FONTAINE FOX'S TOONERVILLE TROLLEY

Toonerville Folks (a.k.a. The Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains) was a popular newspaper cartoon feature by Fontaine Fox, which ran from 1908 to 1955. It began in 1908 in the Chicago Post, and by 1913, it was syndicated nationally by the Wheeler Syndicate. From the 1930s on, it was distributed by the McNaught Syndicate. For more than 40 years, his Toonerville Trolley cartoons were syndicated across the country. Dealing with everyday things and ordinary people, they recorded an era. They did so with broad humor and with a marvelous cast of characters who became household names.

The single-panel gag cartoon (with longer-form comics on Sunday) was a daily look at Toonerville, situated in what are now called the suburbs. Central to the strip was the rickety little trolley called the "Toonerville Trolley that met all the trains", driven in a frenzy by the grizzly old Skipper to meet each commuter train as it arrived in town. A few of the many richly formed characters include Suitcase Simpson, Mickey McGuire, the Powerful Katrinka, the Terrible Tempered Mr. Bang, Aunt Eppie Hogg, Little Woo-Woo Wortle, The Little Scorpions, and "Stinky" Davis.

Fox was one of the most popular American cartoonists of the 20th Century. For more than 40 years his Toonerville Trolley cartoons were syndicated across the country. Dealing with everyday things and ordinary people, they recorded an era. They did so with broad humor and with a marvelous cast of characters who became household names. He described the inspiration for the cartoon series in an article he wrote for The Saturday Evening Post titled "A Queer Way to Make a Living", "After years of gestation, the idea for the Toonerville Trolley was born one day up in Westchester County when my wife and I had left New York City to visit Charlie Voight, the cartoonist, in the Pelhams. At the station, we saw a rattletrap of a streetcar, which had as its crew and skipper a wistful old codger with an Airedale beard. He showed as much concern in the performance of his job as you might expect from Captain Hartley when docking the Leviathan".

Out of Print. Condition: Very Good. First page has a yellow glue stain from a removed sticker. Very light tipped corner & small edge bend. Dust Jacket has some tiny tears along some edges.