John Buckingham Lowitz   SWIFTY'S celebrated COMICS

John Buckingham Lowitz is one of the pioneers of American newspaper comics. He
created 'The Captain Kiddis Kids', which started running on November 21, 1897. This
series was probably the first "funny pages" that had the well-known "to be continued"
label. J.B. Lowitz also made the newspaper comics 'Cathode Ray' (1896), 'The
Barnyard Club' (1898), 'The Never-Was People' (1897), 'Scenes in Gazoozaland'
(1896) and 'In the Jungle' (1896).




















On December 6, 1903, his strip 'Swifty and his Wonderful Dream' started running in
The New York Herald (which would later run the similar, and by now much more
famous, 'Little Nemo in the Land of Wonderful Dreams' by Winsor McCay, starting in
1905).

The character Swifty is one of the many "messenger boys" depicted in the comics of
the turn of the century.

The panel shown here is from the New York Herald in 1904, and shows Swifty's
companion, the King of Zuzu Land, receiving the keys to the city from George
McClennan, then mayor of New York City.
The competative world of
New York newspapers
lead to advertisement
broadsides that were
pasted to the sides of the
news stands. The original
printed art works are
highly collectible and as
you can imagine rather
rare. Their sizes are in the
roughly 10 x 18 inches.

This broadside was done
to advertise Swifty's comic
strip "Gay Gazoozaland"
for the The Sunday World.
Swifty's characteristic
signature is on the right
side of the monkey's skirt -
two crossed lines with the
initials  J - B - L and the
date.