'He Just Imagined It - That's All'.
Pierre Artigue was an early 20th-century American newspaper comic artist, who drew several short-lived gag comics for the Sunday papers. His longest running strip was 'He Just Imagined It - That's All' (1906-1908), which ran in The Boston Herald. Through the North American syndicate, he then produced the features 'Pa's Nightmare' (1907), 'When Dad Was a Boy - He! He! Ha! Ha!' (1907) and 'Curious Charley' (1909). In The Rocky Mountain News, he drew 'Mr. Want' (1912) and 'Chris and Christena's Courtship' (1912).
Early life and career
Pierre M. Artigue was born in 1872 in New Iberia, Louisiana, as the son of a French immigrant carpenter and Louisiana mother. The oldest of three sons, his two brothers later became sign painters. By 1900, Pierre Artigue was living with his wife and his daughter in San Diego, California, where he worked as an artist-designer. Shortly afterwards, the Artigue family moved to Los Angeles, where he worked for the newspaper The Los Angeles Evening Express, visualizing current events in the weekly cartoon 'Events of the Week'. Some his cartoons were reprinted in The Inland Printer a trade magazine about printing and graphic design. Around 1902, Artigue lived in Kansas City, Missouri, drawing for the Kansas City Star and contributing to the nation-wide magazines Life, Puck and Judge.
'Curious Charley' in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle of 1 October 1922 (presumably a reprint).
Comics career
Artigue's earliest comic was 'He Just Imagined It - That's All', which ran between 30 December 1906 and 10 March 1907 in The Boston Herald, but continued as a syndicated Sunday comic until 30 August 1908. The feature was an obvious imitation of Winsor McCay's similar dream comic 'Dream Of the Rarebit Fiend' (1904-1911, 1913), complete with a character having an imaginative, often nightmarish fantasy, only to realize it was all a figment of his imagination by the end of the strip. Whereas McCay actually let characters fall asleep or doze off, the protagonist in Artigue's strip just saw strange things happen, completely forgetting he was imagining them, making the reader wonder about his mental state.
Between 14 April and 21 July 1907, Artigue drew 'Pa's Nightmare', distributed by the North American Syndicate. He continued the fatherly shenanigans with 'When Dad Was a Boy - He! He! Ha! Ha!', serialized between 28 July and 25 August 1907. Another gag comic, 'Curious Charley', ran from 27 June until 15 August 1909. The title character is a young boy, Charley, whose nosiness and wonder always gets him into trouble. In the final panel, his parents usually give him a preachy lecture.
'Chris and Christena's Courtship' (1912).
In 1912, Artigue joined The Rocky Mountain News. His first comic in its pages was 'Mr. Want' (10 March - 30 June 1912), about a man and his family. Gags ran in the small ad section in the Sunday editions. It was later replaced by Artigue's next comic, 'Chris and Christena's Courtship', also from 1912. The characters are a couple who speak with German accents, presumably copied from Rudolph Dirks' 'The Katzenjammer Kids', though, given their names, they might also be implied to be of Danish descent. In each gag, the lovebirds go out to do something romantic, but always end up embarrassing or hurting themselves.
Ads for 'The Mysterious Bag' from The St. Louis Globe-Democrat (4 January 1916) and the Kansas City Post (20 February 1916).
Animation
In 1914, Artigue returned to Los Angeles, where he joined the local Cartoonists Club. Around 1916, he was back in St. Louis to venture into animation, working with a team of assistants on a cartoon serial titled 'The Mysterious Bag', starring a character called Umbrella Bill. On 9 January 1916, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat ran a lengthy article on the production of 'The Mysterious Bag', which was to be shown in 50 theaters throughout the city. The story was conceived by the St. Louisians Hugo Heimann and Fred Conhaim, and turned into a script by Alex S. Briscoe of the Globe-Democrat. On 25 January 1916, the Enid Daily Eagle wrote that "a score of St. Louis theatres will run the episodes simultaneously, and a big money prize is offered for the one who guesses what is in the mysterious bag that gets Umbrella Bill into such terrible predicaments." Apparently, the picture later circulated in other cities too. On 30 June 1916, the La Belle Star wrote that the manager of the Crystal Skydome had succeeded in booking the "novel feature picture in five reels", naming it "the longest cartoon movie in the world".
While working in animation, Artigue was also active as an inventor and unsuccesfully tried to sue "the motion picture industry" for stealing his idea of a "glass shot" background principle. He died in 1934 in his sleep, at age 62.
The team of 'The Mysterious Bag' portrayed in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat of 9 January 1916. Pierre Artigue is seen in the back, drawing Umbrella Bill.