'Doings of the Duffs' (1914).
Walter Allman was an early 20th-century American cartoonist for the Newspaper Enterprise Association, best remembered for his humorous family newspaper gag series 'Doings of the Duffs' (1914-1924). At the time, the shenanigans of the Duff family entertained audiences like a modern-day TV sitcom, and the comic was adapted into a 1917 comedy film. Allman was also the first artist to draw the feature 'The Way of the World' (1913-1942), offering a graphic, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic look at current events. Unfortunately Allman got so overworked that he had a nervous breakdown and died at the height of his success.
Early life and career
According to his World War I draft card, Walter Reese Allman was born in 1884 in Toledo, Ohio (his obituary said he was 42 when he died, which would make his birth year 1882). The U.S. Federal Census of 1900 listed his birth as "February 1884". Comic historian Alex Jay of Stripper's Guide discovered that Allman's mother at one point remarried to a telegrapher, which led to Allman being renamed "Walter Krumling" in both the 1900 and the 1910 census. In young adulthood, Allman worked for a grain company, though enjoyed making drawings on the sides of boxes and crates. One day in 1902, the editor of The Grain Dealers' Journal visited the office and hired the 18-year old on the spot to provide illustrations for his publication. Although Allman only worked for this journal for about a month, his graphic career was launched. For the next three years, he worked at various companies as an illustrator, including the Franklin Printing and Engraving Co.
'They All Fall For It' (The Star Ledger, 27 August 1912).
Cartooning career
In 1905, Alllman got a job as cartoonist and illustrator at The Toledo News Bee, where he stayed for about a decade, combining his work with illustrations made for the Franklin Printing & Engraving Company. In 1905, he lived in Chicago, moved back to Toledo afterwards and then to Cleveland again by 1916. His earliest newspaper comic, 'They All Fall For It' (18 April 1911 - April 1912), also ran in The Toledo News Bee. It revolved around people getting fooled by tricksters, or going alone in herd mentality, much to their embarrassment and dismay. Appearing sporadically, the feature was later syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA). For the same syndicate, Allman created other short-lived features, such as the 'Dreamsticks' panel (22 August 1911-23 February 1912) and 'Honest, This Is How It Happened! (1915), a gag comic that first showed the reader the aftermath of a situation, and then used a flashback to inform how a certain character got himself into a fine mess.
'Honest, This Is How It Happened'.
The Great American Home (The Way of The World)
More durable was Walter Allman's weekday gag cartoon series 'The Great American Home' (9 April 1913 - 19 January 1942), also distributed through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. It also ran under the title 'The Way of the World'. In Canada, the series was reprinted too, though with the title change 'The Great Canadian Home'. While the feature mostly centered on gags inspired by current events, Allman occasionally took the time to reflect on huge tragedies, like the Titanic maritime disaster (1912) and the First World War (1914-1918). In the fall of 1918, Allman himself was drafted, but by that point the war was almost over. He continued 'The Way of the World' until the 1920s, after which he passed the pencil to other cartoonists, like Lee Stanley, George Scarbo, Eckhart, Bill Arnold and Bob Moyer, until the final episode appeared on 19 January 1942.
Doings of the Duffs
Allman's biggest success was the long-running family comic 'Doings of the Duffs', though when it debuted on 30 July 1914 in The Toledo News Bee, it was originally titled 'Guess If They Are Married'. In its earliest incarnation, the series centered on a bickering couple, asking readers the rhetorical question if "they are married?" Originally, Allman used a more realistic graphic style, which gradually became more cartoony. The mustached husband character became shorter in stature, while his wife was redesigned as a prettier young woman. Much of the comedy was defined by slapstick, puns and the comedic contrasts between recurring cast members. The series soon caught on as real-life couples could relate to the recognizable situations, while people without a partner laughed at the couple's shenanigans and felt more relieved that they were single. Allman was a married man himself, so he never went out of inspiration. He also attracted more female readers by paging through fashion magazines and dressing the wife character in dresses and gowns he copied from photographs and illustrations.
'Doings of the Duffs' (Portsmouth Star, 18 June 1918).
In early 1915, the NEA Service picked 'Guess If They Are Married' up for publication in the papers of William Randolph Hearst. At this point, the husband was named Tom, his wife Helen and the series itself retitled 'Doings of the Duffs'. The couple's last name "Duff" was something Allman simply made up on the spot and had, according to an interview with him in The Muskegon Chronicle, no special meaning. He enlarged the cast with various colorful characters, like Danny & Betty Jane, their relatives Wilbur and Olivia and Tom and Helen's African-American maid Parsy, who spoke in jive. When Tom and Helen had a baby in 1917, hundreds of readers sent Allman gifts to "celebrate" the event. 'Doings of the Duffs' was so popular that in 1917 the Rembrandt Studios adapted it into a two-reel comedy film.
As popular as the series was, the labors of a daily comic still wore Allman out. It is said that he once sent in a month worth of 'Duff' strips, all drawn without any noses. "I just got tired of drawing noses", he said. Twice, in 1922 and 1923, new episodes were put on hold, due to health issues of the cartoonist. In 1923, Allman went through a nervous breakdown and moved to Miami, Florida. In February 1924, he returned to Cleveland, but his health kept declining until he passed away in early July of that year. He was only 42 years old.
'Doings of the Duffs' was briefly continued by W.O. Fitzgerald, afterwards by Ben Batsford (1925-1928) and finally, until 15 August 1931, by Buford Tune (1928-1931). The strip is also known under the titles 'That Beats Me' and 'The Fitts Family'.
Walter Allman receiving congratulation letters when the son of his character Tom Duff was born, 1917.