Paul Fung
Encyclopedia
Paul Fung was an American cartoonist
best known for the comic strip
Dumb Dora.
Fung's father was a Baptist minister, the Reverend Fung Chak, a graduate of Stanford University
. Paul was born in Seattle, where his father was pastor of Seattle's Chinese Baptist mission. In China, Fung Chak was renowned as a translator of hymns and patriotic songs, Paul studied traditional Chinese art, which included painting cherry blossoms on delicate fans. But he became familiar with cartooning because his sister in Portland, Oregon
mailed him Sunday comics
sections. Returning to Seattle, Fung received further art training by studying the Landon School of Illustrating and Cartooning
's mail order correspondence course while he was attending Franklin High School, where he drew cartoons for the school paper. In addition to drawing, he also sang and played several musical instruments.
When his father died while he was in high school, Paul set out to find work. He drew cartoons which were displayed in the lobby of a Seattle vaudeville
house, and he performed chalk talk
s at Seattle's Orpheum Theatre. In 1916, he began doing news and sports cartoons for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. When he was 22, he was profiled in Everybody's Magazine
.
Fung's first original comic strip, Innocent Hing, had a short run. After working as an assistant on Billy DeBeck's Barney Google
in the early 1920s, Fung moved on to do several other strips, A Guy from Grand Rapids, Bughouse Fables and Gus and Gussie.
left Dumb Dora and its topper
panel When Mother Was a Girl to launch Blondie
, Fung became his replacement in April 1930. After two years on Dumb Dora, Fung turned it over to Bil Dwyer in 1932. Interviewed by Will Eisner
, Milton Caniff
recalled:
During the late 1930s, Fung worked as an assistant on Cliff Sterrett
's Polly and Her Pals
. The Dumb Dora strip came to an end in 1934, but Fung drew the character again during the early 1940s as part of an advertising campaign for Shredded Ralston
cereal.
Paul Fung was 47 when he died. His son is the cartoonist Paul Fung, Jr.
s and 36 daily strip
s, plus four originals from When Mother Was a Girl.
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
best known for the comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Dumb Dora.
Fung's father was a Baptist minister, the Reverend Fung Chak, a graduate of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. Paul was born in Seattle, where his father was pastor of Seattle's Chinese Baptist mission. In China, Fung Chak was renowned as a translator of hymns and patriotic songs, Paul studied traditional Chinese art, which included painting cherry blossoms on delicate fans. But he became familiar with cartooning because his sister in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
mailed him Sunday comics
Sunday comics
Sunday comics is the commonly accepted term for the full-color comic strip section carried in most American newspapers. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies....
sections. Returning to Seattle, Fung received further art training by studying the Landon School of Illustrating and Cartooning
Charles N. Landon
Charles Nelson Landon , also known as C.N. Landon, was an illustrator for The Cleveland Press, art director for the Newspaper Enterprise Association and art editor of Cosmopolitan...
's mail order correspondence course while he was attending Franklin High School, where he drew cartoons for the school paper. In addition to drawing, he also sang and played several musical instruments.
When his father died while he was in high school, Paul set out to find work. He drew cartoons which were displayed in the lobby of a Seattle vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
house, and he performed chalk talk
Chalk talk
A chalk talk was a popular act in vaudeville. A performer used chalk on a blackboard to make changes in a drawing while delivering a monologue. Some performers would do caricatures of audience members. The term also was used to describe an act done with crayons...
s at Seattle's Orpheum Theatre. In 1916, he began doing news and sports cartoons for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. When he was 22, he was profiled in Everybody's Magazine
Everybody's Magazine
Everybody's Magazine was an American magazine from 1899 to 1929.The magazine was founded by Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker in 1899, though he had little role in its actual operations....
.
