Myer Marcus was an early 20th century newspaper cartoonist, who also worked under the pen name Billy Liverpool. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marcus started as an artist on The Philadelphia Inquirer, where his early creations include 'Percy Vere' (1905-06), 'Doubting Thomas' (1906-07), 'Big Scalper' (1906-09), 'Acrobatic Trix of Hix and Nix' (1907) and 'Sheer-luck Homes' (1907).
Big Scalper
He became a cartoonist for a Denver paper in 1908, and during this period, he also toured the USA and Europe as a vaudeville act with Tom McNamara. He made a newspaper strip called 'Excuse Me' for the Jersey Journal in 1913-1914, that was later continued by Joe Doyle.
Excuse Me
Marcus was a longtime cartoonist with the newspapers published by William Randolph Hearst. Around 1914, he was hired as a ghost artist for Bud Fisher's 'Mutt and Jeff' comic strip. When Fisher filed a lawsuit against Hearst and the strip was put on hold, Marcus developed a couple of strips on his own, such as 'Brow Brothers' and 'Asthma Simpson, the Village Queen', which he drew under the pen name Billy Liverpool for The Evening Sun in 1915 and 1916. Between 1916 and 1920 he made strip called 'Fuller Bunk' through Hearst's Newspaper Feature Service. He moved to Pulitzer's The World in the early 1920s, where he served as director of the comic art department until his death in 1923.
The Myer Marcus/Billy Liverpool connection was discovered by Alex Jay of the Stripper's Guide:
Ink Slinger profile for Myer Marcus
Ink Slinger profile for Billy Liverpool