Sals Bostwick was an early 20th-century American newspaper cartoonist, who worked for the Chicago Tribune and the King Features Syndicate. He was known for creating comic strips and cartoon panels like 'Heroes of the Week' (1923-1925), 'One-Round Teddy' (1924-1925) and 'Room and Board' (1928-1930), but his promising career was cut short due to his untimely death.
Early life and career
Salsbury Edgar Bostwick was born in 1902 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, as the son of Mildred V. Salsbury and Sherman Edgar Bostwick, a commercial traveler. In 1919-1921, Bostwick published his first drawings and comics in his high school bi-annual magazine, the Kodak. He was a graduate of the Federal Schools correspondence course in cartooning, after which he contributed cartoons to the Saturday editions of his local newspaper, the Eau Claire Telegram. By 1922 he moved over to the Chicago Tribune, where he became the first(?) assistant of Frank King on his slice-of-life newspaper comic 'Gasoline Alley'.
Heroes of the Week/ One-Round Teddy
As the Chicago Tribune's Sunday comics section expanded, the young cartoonist got the opportunity to launch his own feature, 'Heroes of the Week' (1923-1925). From 25 May 1924 onwards, he additionally produced the kids gang comic 'One-Round Teddy', which from 5 August 1924 also ran as a daily strip. Even though the talent of the artist was apparent, the daily lasted only a month and the Sunday page ended on 4 January 1925.
'Hello Hattie'.
Room and Board and other comics for King Features
Bostwick's tenure with the Chicago Tribune came to an end, and he joined William Randolph Hearst's Chicago American and the King Features Syndicate. His first work for Hearst was the short-lived strip 'Main Street Jed' (1926), which was described as dealing with "the small town "sheik" - the "oft-crowned king of Birdville's drug store cowboys." He then continued with 'Hello Hattie' (4 April - 11 October 1927). On 21 May 1928 he created his single panel cartoon feature 'Room and Board' through a King Features subsidiary, the Central Press Association. It followed the lives of the colorful inhabitants of Windy Wicket's boarding house. Other features by Sals Bostwick were 'Floradora' and 'In Our Office'.
Early death
Sal Bostwick would have had had a promising career ahead of him, if he hadn't passed away at such as early age. The workaholic artist delayed his operation for an appendicitis by several weeks in order to draw enough cartoons in advance. He died after the operation on 6 February 1930, at the age of only 27. 'Room and Board' was continued by cartoonists like Brandon Walsh, Ben Batsford (Benbee), Darrell McClure, Dow Walling and Herman Thomas, before coming to an end in 1932. The title was revived in 1936, when Hearst hired Gene Ahern away from the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Ahern launched a new feature which showed great similarities with his previous NEA strip 'Our Boarding House' (1921-1936), but shared its title with Bostwick's otherwise unrelated comic. Ahern's 'Room and Board' ran until 1953.
'Room and Board' from 25 September 1929 and 31 January 1930.