'Officer Crust' (19 June 1913).
Robert E. Brook was an early 20th-century cartoonist, whose sole comic strip was the newspaper gag-a-day feature 'Officer Crust' (1911-1918). After a promising start of his career, Brook died at a young age.
Early years
He was born in May 1885 in Tucson, Arizona. His father, Harry Brook, was of English descent and owner of The Tombstone Epitaph, a newspaper circulating in Tombstone, Arizona. He was later an editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times. Around 1900, the Brook family moved to Los Angeles, California. As a young man, Brook worked as a bill peddler for a tea house and as a helper in a candy factory. Subsequently, he was a jack-of-all-trades with the Los Angeles Herald newspaper, doing jobs in the press room, mailing department, stereotyping room, business office and helping out in the art department, doing layouts for half-tones and the drawings of simple line pictures.
'Officer Crust' (The Altoona Times, 20 February 1915).
Newspaper career
Brook’s obituary in The American on 12 September 1918 sketched out his varying career moves: "As he grew older he drifted away from the newspaper game and took a fling at the theater. For a time he was property man at the Los Angeles Opera House. Then he went on the road and became a regular stroller. Later he joined the staff of the Los Angeles Times, where he drew sport cartoons, layouts and news sketches. He left the Times very abruptly one morning at the lament suggestion of the managing editor, and after drifting about hit San Francisco and landed with the art department of The Chronicle. After leaving The Chronicle he went back to the show business as assistant property man at the Grand Opera House in Frisco. Next he struck out for Honolulu with a stock company, returning to Frisco in time for the great fire. From Frisco he went back to Los Angeles and helped build up the Press Club. Then for a time he went on a farm, learning how to raise oranges."
After 1906, Robert Brook stayed in Washington D.C., New York City, Philadelphia and, finally, Baltimore, Maryland, having positions with the Washington Times, the North American, the Philadelphia Telegraph (doing sports cartoons), the Baltimore American and the Baltimore Star. Brook's obituary further mentioned: "During his career with The American he made many friends in this city, especially among the business men who furnished him with quips for his cartoon characters." In September 1917, his work also ran in Cartoons Magazine.
In this special episode, Brook introduces the readers to Ed's family (The Altoona Times, 6 February 1914).
Officer Crust
On 30 October 1911, the first episode of his comic strip 'Officer Crust' was printed in The Baltimore American. It revolved around a bumbling mustached police officer and his small-sized sidekick Ed Knutt. Ed is married to a sexy but feisty young woman who towers over him. Her name was never revealed, Brook simply called her "The Girl". Some gags also feature a nameless bearded judge. 'Officer Crust' was later distributed to other newspapers as well, such as the Courier-Post from Camden, New Jersey, the Altoona Times from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and the Yonkers Herald from Yonkers, New York.
Death
In 1918, Robert E. Brook suffered a nervous breakdown. Although he was treated in the hospital, he died in November of that same year at Spring Grove State Hospital, Catonsville. He was only 33 years old. It is unknown when the final episode of 'Officer Crust' appeared in the newspaper. In 1941, the strip appeared in reruns in the Hamilton Evening Journal from Hamilton, Ohio.
Robert E. Brook, portrayed in Cartoon Magazine (1917).