Fred Lasswell
| Fred Lasswell | |
|---|---|
In this imaginative self-caricature, Fred Lasswell showed how he has merged with his comic strip character, Snuffy Smith, who has taken over both his body and brain.
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| Born |
July 25, 1916 Kennett, Missouri |
| Died | March 4, 2001 (aged 84) Tampa, Florida |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
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Notable works
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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith |
| Awards |
National Cartoonists Society Humor Comic Strip Award, 1963 Reuben Award, 1963 Elzie Segar Award, 1984 & 1994 |
Fred Lasswell (July 25, 1916 – March 4, 2001) was an American cartoonist best known for his decades of work on the comic strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith.
Born in Kennett, Missouri, he got his start as a sports cartoonist for the Tampa Daily Times. While playing golf in the area, Barney Google creator Billy DeBeck noticed Lasswell's work and hired the 17-year-old as an assistant. Lasswell worked closely with DeBeck for the next 18 years. DeBeck and Lasswell changed the focus of the urban-oriented strip when they introduced Google's hillbilly cousin Snuffy Smith in 1934.
After DeBeck's death from cancer in 1942, Lasswell took over Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. Under Lasswell's tenure, Barney was gradually phased out (although he did reappear occasionally), and the strip's emphasis shifted to Snuffy Smith and his rural setting. Lasswell also introduced his own characters, including Elviney Barlow, Parson Tuttle and Ol' Doc Pritchart.
During World War II, Lasswell served as a flight radio operator in Africa and was a staffer for Leatherneck Magazine, for which he created the comic strip Sgt. Hashmark.
Lasswell was a prolific inventor and early adopter of new technology. He was one of the first cartoonists to email his strips to his syndicate, King Features Syndicate, and to employ computer-generated lettering. In the early 1980s, he used a Macintosh II and a laserprinter to create a font that simulated his lettering style. A member of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, he patented a citrus fruit harvester. In addition to devising a hypercard stack for computers and a bilingual laserdisc, he developed a method of Braille for reading comics when he created a comic book, This Is Charlie, in Braille. He also produced the video series Draw and Color with Uncle Fred.
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