“Reversing the Process” (Puck, December 10, 1890)
by Frederick Burr Opper (1857-1937)
10.25 x 15 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

Frederick Burr Opper is perhaps my favorite of the first generation of cartoonists. I like his loose style, and the obviousness of his ink strokes, and the way he depicts the common people of the day.

Here, two veteran actors meet on the street in New York. The cartoon features some great little details about theatre advertising behind the two actors.

Stormer states: “Hello, Coleday, shake hands, old boy; this is a surprise. I heard that your company was stranded in some town out West. How did you get back?”

To which Coleday replies: “Easy enough. I joined another company that was going East; and now I am stranded in New York.”

Opper was the son of Austrian immigrants. At the age of fourteen, he began drawing cartoons for the Madison, Ohio Gazette. In 1877, at the age of 20, he accepted a position as staff artist with a magazine called Wild Oats. He spent several years at Wild Oats and also did freelance work with several other magazines and newspapers. Opper spent eighteen years working for Puck magazine, before being hired by Hearst, in 1899, to draw cartoon strips as a staff member of theNew York Evening Journal.

Frederick Burr Opper was one of the United States’ leading cartoonists in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. He created memorable cartoon characters including “Alphonse and Gaston,” (1902) and “Maud, the Kicking Mule” (1904). “Happy Hooligan” (1900) was his best-known cartoon series. Opper continued to draw until 1932, age 72, when vision problems forced him to retire.