Horace T. Elmo

He was born Arazio Theodore Elmo in Manhattan (later moving to Brooklyn and then the Bronx),[3] the sixth of seven children of Italian immigrants Joseph and Josephine Elmo.[3]

It is not known if or where Elmo received art training, but early cartoons were published on the "amateur pages" in Judge magazine.[5] After starting out as a stock clerk in the export business, he worked as a cartoonist with the local tabloid the New York Evening Graphic.[6][4]

Elmo's first recorded comic strip was the daily strip Little Otto, "which was to be syndicated beginning in 1926 by Wheeler-Nicholson, Inc. It’s unclear if the strip was ever published."[3][7]

His first professionally published work were six episodes of the recurring one-page feature Did You Know That for the film magazine Picture Play in 1932–1933.[3]

He started the weekly syndication service Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate (also known as Lincoln Features Syndicate and Lincoln News Syndicate) in 1935, beginning with Larry Antonette's[8] Dash Dixon, and followed by Biff Baxter’s Adventures,[9] Detective Riley, Little Buddy, Your Health Comes First!!!, and Socko the Sea Dog (a takeoff on Popeye).

In the period 1935–1939, Elmo worked on a number of strips of his own, including Facts You Never Knew, The Fizzle Family, Goofus Family, and Laughs from Today's News.[10] He also ghosted some Lincoln service strips, including Socko the Seadog and Your Health Comes First!!!.

Jack Kirby joined Elmo's syndicate in 1936, working on strips and single-panel advice cartoons such as Your Health Comes First!!! (under the pseudonym Jack Curtiss), as well as Abdul Jones, The Black Buccaneer, Cyclone Burke, Detective Riley, and Socko the Seadog.[11] While with the syndicate, Kirby also did the artwork for a 24-page pamphlet produced for the banking industry, called The Romance of Money.[12] Kirby remained with the syndicate until late 1939, when he began working for the theatrical animation company Fleischer Studios.[13]

After a two-year hiatus, from 1941 to 1946 Elmo worked on some new weekly strips, including It's Amazing, Sally Snickers,[3] and Useless Eustace.[2]

Elmo's Lincoln service operated until c. 1945, when he restarted it as Elmo Features Syndicate, sometimes employing the talents of the Roche-Iger Studio;[2] but that syndicate also didn't last.[6]

After the demise of his syndication service, Elmo did some work in the comic book industry, for both National Comics Publications and Timely Comics.[10]

In the late 1950s/early 1960s, Ace Books published three Elmo cartoon collections;[10] he also packaged books sold in the United Kingdom, including 150 Games to Play, The Complete Book of Space, and 101 Things to Make and Play.[10]

Elmo's later strips included The Rhyming Romeos, which ran exclusively in the African-American newspaper the Arkansas State Press in the 1950s; and Puggy and Tell Me, which ran exclusively in the Hubbard, Ohio, News Reporter in the 1960s and in the Spirit Lake Beacon in the mid-1970s.

• Abdul Jones (c. 1936–1939) by Jack Kirby[6]
• Biff Baxter’s Adventures (1935–?) by "Bob Dart" (a.k.a. Larry Antonette)
• The Black Buccaneer[14] by Jack Kirby
• Cyclone Burke[14] (ghosted by Jack Kirby)[3]
• Dash Dixon (1930–1939) by "Dean Carr"[15] (a.k.a. Larry Antonette)
• Detective Riley (1935–c. 1943) by "Richard Lee" (ghosted by Jack Kirby, H. T. Elmo, and others)
• Did You Know by Topps (1939–1944)
• Little Buddy by "Bruce Stuart" (1935–?)
• Nappy by Irv Tirman (1939–1944)
• Socko the Sea Dog (1935–1944) by H. T. Elmo (1935–1939) and then "Teddy" (1939–1944) — at some point ghosted by Jack Kirby
• Useless Eustace (1941–1946)[2]
• Your Health Comes First!!! by Jack Kirby (under the pseudonym "Jack Curtis") (1935–1939)

• Al Smith Feature Service

• Socko the Seadog strips at Kleefeld on Comics