Fay King, Hearst Cartoonist
/Fay King Self Portrait 1918, from the collection of trina robbins
Getting my papers ready for a presentation on Trina Robbins at the CAA national convention in NY, I found some items that reminded me of one of my last conversations with her. In our Women in Comics show, Trina loaned some of the jewels of her collection, including a pair of drawings by Fay King (b Seattle, WA 1889 - ?) who started her professional cartooning career at the Denver Post in 1912. In 1913 she entered into a short-lived and tumultuous marriage with a prize-fighter named Oscar Nelson. In 1918, she left the Post for the San Francisco Examiner, where she was considered a top-notch critic and cartoonist. Wikipedia credits King with the creation of two short-lived comic strips: Mazie (in 1924, briefly) and Girls Will Be Girls (1924-25). About the latter, King wrote a lengthy article for the February 1925 issue of Circulation, a syndicate promotional publication. After her run at the Examiner, she completely disappeared until she funded Nelson’s funeral in 1954. There is no record after that, and no obit. Trina wrote about King in all of her herstories, and there is also a detailed account of her life and career by the late comics historian R.C. Harvey, culled from the press of the time.
Fay King. 1918. “Gosh! It’s K.C.B.” Collection of trina robbins.
In one of the King cartoons owned by Trina, she references “K.C.B.” I was always curious about this, because it seemed like such a distinct caricature. Some time in the summer of 2023, I found a 1915 book called Ye Towne Gossip by K.C.B. (Kenneth C. Beaton) of the San Francisco Examiner. I called Trina to share my nerdy excitement and she agreed that this was the guy. Below is the book cover (you can see the resemblance to King’s drawing), the author photo and title page, and the opening pages of the book in his distinctive format.
Recently the comics historian Kamden Spies posted this ad featuring Fay King on Facebook, promoting King’s appearance in the 1924 silent film The Great White Way, which included several popular cartoonists, including Nell Brinkley. In addition to King and Brinkley, several other cartoonists and newspaper people were included Arthur "Bugs" Baer, Arthur Brisbane, Kid Broad, Irvin S. Cobb, Hal Coffman, Billy De Beck, Frank DeVernon, Jerry Hershfield, Winsor McCay, J. W. McGurk, George McManus, Tex Rickard, Damon Runyon, Earl Sande, Ned Wayburn, and H. C. Witwer. There is no existing copy of the film. According to a 1924 film review published in Exhibitor’s Trade Review cited on Wikipedia, the film starred Anita Stewart and Oscar Shaw in a love story between a Follies dancer and a professional boxer. It doesn’t mention how the cartoonists and newspaper people fit into the plot, but strips about sports like boxing were very popular. King, as I mentioned above, had an on & off relationship with the prize-fighter Oscar Nelson herself.
Trina had a still of Brinkely in this film in her collection. I have not identified the other people in the photo.
Nell Brinkley in “The Great White Way,” a photo from the collection of trina robbins.
Feminist-Leaning Fay King strips from the Denver Post. These are undated, but would have been drawn between 1912 - 1918.
