Frederick Burr Opper (1857–1937)

This studio portrait shows Opper in middle age — balding, pince-nez glasses, jacket and waistcoat — the face of a man who had already remade American popular humor. After years as *Puck*'s star cartoonist, Opper joined Hearst's *New York Journal* in 1899 and launched three strips that helped fix the comic page's DNA: *Happy Hooligan*, *Alphonse and Gaston*, and *And Her Name Was Maud!* His work established the recurring cast, the sequential panel, and the visual punch line as standard tools. *Alphonse and Gaston* featured French-immigrant characters portrayed with exaggerated politeness. Opper's clean line and confident timing made those Sunday pages the direct ancestor of the comic book form.