From the Dick Buchanan Files: Tom Henderson Gag Cartoons

One of the most prolific post-war gag cartoonists was Tom Henderson. Before he was thirty, he was at the top of his profession. Tom only had a couple of decades in the business, passing away at the early age of fifty. But he worked a lot and sold a lot and left us with so many of his published cartoons.

He had a bold, what's called "bigfoot" cartoon style, with goofy-looking suburbanite families and kids. Men tend to be clueless and the women who endure them wisecrack. And it gets weirder. Dogs are in the army, blue collar workers wear flowery boxers, bums pilfer from churchgoers. It's a whacky Henderson world. My thanks as ever to Dick Buchanan for this trove.





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TOM HENDERSON

Tom Henderson. “What’s Funny About That?” E.P. Dutton Inc., 1954.

Tom Henderson (1920-1970) was a cartoonist and illustrator best known for his work in The Saturday Evening Post.

He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but grew up in Chicago where he attended Wabash College and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. 

Henderson sold his first cartoon in 1945 and quickly became a cartoonist in demand. He was the top cartoonist in point of sales to five of the largest magazines for 1946. He contributed to the Saturday Evening Post. Collier's, Look, This Week Magazine, True Magazine, Popular Science, 1000 Jokes Magazine.

In 1956 Henderson created a weekly feature, “Fan Fare” for This Week Magazine. This series appeared weekly featuring one of Henderson’s favorite targets, the wealthy, entitled, clueless members of the upper crust.

In addition to drawing gag cartoons for magazines, Henderson created illustrations for many advertising campaigns including General Electric, Shell Oil Co., American Express, Yale & Towne, Pennsylvania Tire Co., and Johnson & Johnson, among others.

Here just a few of the gag cartoons Tom Henderson created over the years . . .