- Billy De Beck
William Morgan "Billy" De Beck (
April 15 ,1890 -November 11 ,1942 ) was a popularcartoonist and writer who was widely published. He created some of the memorable comic strip characters of the 1920s and 1930s, includingBarney Google , Bunky,Snuffy Smith and the racehorse Spark Plug. He was born and grew up in Chicago,Illinois , where he studied at theChicago Academy of Fine Arts .De Beck was drawing cartoons by 1910. His comic strip "Barney Google and Spark Plug" first ran in June 1919 in the "Chicago Herald and Examiner". The main character, Barney, was initially a simple henpecked husband and avid follower of sports, but within ten years Barney morphed into an urban rascal and natty dresser. The bony and goofy racehorse, Spark Plug, trotted into the storyline in 1922. Barney met his
hillbilly friend, Snuffy Smith, in 1934. Readers found the strip a comic relief from tragic conditions of theGreat Depression .De Beck’s style of drawing is considered to be in the classic "big-foot" tradition quite prominent in American comic strips (e.g., "
The Katzenjammer Kids ", "Hägar the Horrible ", many ofRobert Crumb 's characters). After DeBeck's death onVeterans Day , 1942, the strip was continued by his assistant,Fred Lasswell .The
National Cartoonist Society 's annual award was originally named "The Billy De Beck Memorial Award". However, it was renamed theReuben Award (afterRube Goldberg 's real first name) in 1954.The expression "heebie jeebies" (a fit of intense nervousness) and "hotsy-totsy" were coined by Billy De Beck for dialogue in his comic strip.
External links
* [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/heebie-jeebies Heebie jeebies]
* [http://wordsmith.org/words/hotsy-totsy.html Hotsy totsy]
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