'Have You Seen, Alonzo?'
Ralph Yardley was an early 20th-century American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the newspaper comics 'Have You Seen Alonzo?' (1908-1909) and 'Do You Remember?' (1922-1952).
Life and career
Ralph Yardley was born in 1878 in Stockton, California. He studied at Mark Hopkins Institute of Art and started his career at the San Francisco Examiner, where he drew spot cartoons for the weather forecasts, starring Jimmy Swinnerton's 'The Little Bears'. He drew the feature 'Adventures of Ping and Pong' for the San Francisco Bulletin in February and March of 1903, starring two stereotypically portrayed Chinese people. Yardley served as a staff artist for the Honolulu Advertiser and the New York Globe. In New York, Yardley produced cover artwork for magazines as Harper's, Leslie's and Woman's World.
Yardley became head of the art department of the San Francisco Call, and in 1908 created the mascot of the Saturday children's supplement, the dog Alonzo. He drew a weekly feature called 'Have You Seen Alonzo?' from 10 October 1908 to 12 June 1909, after which he passed the pencil to Paul Terry. Later artists of the feature were John Terry, Mike Randall, Tam, Jim Navoni and Herbert Morton Stoops. During and after the Second World War Yardley drew for the Stockton Record, where he had a weekly feature called 'Do You Remember?' from 1922 to 1952. His cartoons were also widely syndicated. Ralph Yardley passed away in 1961.
Cover illustrations for Woman's World, October 1910, and Young's Magazine, June 1913.
Ralph Yardley's Ink Slinger profile on the Stripper's Guide
Alonzo on the Stripper's Guide