Napoleon and Uncle Elby, Napoleon and Uncle Elby

Clifford McBride (1901-1951) began his professional career as a newspaper artist in 1923, and started his first feature cartoon in 1927. He hit his stride when he first introduced a character based on his uncle and soon after added a canine pal. This oddly assorted pair of boon companions, rotund Uncle Elby and his droopy, well-meaning dog, Napoleon, romped through life, making the most ludicrous errors when they were most in earnest. Situational humor flows naturally from Napoleon's awkward size, his friendly exuberance, and his expressive demeanor. By the 1940s, the Napoleon and Uncle Elby comic strip was carried by newspapers all over the United States and even in other countries.After McBride's death from heart trouble in 1951, his second wife, Margot Fischer McBride continued writing the strip, hiring several illustrators to draw it, including McBride's original assistant and former Disney artist Roger Armstrong. The strip continued to be published until 1960.This collection of Napoleon and Uncle Elby was first published in 1945.