Today (September 1) cartoonist Jackie Ormes is being honored with a Google Doodle slideshow.
Jackie Ormes was born Zelda Mavin Jackson on August 1, 1911, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She taught herself to draw at an early age and showcased her skills with a page of cartoons in her high school yearbook. After graduation, she entered the media landscape as a proofreader and freelance reporter for the nationally circulated Black newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier.
In 1937, the Courier published Ormes’ first comic strip: “Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem,” which at times reflected the more serious struggles of real people migrating from the South to the North to escape racism and find better opportunities. Ormes’ trailblazing career continued with “Candy” and “Patty-Jo ’n’ Ginger”—her longest-running work–and her final comic, “Torchy in Heartbeats.”
The talkative and assertive Patty Jo and the silent Ginger first appeared on September 1, 1945.
Cartoonist Liz Montague had the privilege of doing the Google Doodle honors.
Q: What were your first thoughts when you were approached about the project?
A: I was really honored and then immediately intimidated. It’s scary to condense an entire person’s life and career into a few illustrations, and I really wanted to do Jackie justice.
below: cartoonist Jackie Ormes
Hi,
I want to include one of these comics on my website for elementary art.
are there any copyright issues on the ‘unamerican’ panel?
Thanks so much
Monica
The “unamerican” panel first appeared on April 7, 1951 in the Pittsburgh Courier (page 10) and is available via newspapers.com. Nancy Goldstein’s Jackie Ormes biography credits the University Microfilms as her source for the Patty-Jo cartoons.
I do not know if the copyright to these cartoons was ever renewed. This site uses a couple examples of the panels in accordance with the Fair Use sections of the U.S. copyright law.