Arthur Lewis was an early 20th-century American comic artist. He is best remembered for continuing James Montgomery Flagg's comic strip 'Nervy Nat' in Judge magazine, from 1907 on. Lewis additionally drew a short-lived comic of his own, 'The Rag Tags and Bob Tail' (1911).
Early life and career
Arthur Allen Lewis was born in 1873 in Mobile, Alabama. He was the son of a machinist who later moved to Syracuse, New York. Lewis studied art at the Buffalo Art Students League and later at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. His etchings were exhibited in 1903 during an art show in Brooklyn.
Nervy Nat
Since 1903 James Montgomery Flagg had success with the text comic 'Nervy Nat', published in Judge. It featured the shenanigans of a cunning tramp. In 1907 Flagg left to join another magazine, Life. Still, he made a comeback two years later. In 1909 Flagg occasionally drew episodes of 'Nervy Nat' at irregular intervals, when it ran in Judge as a syndicated Sunday newspaper comic until 5 September.
The Rag Tags and Bob Tail
Between 12 March and 16 July 1911 Lewis also had a Sunday comic named 'The Rag Tags and Bob Tail' in the New York Herald.
Illustration work
In 1915 Lewis illustrated 'Journeys to Bagdad' (1915) by Charles Stephen Brook. His title page lettering would later be used by Rea Irvin when he developed an alphabet for The New Yorker's first issue in 1925.
Recognition
Arthur Lewis was bestowed with various awards throughout his career. He won a bronze medal at the Exhibition in St. Louis (1904), the Logan Prize of the Chicago Society of Etchers and the Brooklyn Society of Etchers’ Noyes Prize. Lewis additionally received medals from the Expositions of San Francisco; St. Louis and Philadelphia (Sesquicentennial, 1926); and the Nathan I. Bijur and John G. Agar Prizes of the American Society of Etchers and the National Arts Club.
Final years and death
In 1917 the United States entered the First World War and Lewis was drafted. Back in civilian life he became an instructor at the Art Students League in New York between 1924 and 1932. He fulfilled the same function at the New School for Social Research afterwards. Lewis passed away in 1957 in Basking Ridge, New York.