Fay King (cartoonist)


Fay Barbara King was an American illustrator, journalist, and cartoonist. Some of her work represents an early example of autobiographical comics.
King worked for newspapers and magazines in the early twentieth century, moving to New York City in 1918. She was one of the popular Jazz Age cartoonists appearing in the 1924 comedy The Great White Way.

Biography

Fay Barbara King was born in Seattle, Washington in March 1889, to John and Ella King. She was raised in Portland, Oregon, and went to college at Seattle University. The young Fay King was adventurous, being one of the first women in the Portland Area to own an automobile, and in 1912 had announced plans for a balloon ascension with noted early parachutist Tiny Broadwick, before the plan was rejected by her parents, according to an article in The Oregonian.
King's father had been an employee at a Turkish bath, as well a trainer of athletes, and she seems to have had a deep affinity for sport. King Married boxer "Battling" Nelson in 1913 in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago. Their divorce in 1916 was widely covered by the press.
King worked for The Denver Post from April 1912 to 1918, leaving for The San Francisco Examiner. She later became feature writer and cartoonist for the New York Evening Journal.
In 1924, she appeared as herself in the comedy The Great White Way.

Work

King's cartoons are recalled as an early example of autobiographical comics within the genre of newspaper cartooning. She frequently depicted herself in her comics, using a spindly, gangly caricature that bore a strong resemblance to the character of Olive Oyl, who would later be created by E.C. Segar for his Thimble Theater strip.
In addition to her autobiographical reporting, she is known to have created two strips, both of which ran in the New-York Mirror: "Mazie" and "Girls Will Be Girls".