Magazine cartoonist Jeff Keate (1912- 1995) is the topic of the day. He was born March 10, 1912, so this Sunday is his 112th birthday. He was from Western Canada, and he moved east to the States. By the time he was 33 years old, he was living and working in New York City, and on his way to being one of the most published gag cartoonists. His work spanned gag cartooning as well as many syndicated features. You can always tell a Jeff Keate single panel cartoon because he wrote his signature neatly in upper case letters in the bottom right or left-hand side of the art, with one little line angled above his first name, and another under his last.
Dick Buchanan has a lot more, including 25 of Mr. Keate's published magazine cartoons from 1939 to 1969. Thanks and take it away, Dick!
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JEFF KEATE
Self Portrait from Best Cartoons of The Year 1945. Published by Crown Publishers, New York, 1945.
Robert Jefferson Keate, who signed his work Jeff Keate, was a prolific cartoonist whose work appeared in many national American magazines in mid-20th century America. Keate was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was inspired to be a cartoonist by his father, who, rather than punish young Jeff for drawing on the walls, put frames around the scribbles.
Keate left Canada to attend college in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Later he studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, class of 1936. For the next few years he remained in Chicago, drawing cartoons for Chicago newspapers by day and drawing gag cartoons to submit to magazines at night. Keate had one drawing in The New Yorker (1938) and his work began to appear in The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s. He was also a writer for syndicated comic strips Dotty Dripple and Filbur McFudd.
In 1945 Keate moved to New York City and his career finally was on the fast track. At that time, he was selling 20 cartoons a week. Keate was one of seven contributors to the syndicated gag panel Today’s Laugh, which began September 1, 1947 with his cartoon. He began drawing Time Out! a sports oriented syndicated gag panel which ran from 1946 until 1984. And also drew the comic strip Rufus, which ran a single year, 1950.
Over the years his cartoons appeared in most of the prestigious major magazines, Collier’s, Look, Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, True, and This Week Magazine, as well as many minor magazines such as 1000 Jokes Magazine, Boys’ Life and the Humorama titles--Joker, Breezy, Jest, Romp, etc. His career as a magazine gag cartoonist spanned five decades, during which thousands of his drawings were published.
Profiles of Jeff Keate often mention he dated legendary comedienne Phyllis Diller while he was living in Chicago, so we won’t bother to mention it here. However, we do know they were lifelong friends.
In a 1950 interview with Editor & Publisher magazine Keate said his cartoons were drawn with no other meaning or purpose than a laugh.
In that spirit we have assembled a collection of Jeff Keate cartoons . . .
Collier’s December 23, 1939.
Collier’s December 4, 1940.
American Magazine March, 1942.
American Magazine March, 1944.
The Saturday Evening Post January 6, 1945.
Collier’s September 14, 1946.
This Week Magazine July 18, 1948.
Collier’s August 28, 1948.
American Magazine June, 1950.
The Saturday Evening Post July 22, 1950.
Boys Life March, 1951.
Collier’s February 16, 1952.
Here! March, 1952.
American Legion Magazine June, 1953.
Collier’s February 5, 1954.
The Saturday Evening Post 17, 1954.
American Magazine February, 1955.
Field Enterprises, Inc. June 3, 1969.
The Saturday Evening Post April 27, 1957.
Look Magazine May 12, 1959.
1000 Jokes Magazine June – August, 1958.
The Saturday Evening Post June 29, 1957.
1000 Jokes Magazine December, 1957 – February, 1958.
True Magazine October, 1958.
For Laughing Out Loud January – March, 1959.
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