'Mamma's Angel Child' (July 1915).
Marion T. Ross, sometimes affectionately nicknamed "Penny", was an early 20th-century American children's book illustrator and cartoonist. During the 1910s and 1920s, he was a newspaper cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune, where his Sunday comic 'Mamma's Angel Child' (1908-1923), about a cute little girl, remains his best-known creation. Ross' later children's book illustrations also often featured adorable children or creatures.
Life and career
The Illinois cartoonist Marion T. Ross was born in 1881, and lived in Oak Park, Cook County. He is often referred to by his nickname "Penny", or in general, as M. T. "Penny" Ross. The artist's studio, officially called the Penny Ross Advertising Company, was located in the Marshall Fields department store at Randolph and State in downtown Chicago. As a self-employed commercial artist, his art appeared in the trade publication Southern Pharmaceutical Journal, and in advertisements for Armour's Grape Juice in The Saturday Evening Post and Collier's (1913-1914).
'Mamma's Angel Child', The Chicago Sun, 21 March 1919.
Mamma's Angel Child
By 1908, M. T. Ross was a cartoonist working for the Chicago Tribune, creating several Sunday comics over the course of twelve years. His best-known and most enduring creation was 'Mamma's Angel Child', starring a cute, blonde, pig-tailed girl named Esther, who always got herself into trouble. The naïve, overprotected girl has a tendency to overreact to minor inconveniences. Ross accentuated the cuteness by having Esther mispronounce certain words or make naïve observations. She often strikes adorable poses, looking at the reader with dewy eyes and one hand in front of her mouth. Just like Richard Outcault's 'Buster Brown', most episodes end with a moral. In fact, Esther's mother bears a striking resemblance to Buster Brown's mother.
'Mamma's Angel Child'.
Remarkable about 'Mamma's Angel Child' is that Ross applied a very realistic style. He made no use of onomatopoeia and rarely drew speech balloons. Instead, the dialogue floated next to the character's heads. While this wasn't unusual in the late 19th century, most American newspaper comics in the early 20th century were already using cartoony characters, speech balloons and onomatopoeia. The series is equally notable for occasionally experimenting with lay-out, color and graphic styles. In a memorable 1908 Sunday page, little Esther visits a museum, where she has a "Cubist nightmare". She witnesses all kinds of crazy graphic styles and colors, which make her change shape and color too. Stylistically, the gag is comparable to Winsor McCay's 'Little Nemo in Slumberland'.
Initially running in the Tribune between 1 March 1908 and 17 October 1920, 'Mamma's Angel Child' became extraordinarily popular and was syndicated to 25 major U.S. newspapers, including the Baltimore American Newspaper and the New York Daily News. The character also inspired children's picture books, such as 'Mamma's Angel Child in Toyland' (Rand McNally, 1915), written by Marie Christine Sadler and illustrated by M. T. "Penny" Ross.
'Mamma's Angel Child'.
Other Chicago Tribune features
During his time with the Chicago Tribune, Penny Ross worked on several short-lived or ongoing cartoon features, mostly for the Sunday papers. Together with fellow cartoonists like A.D. Reed, Frank King, Brandt, Butler, Sidney Smith and Olson, he was one of the artists for the 'Foolish Limericks' feature (1910-1911). On 17 September 1911, he created a fill-in episode for Frank King's 'Honest Harold, Do You Mean What You Say?'. Among his own additional creations for the Tribune were 'Mrs. Stout and Miss Slim' (10 September 1911 - 25 February 1912) and 'Beatrice and her Brother Bill' (11 January - 31 May 1914), later retitled to 'Beatrice And Her Brother Bill and Cousin Percy'.
Buster Brown
A close friend of cartoonist Richard F. Outcault, Penny Ross is believed to have drawn Outcault's 'Buster Brown' comic in its later period. Originally appearing since 1902 in the New York Herald, Outcault continued to draw his comic feature for the newspapers of tycoon William Randolph Hearst between 1906 and 1923. Buster is a wealthy boy in bowtie and fancy pink suit, accompanied by a pitbull named Tige. Although Buster's parents are well off, the boy still loves to play pranks, even though he is punished for it afterwards. Later in its Hearst run, it is believed that Richard Outcault handed over the strip to other cartoonists, for instance Penny Ross and Doc Winner. Given that Ross was experienced in drawing cute and well-dressed kids, his involvement in the 'Buster Brown' strip seems plausible. His own 'Mamma's Angel Child' comic also shows stylistic and thematic resemblances.
From: 'Bird Children - The Little Playmates of the Flower Children' (1912)
Children's book illustrator
Between the 1900s and 1930s, M. T. Ross was also a popular children's book illustrator. Among the many books he illustrated were Edith Brown Kirkwood's 'Animal Children: The Friends of the Forest and the Plain' (1913), Anna Scott's 'A Year With The Fairies' (1914) and especially many titles by Elizabeth Gordon: 'The Flower Children: The Little Cousins of the Field and Garden' (1910), 'Bird Children - The Little Playmates of the Flower Children' (1912), 'The Butterfly Babies' (1914), 'Mother Earth's Children: The Frolics of the Fruits and Vegetables' (1914), and 'I Wonder Why?' (1916). Many of these books feature cute, cherub-like children, fairies, elves, forest animals and other adorable creatures.
Later life and death
During the 1920s, Ross was one of the early co-workers of Walt Disney and his right hand Ub Iwerks, when they were still leading a struggling Chicago animation studio. In Chicago, Ross was often commissioned to paint murals inside several Chicago-area buildings and illustrated advertising brochures. He was a consultant to the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and an instructor at the Chicago Art Institute and the Lewis Institute. In 1926, Ross moved to Southern California, where he worked for RKO Pictures and other studios as a set designer. He eventually died in 1937 in Oakland, California, from a heart attack. He was 56 years old, and survived by his wife since 1907 Myrtle May Barnard, and two children Gilbert and Mary Jane Ross.
Among his many friends was silent film star Theda Bara, "The Vamp." At the time of his death, Penny Ross was in the process of painting a mural in the large entryway at the home of film star Richard Dix.
'Mamma's Angel Child'.