The Dog Knew What to Do

Art by Ed Carey, Dec 10, 1904

Mysterious Ed Carey

Ed Carey was one of the masters of early American comic strip art, once seen his grotesque faces and anatomy are hard to forget. His most well-known strip was “Simon Simple,” from the New York World, which had been previously illustrated by A. D. Reed. Other strips included “Brainy Bowers,” “The Troubles of Dictionary Jacques,” and “Professor Hypnotiser.” Carey was born in 1870 and died in White Plains, N. Y. on October 11, 1928.

Evolution of Brainy Bowers

Brainy Bowers originated around 1901 in the Chicago Daily News on a b&w joke page featuring single-panel and caption or balloon strip cartoons, comic illustrations and typeset gags. The artist was R. W. Taylor on the joke page strips. This early example from January 4, 1902 is in caption and features a bizarre stickman as a witness to Brainy’s japes. The stickman was named in my next sample, June 7, 1904, as Drowsy Duggan.

The May 5, 1904 comic and the Feb 1, 1908 panels below were drawn by Ed Carey. The comic strip was copyrighted by C. J. Hirt and in 1904 the feature was taken over by World Color Printing. Brainy Bowers was one of the characters popular in the Platinum era comic books.