Clifford McBride

{{Infobox comics creator |image = Clifford McBride at board, c.1927.jpg |caption = McBride at the drawing board, {{c.|1927}} |birth_name = |birth_date = {{birth date|1901|01|26}} |birth_place = Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1951|05|21|1901|01|26}} |death_cause = |death_place = Altadena, California, U.S. |cartoonist = y |notable works = ''Napoleon and Uncle Elby'' |awards = |website = | spouse = Margot Fischer McBride | children = Victoria Margot McBride |signature = |signature_alt = }}  '''Clifford McBride''' (January 26, 1901 – May 21, 1951) was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip ''Napoleon and Uncle Elby''.

== Biography == Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, McBride was twice expelled from school because of his drawings in the school paper. His first professional cartoon was published in 1917 in ''The Los Angeles Times''.

When he graduated from Occidental College, he moved to Pasadena, California, beginning his career in 1923 as a staff artist for ''The Los Angeles Times''. The following year, he illustrated humorous fiction for the ''Chicago Tribune''.<ref name=lam>[http://lambiek.net/artists/m/mcbride_c.htm Lambiek]</ref>

=== Comic strips and ''Napoleon'' ===  After drawing such features as ''Insect Life'', ''McBride's Cartoon'' (1927), and ''Clifford McBride's Pantomime Comic'' (1932), he created Elby, a character based on his uncle, Henry Elba Eastman. He soon began to add situations involving Elby's dog, Napoleon.<ref name=toon>[http://www.toonopedia.com/napoleon.htm Markstein, Don. Toonopedia: ''Napoleon and Uncle Elby'']</ref>

Drawing for a minor syndicate, Lafave Newspaper Features, McBride began ''Napoleon'' as a daily strip on June 6, 1932, adding a Sunday strip in 1933. The following year the title was changed to ''Napoleon and Uncle Elby''.<ref name=toon/> McBride's cartoons appeared in such magazines as ''Life'' and ''Cosmopolitan'', and he profited from hardcover reprints, comic books and the licensing of his character as a spokesdog during the 1940s for Red Heart Dog Food.<ref name=toon/> Merchandising included a stuffed toy of Napoleon. ''Napoleon and Uncle Elby'' was a 1945 hardcover collection of 116 of McBride's strips.

McBride's assistant on the strip was Roger Armstrong (1917–2007). After McBride's 1951 death in Altadena, California, his second wife, Margot Fischer McBride, wrote the strip, and she hired Armstrong as the illustrator. In 1952, the team switched to the Mirror Enterprises Syndicate in Los Angeles, keeping the strip going for the next eight years.<ref name=lam/><ref>[https://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html Knoll, Erwin. "''Napoleon'' Strip Moves To Mirror Syndicate," ''Editor & Publisher'', September 20, 1952.]</ref>

===Films=== Although Napoleon was an Irish Wolfhound, McBride's own dog was Ace, a 190-pound St. Bernard. Ace was sometimes used for promotional purposes with McBride, including two short films, ''Unusual Occupations'' (1941) and ''Artist's Antics'' (1946).

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macbride, Clifford}} Category:American comics writers Category:American humorists Category:1951 deaths Category:American comic strip cartoonists Category:Chicago Tribune people Category:1901 births Category:20th-century American writers Category:Writers from Minneapolis