Fung's first original comic strip, Innocent Hing, had a short run. After working as an assistant on Billy DeBeck's Barney Google
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, originally Barney Google, is a long-running American comic strip created by cartoonist Billy DeBeck . Since its debut on June 17, 1919, the strip has gained a huge international readership, appearing in 900 newspapers in 21 countries...
in the early 1920s, Fung moved on to do several other strips, A Guy from Grand Rapids, Bughouse Fables and Gus and Gussie.
Dumb Dora
When creator Chic YoungChic Young
Murat Bernard Young , better known as Chic Young, was an American cartoonist who created the popular, long-running comic strip Blondie. His 1919 William McKinley High School Yearbook cites his nickname as Chicken, source of his familiar pen name and signature...
left Dumb Dora and its topper
Topper (comic strip)
A topper in comic strip parlance is a small secondary strip seen along with a larger Sunday strip. In the 1920s and 1930s, leading cartoonists were given full pages in the Sunday comics sections, allowing them to add smaller strips and single-panel cartoons to their page.Toppers usually were drawn...
panel When Mother Was a Girl to launch Blondie
Blondie (comic strip)
Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930...
, Fung became his replacement in April 1930. After two years on Dumb Dora, Fung turned it over to Bil Dwyer in 1932. Interviewed by Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
, Milton Caniff
Milton Caniff
Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
recalled:
- When I reached New York I called Bil Dwyer who had also worked on the Columbus Dispatch... I called him just socially and told him I was in town to say hello. I didn't know where he lived, on Christopher Street. I didn't even know where Christopher Street was. So he said, "My God, I'm glad you called! I've got a problem here. Come on down!" This was like the first night I was in town and he had been submitting things to King Features and selling gags, by the way, to the magazines, Colliers and The New Yorker. Anyway, he had submitted a gag-type strip to King Features and he got a call back saying that Paul Fung was being pulled off Dumb Dora and Dwyer had the assignment. Here he was suddenly with six strips and a Sunday page to do and he'd never done anything except single panels. And he was in trouble. Frank Engli was helping him. He did lettering. He later on did a strip called Looking Back, about stone age characters—very well done cartooning. But his lettering was especially good. So I went down to see them and they were laboring away at the first release. Bil was a good gag writer, but he'd never had this kind of assignment before. So he said to me, "Will you sit in on this thing and especially draw the girls?" So I laid out the first batch of stuff and again, it was not hard for me to do because I had those 11 o'clock deadlines every morning. And so then I inked the girls and he inked the other characters; very simple drawing. Dwyer... was a very good gag man. Chic Young had originated the character and then Paul finally took over from Chic when Chic started Blondie. Paul was drawing it before Dwyer. I never did find out, by the way, why he withdrew. Maybe Fung had a fight with King Features. I don't know and I never did ask. So we made the deadline, which was the thing that was bothering Dwyer, but in the mean time I had to go to work the next morning at eight o'clock.
During the late 1930s, Fung worked as an assistant on Cliff Sterrett
Cliff Sterrett
Clifford Sterrett , was an innovative comic strip cartoonist who created the influential Polly and Her Pals....
's Polly and Her Pals
Polly and Her Pals
Polly and Her Pals is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Cliff Sterrett, which ran from 1912 until 1958. It is regarded as one of the most graphically innovative strips of the 20th century...
. The Dumb Dora strip came to an end in 1934, but Fung drew the character again during the early 1940s as part of an advertising campaign for Shredded Ralston
Webster Edgerly
Webster Edgerly was a 19th- and 20th-century American social reform activist. He believed in euthanasia programs, a healthy diet, and the power of personal magnetism, and began the Ralstonism movement as a way to live out this lifestyle....
cereal.
Paul Fung was 47 when he died. His son is the cartoonist Paul Fung, Jr.
Archives
The Paul Fung Cartoons collection at Syracuse University has 46 originals from Dumb Dora, including ten Sunday stripSunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
s and 36 daily strip
Daily strip
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays....
s, plus four originals from When Mother Was a Girl.