A Salute to John Gallagher, gag cartoonist

December 10, 2018 by Dick Chodkowski

When I was a young teenager, I had dreams of being a gag cartoonist for the magazines. I remember leafing through old periodicals our neighbors were throwing out: The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, True, Look and others from the glorious 1950s, the golden age of the one panel cartoon. There were dozens of names I looked for, but John Gallagher was my favorite. It was a combination of his broad, big-nose drawing style and the brief captions that worked for me. His action-packed cartoon delivered the laugh. Here's what I'm talking about.