Biography:

Frederick Burr Opper was an American cartoonist.  He was born on January 2, 1857 in Madison, Ohio.  He dropped out of school when he was fourteen years old and worked as a printer’s apprentice for the Madison Gazette.  He moved to New York City at the age of sixteen and soon began working for Wild Oats.  He then worked for three years at Leslie’s Magazine as a correspondent and cartoonist.  In 1880, Keppler hired him as a cartoonist for Puck.  He remained on staff for almost twenty years.  In 1898, Opper began working as a cartoonist for William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal.   While working for Hearst, Opper created several popular and long running comic strip series including Happy Hooligan and Alphonse and Gastone.  He retired in 1934 due to vision problems.  He died in New York on August 27, 1937.