Dave Breger

Irving David Breger (April 15, 1908 – January 16, 1970) was an American cartoonist who created the syndicated Mister Breger (1945–1970), a gag panel series and Sunday comic strip known earlier as Private Breger and G.I. Joe. The series led to widespread usage of the term "G.I. Joe" during World War II and later.Dave Breger was his signature and the byline on his books. During World War II, his cartoons were signed Sgt. Dave Breger.

Growing up in Chicago, where he was born of native Russian parents, butcher Benjamin Breger and Sophie Passin Breger, only a few weeks after they arrived in the United States from the Ukraine. As a youth, Breger had encounters with the local gangsters while working at his father's sausage factory. In 1926, he acquired his high school diploma from Crane Technical School, where he drew cartoons signed Irving Breger for the school paper. He studied architectural engineering at the University of Illinois and then transferred to Northwestern University, where he edited the campus humor magazine, Purple Parrot, while studying pre-med and psychology. He had no schooling in art or cartooning, and his college cartoons were drawn in a style similar to John Held, Jr.

Graduating from Northwestern in 1931 with a degree in abnormal psychology, he spent a year traveling the world, visiting Russia and Africa; during that period he sold cartoons to the German magazine, Lustigeblaetter. He returned to Chicago and the sausage stockyard, rising to the position of office manager of his father's firm, where he devised the company slogan, "Our Wurst Is the Best". His first marriage, with fashion model Evelyn Breger, lasted five years.

In 1937, after receiving a $30 check from The Saturday Evening Post, Breger arrived in New York and began freelancing to Collier's, Parade, This Week, Esquire, Click and The New Yorker. Early in 1941, he was drafted into the United States Army and sent to Camp Livingston in Louisiana, where he repaired trucks. He drew at night in the bakery or while sitting in a truck with netting overhead to keep the bugs away. The Saturday Evening Post, under the heading Private Breger, began publishing these cartoons as a series starting August 30, 1941.

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