Introduction
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.
Biography
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.
World War II
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.
Looking back at age 79
In 1996, Lasswell reflected on the increase of social commentary into comic strips:
Lasswell lived for many years in Tampa, Florida. When he died in 2001, he was survived by his wife, Shirley, three sons and a daughter. Editorial cartoonist John R. Rose, who began as Lasswell's inking assistant in 1998, became the Snuffy Smith artist after Lasswell's death. Rose was the last of a number of art assistants that Lasswell had employed over the years. Cartoonist Bob Donovan had worked with him for the longest stretch, but a few other notable cartoonists helped out as well including Fred Rhoads, known for work on Sad Sack for Harvey Comics, and also Archie Comics artists Tom Mooreand Nate Butler. Margaret Shulock is one of the strip's uncredited writers.
Awards
Lasswell received the National Cartoonists Society Humor Comic Strip Award in 1963 and its Reuben Award, which had originally been named after DeBeck, that same year. He also received their Elzie Segar Award in 1984 and 1994.