Roy L. McCardell

Roy McCardell
Born	Roy Larcom McCardell June 30, 1870 Hagerstown, Maryland, USA
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer, Editor
Notable works	Sunday World Sunday comic supplement, Jarr Family. A Fool There Was
Collaborators	Richard F. Outcault

Roy Larcom McCardell (June 30, 1870 – after 1940) was an American journalist, scenarist, humorist and writer.

Roy McCardell was born in 1870 in Hagerstown, Maryland. His father was the editor of the Hagerstown Mail. When his father became the editor of the Evening Times in Cumberland, Maryland, the family moved there, where Roy attended school until he was twelve. He then started writing for his father's newspaper before becoming a regular contributor to Puck, the leading American satirical magazine.

McCardell moved to Birmingham, Alabama at age 17 to work as a reporter for the Age-Herald. Many of his contributions were reprinted in magazines, including Frank Leslie's Weekly. New York City newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane became aware of his writing, and offered him a position on the New York newspaper The Evening Sun. Along with his newspaper reporting, McCardell also provided serialized novels to the newspaper. He then moved on to the New York World and finally became a staff member of Puck. McCardell also worked as an editor for a number of newspapers and magazines, including the New York Morning Telegraph and the Metropolitan Magazine. He wrote a number of syndicated serialised articles, most famously the daily Jarr Family which appeared in several hundred newspapers.

In 1896, when McCardell learned that the New York World had acquired a color press, he suggested that they use it to produce a comic supplement. Editor Morrill Goddard approved the idea, but all comic artists of the day were already contracted by other newspapers. McCardell suggested using the young artist Richard F. Outcault. Goddard supervised the new supplement, made by Outcault and McCardell, and the first Sunday paper comic supplement in color was the November 6, 1896 issue of the Sunday World, featuring The Yellow Kid. The circulation of the Sunday paper increased from about 140,000 to 800,000 in the next six months, but dropped again to 400,000 after Outcault moved to the New York Sunday American.

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