Doc Rankin

Ainsworth H. "Doc" Rankin (November 27, 1896 - January 1954) was an American army officer and freelance cartoonist.^[1] He served for many years as an editorial page cartoonist for the Brooklyn Eagle and is best known for producing the touring show This is the Army with Irving Berlin, which toured military camps during World War II.^[2] He is also widely believed by comic collectors to be the anonymous artist nicknamed "Mr. Prolific" who produced over 100 "Tijuana bibles" in the 1930s,^[3] based on an identification by sexologist, folklorist and bibliographer Gershon Legman. Legman claimed to have met Doc Rankin in a Scranton, PA bookstore and learned from him that he was one of the artists behind the 8-page Tijuana bibles.^[4]

After failing to see action during World War I due to an injury, Rankin served as a reserve cavalry officer for many years, while maintaining a freelance cartooning studio in Manhattan where he produced commercial art and cartoons for gag books by small publishers like Larch Publications. For many years he regularly drew editorial page cartoons for the daily Brooklyn Eagle in a dramatic conté crayon style similar to the work of Robert Minor, and very unlike his humorous pen and ink gag cartooning work. Never well known as a cartoonist, he retired from cartooning after his military call-up in 1940. He served as a Special Services officer with responsibilities for entertainment and camp morale, first at Camp Upton on Long Island, then overseas in Europe. He remained in the military after the war, rising to the rank of Lt. Colonel, and died of heart failure at Fort Bragg in 1954. He is buried in Fayetteville, NC.

References

1. ^ "Around the borough: Lt. Col. Ainsworth H. Rankin" Brooklyn Eagle, January 9, 1948. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
2. ^ The Songwriter Goes to War by Alan Anderson, p. 39-40, 50-51, and passim (2004) ISBN 0-879-10304-3
3. ^ Heer, J (2002). "Tijuana Bibles". St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture (Gale Group). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419101224. Retrieved 2009-04-02. 
4. ^ Spiegelman, A (1997-08-19). "Tijuana Bibles". Salon.com. http://www.salon.com/aug97/spieg2970819.html. Retrieved 2009-02-24. 

Persondata
Name	Rankin, Doc
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Short description
Date of birth	November 27, 1896
Place of birth
Date of death	1954
Place of death