'Cynical Susie'.
Becky Sharp (sometimes spelled as 'Beckie Sharp') was a mysterious early 20th-century U.S. newspaper comic writer, best remembered for her run on the gag comic 'Cynical Susie' (1931-1936).
Cynical Susie
In 1931, 'Cynical Susie' debuted as a daily one-panel cartoon feature in The Los Angeles Daily News, gradually evolving into a daily comic strip. By 1933, a Sunday comic version ran with a different syndicate, United Features, allowing it to appear nation-wide. Becky Sharp was credited as scriptwriter, while LaVerne Harding drew the episodes. Cynical Susie was originally a Hollywood child actress, presumably inspired by the success of real-life child movie star Shirley Temple. Early gags feature her in shenanigans on film sets. Later, Susie became more a typical little girl in recognizable, everyday situations at home, in school and her suburban neighborhood. Susie took care of an even younger little girl, Pinny Tinglepin, and had a pet rooster named Pinfeather. By 1935, the daily 'Cynical Susie' episodes were dropped and the series became a Sunday comic only. The same year, Harding left the series.
Allan Holtz of Stripper's Guide suggests that Harding probably got more preoccupied with her job as animator for Walter Lantz. In his opinion, Sharp's gag writing also left a lot to be desired and Harding may have felt that the comic felt too much as a waste of time. Holtz: "Becky Sharp had pretty good funny ideas for her strip about a Hollywood child actor, but she couldn't seem to get the hang of writing comic strips. Her storytelling is very jerky, uncertain and unfocused, leaving the reader more confused than entertained. It would have been smart for UFS to offer Harding her own strip and drop the writer, but that unfortunately did not happen." Holtz also suggested that Harding may have been fed up with sharing her royalties with Sharp.
From September 1935 on, 'Cynical Susie' was continued by Bernard Dibble. Dibble started adding his initials to episodes from 1936 on. According to Holtz, the series may have ended as early as December 1936 or as late as 7 August 1937. Sharp's name no longer appeared in the credits from March 1936 on.
Cynical Susie strip, attributed to "Becky Sharp".
Identity?
For a long while it was uncertain whether Becky Sharp was a real person or just a pseudonym used by LaVerne Harding and Bernard Dibble. Becky Sharp is a character in William Makepeace Thackeray's classic novel 'Vanity Fair' (1847-1848), adapted into a Hollywood movie, 'Becky Sharp' (1935), around the time the comic series ran in papers. The film 'Becky Sharp' drew attention for being presented in a three-strip Technicolor process, but otherwise received mixed reviews. This would support the assumption that there never was a real 'Becky Sharp'. Comics researcher Cole Johnson held the belief that Becky Sharp was probably a pseudonym, a theory also supported by Stuart Cooper, who in 2005 wrote us the following theory by mail:
"The signature appears to be in quotation marks in the example you post, suggesting acknowledgement of a pseudonym. It should be kept in mind that "Becky Sharp" (an adaptation of Wm. Thackeray's novel "Vanity Fair") was the first full Technicolor feature film, released in 1935, just as "Cynical Susie" began to be credited to this name. It is my understanding that the film did very badly and was a notorious laughing-stock at the time. Since the strip 'Cynical Susie' was set in Hollywood, it's very likely that "Becky Sharp" was one of the two credited artists (LaVerne Harding or Bernard Dibble) using that pseudonym for a while as a joke at the expense of the film. In fact, since LaVerne Harding started working for Walter Lantz as an animator around that time, I strongly suspect "Becky Sharp" was simply Harding moonlighting under that pseudonym, possibly due to union rules restricting her from outside work."
On 20 February 2016, the Cartoon Research Blog finally discovered the truth: Becky Sharp was indeed a pseudonym, but used by an actual writer: Helen Augusta Sharp (22 April 1890, or 1891 - 1 September 1961). Another woman, Olive Jean Brittan (11 November 1888 - 3 June 1949), was also mentioned in United Features' contract with Harding and Sharp, regarding the 'Cynical Susie' comic. She was teacher at a public school and made written contributions to the Los Angeles School Journal.