V.T. Hamlin

Vincent Trout Hamlin (May 10, 1900 – June 14, 1993), who preferred the name V. T. Hamlin, created the popular, long-run comic strip Alley Oop, syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association.

Born in Perry, Iowa, Hamlin was the son of Erma Trout Hamlin and Dr. Frederick Clarence Hamlin, a dentist. The young Vincent Hamlin began drawing at an early age, and he first drew the character that became Alley Oop at age 11. Four years later, his first cartoons were published in the Perry Daily Chief. At Perry High School, he went by the nickname Snick, which he used as his signature on cartoons he drew for his high school yearbook, The Eclipse.

By lying about his age, Hamlin enlisted in the Army at 17 to fight in World War I. He shipped out as part of the Sixth Army's Motor Transport Group, arriving in France where he served with the American Expeditionary Forces in 1918. Recovering from a poison gas attack in France, Hamlin began illustrating the letters of his fellow soldiers, and a newspaper man he met while he was in the Army convinced him he could make a living from his art abilities.

After his discharge, Hamlin went back to Perry High School in 1919. He then attended college, first a term at the University of Missouri in 1920, followed by study of journalism at Drake University in 1922.

His college experiences came to an end after a quarrel with an art teacher, as he recalled, "Then the teacher took out my drawing and she stood up with it before the class and announced: 'Now here's a man with a wonderful talent and he wants to waste it on being a cartoonist!'"

He traveled around the U.S, working at various jobs as a sign painter, an animator, window dresser, card writer, movie projectionist and semi-professional boxer. After employment in 1922 as a journalist at the Des Moines News, Hamlin worked for the Texas Grubstakers newspaper and the Fort Worth Record. His income for the year 1922 was $910.

By 1923, he was on staff as a photographer, a cartoonist and a writer at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he created his first comic strip, The Hired Hand, and a sports feature, The Panther Kitten. Cartoonist Steve Stiles noted:

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