Maybe You Don't Believe It' (24 June-14 August 1907), 'The Nerve of Some People' (15-18 January 1908), 'What Little Sammy Knows' (28 January-4 February 1908), 'The Merry Widower' (20 April-29 May 1908), 'Dogs is Dogs' (23 January-3 March 1909), 'A Misfit Fable' (14 February-19 March 1909), 'Ain't It?' (2-10 March 1909) and 'And Not Only That' (16 March 1909-3 May 1910).
Many of these Mager creations were based on one gimmick that quickly grew stale. One of the shorter entries in his body of work was for instance 'Ain't I?'. Launched on 2 March 1909, it featured a character in a series of mishaps, asking the reader if they didn't consider this too much trouble for one person. By 10 March, Mager had already discontinued it. In his Sunday comic 'And Then Papa Came' (1904), a girl's suitor hides when her father comes, and chaos ensues when "poppa" comically discovers the suitor. 'Louie and Franz' (1904-1905) were a pair of nosy German-accented bears, and an early example of his interest in animal characters.
'Mufti the Monk' (San Francisco Examiner, 25 October 1907).
Mager's Monks
On 22 April 1904, Mager started a long-running series of characters nicknamed "The Monk" (1904-1913) and whose first names ended with an "-o". Contrary to what one might assume from the title, they weren't monks, but monkeys. First in line was 'Knocko the Monk', soon followed by a whole group of monkeys all defined by one personality trait. Knocko was posh, Groucho grumpy and Braggo arrogant. Grafto was opportunistic, Tightwaddo stingy, Henpecko submissive and Coldfeeto anxious. Nervo was brazen, Boneheado stupid and Forgetto absent-minded. Joko loved playing pranks, Hamfato couldn't act and Rhymo always spoke in rhyme. Relying on the possible creative ideas each personality trait might offer, some of these character-driven gag comics only ran for a couple of days.
'Henpecko the Monk', 15 June 1912.
Sherlocko the Monk
On 9 December 1910, Mager let his Monk characters spoof Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson', with two protagonists named "Sherlocko" and "Watso". Together with Jack Yeats' 'Chublock Homes' (1897), it was arguably the earliest detective strip directly based on 'Sherlock Holmes' and so paved the way for artists like Leo O'Mealia, Frank Giacoia, Bill Barry, Gary Reed and Guy Davis ('Baker Street') and parodies like Art Huhta's 'Dinky Dinkerton', Will Elder's 'Shermlock Shomes', Manfred Schmidt's 'Nick Knatterton' and Bruce Jones, April Campbell and Brent Anderson's 'Somerset Holmes'.
For some reason, perhaps because it parodied a famous literary work, Mager's 'Sherlocko the Monk' struck a nerve with readers. The feature became very popular and slowly but surely Mager dropped all of his other Monko characters in favor of Sherlocko and Watso. The feature developed from a series of standalone gags into a humorous detective serial. The comic was so beloved that it was adapted into two live-action slapstick comedy films: 'The Robbery at the Railroad Station' (1912) and 'The Henpeckos' (1912), produced by the Champion Film Company. Interestingly enough, Mager didn't shy away from referencing Sherlock Holmes' cocaine habit in his comics. Sherlocko regularly asked Watso to bring him a syringe for another junkie shot: "Quick, Watso, the needle!" It even became a catch phrase, printed on pinback buttons and borrowed by another cartoonist, Tad Dorgan, for his comic strip 'Daffydils'.
However, Gus Mager borrowed a bit too much from Arthur Conan Doyle's original. He didn't just spoof the characters, but also plagiarized entire plot elements from 'Sherlock Holmes' stories, including the assassination attempt from 'The Adventures of the Empty House' (1903). Doyle was not charmed and threatened to sue. And so, in 1913, Mager rebooted and retitled his feature as 'Hawkshaw the Detective'.
Mager's 'Hawkshaw' was also syndicated abroad, like to the Québec newspaper Le Petit Journal (1933-1937).
Hawkshaw the Detective
In 1913, Mager's friend and colleague Rudolph Dirks took a sabbatical from drawing his hit series 'The Katzenjammer Kids' in William Randolph Hearst's The New York Journal, despite Hearst refusing to grant him permission. Hearst fired Dirks, whereupon Dirks sued Hearst and joined rival newspaper The New York World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer. Out of solidarity, Mager also left Hearst and joined Pulitzer's paper.
