Panel from "Lonesome Lew", Jersey Journal, 1915
Joseph Dennis Doyle was born in Ireland on 21 January 1888. The same year his mother, Catherine, and he emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He became a naturalised American citizen in 1908. In 1910 he was working as a salesman in a cigar store.
He was drawing gag cartoons as early as 1912. From 1913 he was drawing comic strips for the Philadelphia Inquirer's Boys' and Girls' Magazine Section. Strips he drew include "Scary William" (16 August 1914-2 June 1918), "Fineheimer Twins", "Little Possum Gang" and "That Irresistable Rag".
In December 1914 he appears to have taken over Myer Marcus' strip "Excuse Me" in the Jersey Journal of Jersey City, New Jersey, probably through the Keystone Feature Syndicate. He drew the strip until March 1915. In the last week of its run he introduced a Charlie Chaplin-like tramp character, who got his own strip, "Lonesome Lew", the following week, which ran until May.
He married Sophie in 1915, and they had a daughter, Dorothy. He continued to draw cartoons for newspapers until at least 1930. He died in Philadelphia in September 1973.
References[]
- Alex Jay, Ink-Slinger Profiles: Joe Doyle, Stripper's Guide, 17 March 2011