Walter Berndt (November 22, 1899, Brooklyn, New York - August 13, 1979, Port Jefferson, New York) was a cartoonist known for his long-run comic strip, Smitty, which he drew for 50 years.
Bernt's job as an office boy at the New York Journal put him in contact with leading cartoonists, as he recalled:
Ed Black wrote about the method E. C. Segar and Berndt used to generate cartoon ideas:
Then The Fun Began was appearing as early as March 3, 1919. Wh...
more
Walter Berndt (November 22, 1899, Brooklyn, New York - August 13, 1979, Port Jefferson, New York) was a cartoonist known for his long-run comic strip, Smitty, which he drew for 50 years.
Bernt's job as an office boy at the New York Journal put him in contact with leading cartoonists, as he recalled:
Ed Black wrote about the method E. C. Segar and Berndt used to generate cartoon ideas:
Then The Fun Began was appearing as early as March 3, 1919. When Berndt left that strip on October 13, 1921, it was taken over by Fred Faber, who continued it until 1928.
Berndt's first strip, That's Different, drawn for the Bell Syndicate, lasted less than a year. In 1922, he created Smitty, which he continued until 1973. Yet it did not begin without a struggle, as cartoonist Mike Lynch described in a 2005 lecture:
In 1937, Berndt moved to Port Jefferson, Long Island, where he lived until his death at age 79. He died on Monday, August 15, 1979, at Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson,
Berndt won...
less
