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Dick Wingert Cartoons

An inventory of his cartoons at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: WHL/CAD
Date: April 1984

Biographical History

Richard C. Wingert (1919-1993), commonly known as Dick Wingert, was an American cartoonist and creator of the comic strip Hubert.

Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on January 15, 1919, Wingert's father was a printer who was skeptical of artists and hoped his son would go into business with him. But a high school art teacher helped Wingert secure a three year scholarship to the John Herren Art Institute in Indianapolis starting in 1937. While a student, Wingert assumed he would work in illustration.

It was Wingert's service in WWII that led to his career as a nationally syndicated cartoonist. Wingert graduated in 1940 and was inducted into the Army in February 1941. After spending a year in Louisiana with the 34th Infantry Division he was sent to Ireland in 1942. Wingert submitted samples to the newly re-established Stars and Stripes. After several of his cartoons were printed, Wingert requested a transfer to the Stars and Stripes division and was moved to London. Here he spent the rest of the war and created his main character "Hubert"—an unshaven, baffled and disheveled GI popular with deployed readers. Hubert started as an illustration and later became a regular single panel cartoon.

Wingert talked to fellow soldiers and this shared, collective experience of being in the military provided Wingert with ideas. In the foreword to a Hubert compilation published in 1955, Wingert explained, “The army is a wonderful place for a cartoonist to start. There is no end of material and all you have to do is make a humorous comment on how you personally feel about any given situation of army life and you have a million other guys who feel the same way you do."

Following the end of the war, Wingert returned to the United States eventually settling in Westport, Connecticut. William Randolph Hearst Jr., whom Wingert had met during the war, suggested he submit cartoons to the New York syndicates. King Features Syndicate picked up Hubert as a daily strip which debuted December 3, 1945. Wingert later suggested Hearst provided assistance (unbeknownst to him at the time) in securing this contract with King Features.

Wingert transitioned Hubert to civilian life and a Sunday strip was added February 3, 1946. Wingert briefly revisited his time in Europe with the military when he and other cartoonists including Gus Edson, Al Posen and Bob Montana participated in a USO cartoonists tour in October 1952. Though Wingert reportedly employed a few assistants over the years—Tex Blaisdell and Frank Johnson are commonly named—he remained the primary artistic presence on the strip through to the end of its run. Dick Wingert died November 24, 1993 in Indiana of an aneurysm.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Dick Wingert Cartoons collection contains 1,931 original daily cartoons and 146 original Sunday cartoons from the comic strip Hubert (1956-1966). The strip features main character Hubert Dooley, whose lack of sophistication and bad luck provide the punch line. Hubert bumbles through life at the office and Hubert's barbs with his mother-in-law at home serve as a running gag.

Daily strips are a single panel and Sunday strips contain three rows and multiple panels.

Most captions are written in pencil at the bottom or on the reverse. The remainder are printed and pasted on. Caption revisions are present on some cartoons. "Engraved by CP" is stamped on the back of many cartoons. The Sunday strips were created as three separate pieces taped together. Materials include ink, traces of pencil, varying weights of illustration board and zipatone.

Arrangement of the Collection

Daily and Sunday cartoons are arranged separately in chronological order.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

Two copies of the first edition of a compilation titled Hubert (Arbogast : Otterbach-Kaiserslautern, Germany c1955) have been removed from the collection and sent to Rare Books for cataloging

Special Collections Research Center has collections of over one hundred cartoonists. Please refer to the SCRC Subject Index for a complete listing.

Subject Headings

Persons

Wingert, Dick, 1919-

Corporate Bodies

King Features Syndicate.

Associated Titles

Hubert (comic strip)

Subjects

American wit and humor, Pictorial.
Caricatures and cartoons -- United States.
Cartoonists -- United States.
Comic books, strips, etc. -- United States.

Genres and Forms

Cartoons (humorous images)

Occupations

Cartoonists.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Dick Wingert Cartoons,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Dick Wingert, 1967.

Table of Contents

Hubert

Inventory