'Mr. English Gets Real African Lion'.
Charles H. Spencer was an obscure early 20th-century U.S. newspaper cartoonist, notable for two comic features, 'Oscar's Menagerie' and 'Fatty English' (both from 1906).
Life and work
Very little is known about the life of Charles H. Spencer. According to a short article in the Meriden Weekly Republican of 9 August 1906, Spencer was living in Philadelphia, and was associated with the Philadelphia Inquirer as artist and cartoonist. The article also mentioned that he was in Meriden, Connecticut to visit his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Spencer, and his wife had died suddenly in June of that year during child-birth.
In 1906, Spencer drew two Sunday comic features for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Between 30 September and 2 December 1906, the paper ran Spencer's 'Fatty English', sometimes known as 'Mr. English'. Fatty English is a corpulent British game hunter who, together with his stereotypically presented black guide, prowl for African wildlife to kill. The local African king Vilkiloo III usually has to save the two out of sticky situations, and ask a hefty fee afterwards. Spencer subsequently created another animal-themed feature called 'Oscar's Menagerie', about a man and his large collection of talking animal friends. This Sunday feature ran only twice, on 9 and 16 December 1906.
'Oscar's Menagerie'.