Clare Briggs
“For me, Briggs should be remembered as the founder (along with John T. McCutcheon) of the “Chicago school of cartooning” or perhaps “the mid-western school of cartooning.” With his low-key humor, his fidelity to ordinary life, his feel for quiet moments, Briggs created a style of cartooning that was very different from the hurly-burly vaudeville vulgarity of the New York school (Dirks, Outcault, Opper). Briggs’s approach influenced not only panel cartoonists like J.R. Williams but also the whole Chicago Tribune stable of newspaper strips: Sidney Smith, Frank King, Harold Gray, and even Chester Gould. They all owed a debt to Briggs. Thanks to Briggs, mid-century newspaper cartooning became a reflection of middle America.”