CLEVELAND, Ohio -- What has been a sunshine weekend seems fitting to shine light on my three predecessors as the primary Editorial cartoonist for The Plain Dealer, James Donahey, Edward Kuekes and Ray Osrin, with this post showing some of their original work from my collection, with some added extras at the end.
JAMES DONAHEY
James Donahey, also known as ‘HAL’ was the first Editorial cartoonist for The Plain Dealer from 1900 to 1949.
Prior to the advent of news photos, Donahey’s cartoons regularly appeared on the front page, as they had with the Cleveland World newspaper who Donahey had started with. Below are front pages from both newspapers.
Donahey’s original cartoon artwork is large averaging about 20″ x 15″ all done in pen and ink. The size was common at the time. No need to worry