Al Smith (March 21, 1902 – November 24, 1986) was an American cartoonist whose work included a long run on the comic strip Mutt and Jeff. Comics historian R. C. Harvey postulates that Smith's nearly 50-year run on the strip was, at the time of Smith's retirement, a world record for longevity. Smith (and later his family members) also ran a comic strip syndication service — mainly serving weekly newspapers — from the 1950s until the late 1990s.

Overview

Al Smith (March 21, 1902 – November 24, 1986) was an American cartoonist whose work included a long run on the comic strip Mutt and Jeff. Comics historian R. C. Harvey postulates that Smith's nearly 50-year run on the strip was, at the time of Smith's retirement, a world record for longevity. Smith (and later his family members) also ran a comic strip syndication service — mainly serving weekly newspapers — from the 1950s until the late 1990s. Biography Born Albert Schmidt in Brooklyn, New York, Smith was the art editor for the syndication department of the New York World from 1920 to 1930. From 1920 to 1933, Smith wrote and drew the syndicated cartoon From Nine to Five for the World's syndicate service (it moved to the United Feature Syndicate and ended in 1933). In 1960, he wrote of his life Bud Fisher appeared to lose all interest in his Mutt and Jeff strip during the 1930s, and after Fisher's assistant Ed Mack died in 1932, the job of creating the strip fell to Al Smith. The strip retained Fisher's signature until his death, however, and not until December 7, 1954, was the strip signed by Smith. In the introduction to Forever Nuts: The Early Years of Mutt & Jeff, comic strip historian Allan Holtz gave the following reason for the strip's longevity and demise:

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.”
— Comments during the New York Convention on the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Albany, New York, June 27, 1933. Everett Somerville Brown (ed.) Ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: State Convention Records and Laws (New York: Da Capo Press, 1970), p. 302

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Not who you're looking for? Others named Al Smith: American statesman and governor (1873–1944) · left-handed pitcher (1907-1977) · Canadian ice hockey goaltender (1945–2002) · professional baseball umpire (1925–2006)

Al Smith across IJR

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Hal SmithHeadline energy, small-talk hours.Brandon Mychal SmithAsk the American actor everything the interviews skip.

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