On 23 February 1913, the 'Sherlocko' strip debuted in The New York World, under the new title 'Hawkshaw the Detective'. To avoid further trouble with 'Sherlock Holmes' novelist Arthur Conan Doyle, Mager named his character "Hawkshaw", while his assistant became known as "The Colonel". However, the new character and title were plagiarized too, namely from a character in Tom Taylor's theatrical play 'The Ticket-of-Leave Man' (1863). But as Taylor has been safely dead since 1880, Mager didn't fear any legal actions. Anecdotally, a few years earlier, another cartoonist, Frank Hutchinson, had a comic strip named 'Willie Hawkshaw, Amateur Detective' (1905-1906). With the transition to 'Hawkshaw', Mager also stopped drawing his characters as anthropomorphic monkeys, like he did before with his 'Monko' comics. On 6 March 1913, he even terminated his 'Monko' comics altogether to fully concentrate on 'Hawkshaw'. Only between 2 January and 3 April 1924 did he briefly revive the 'Monko' concept under the title 'Radio the Monk', this time starring an amateur radio presenter. From 13 October 1924 to 3 March 1925, Mager additionally revived the 'Sherlocko' title for a syndicated daily strip.
'Hawkshaw the Detective' ran as a Sunday comic until 12 November 1922. On 13 December 1931, it was resurrected as a "topper" comic above Rudolph Dirks' 'The Captain and the Kids', this time syndicated by World Feature Service and then United Feature Syndicate. This topper was signed by Mager with the pseudonym "Watso", and ran until 21 December 1947. During a period in 1932-1933 when Mager and Dirks were in copyright dispute with United Feature Syndicate, the strips were drawn by Bernard Dibble.
'Main Street' (1 April 1923).
Short-lived New York World strips
As he did during his time with the Hearst papers, Gus Mager continued to create several short-lived comic features, in addition to his more successful 'Hawkshaw the Detective'. For the New York World and its Press Publishing Syndicate, for instance, he created 'Obliging Otto' (21 June-2 August 1913) and 'Time-Table Tompkins' (17 December 1913-6 January 1914). On 8 January 1913, Mager drew a fill-in episode for 'O. Heeza Boob' (1912-1913), a strip otherwise drawn by a cartoonist known only as Hermann. Another one of his running-gag-based creations was 'Millionbucks' (18 January-3 June 1913), which centered around a multimillionaire who wants to get rid of his wealth. He tries to give or throw it away in each episode, but unfortunately he always regains it. The comics were notable for the fact that they were told in rhyme.
A little more enduring was Mager's daily 'The Trewtulyfe Family' (28 August 1923-1 January 1924), in itself basically a rip-off of George McManus' 'Bringing Up Father'. It also revolved around a poor family trying to be accepted in high society, while their father continuously blew their plans by getting along with people of lower class. Its Sunday page version, 'Main Street', ran between 15 October 1922 until 7 October 1923. 'The Trewtulyfe Family' was eventually replaced by Mager's previously mentioned 'Radio the Monk'. Around November 1925, another short-lived Mager strip, 'Fifty-Fifty Family', was in circulation, presumably through self-syndication or through the McNaught Syndicate.
'Oliver's Adventures' (San Francisco Chronicle, 2 April 1928).
Oliver's Adventures
One of the longer-running series in Mager's career was 'Oliver's Adventures' (May 1926 - 22 October 1934), distributed through the McNaught Syndicate. Much like 'Hawkshaw the Detective', it again was an adventure strip, but unlike its predecessor, this time it was dramatic rather than comedic. Oliver is a poor, pitiful boy who has a series of unfortunate mishaps, but still remains optimistic, despite his hardships. On 21 May 1934, the strip's title changed to 'Oliver And His Dog'. Mager concluded the serial on 22 October 1934. A main reason why 'Oliver's Adventures' kept running for so many years was, above all, its soap opera nature. The comic was clearly intended as an answer to the popularity of Harold Gray's 'Little Orphan Annie', only with a boy protagonist instead of a girl.
"Tavern scene", painting by Charles Augustus Mager.
Final years, death and legacy
By the 1940s, Gus Mager was also making artwork for the magazines Popular Science, and Outdoor Life. Mager retired from cartooning in 1947, and spent the rest of his life making paintings. Strongly attached to his native state of New Jersey, he was known for his warm depictions of its population, as well as its colorful countryside. His work was exhibited in various prestigious galleries, among them the Armory Show, the Salon of Independent Artists and the Salons of America. Living for most of his life in the area of Newark, more specifically in the Short Hills district of Millburn, Gus Mager went to live with his son in Murrysville, Pennsylvania after his wife's death. Referred to as the "Dean of New Jersey painters", the artist passed away from brain cancer in 1956.
Although Gus Mager's 'Monko' comics are nowadays very obscure, they did have a remarkable impact on popular culture. In the early 20th century, many US vaudeville comedians also started using stage names ending with the suffix "-o". The most famous examples were The Marx Brothers, who named themselves Groucho (directly lifted from Mager's 'Groucho the Monk' character), Chico, Harpo, Zeppo and Gummo. Even Walt Disney may have been inspired by Mager's 'Monko' comics to name the Seven Dwarfs in 'Snow White' (1937) after their personality traits.
Gus Mager (with banjo on the right) with cartoonist friends Pop Hart and Walt Kuhn (approx. 1915).