Old King, New Kingdom

Cartoonist Billy De Beck never donned baggy trousers and a putty nose to exhibit himself as Barney Google. Cartoonist Fred Opper never publicly appeared in the Quixotic guise of Happy Hooligan. But last week Cartoonist Otto Soglow, elaborately garbed in the beard, crown and ermine of his Little King, made a coast-to-coast goodwill tour on a TWAirliner to celebrate the debut of his famed New Yorker comic strip in Puck, the 16-page funnypaper published weekly in Hearst-papers throughout the U. S.

Year ago Artist Soglow sold Publisher Hearst a comic strip called The Ambassador. Last week The Ambassador was recalled to make way for the Little King, who at the same time abdicated from the New Yorker, his contract having expired. In his debut as a Hearstling the Little King romped gaily in color through a page of ten drawings, in which he was depicted as entertaining his assembled subjects with an impromptu performance on a tight rope.

This year the Little King made his debut in cinema. As an animated cartoon, his success was inconspicuous. A beardless variation of the Little King was created for an advertising series in which the diminutive monarch, grown suddenly articulate, dealt didactically with the merits of Standard Oil's Red Crown Super-fuel. For Borden's Ice Cream Soglow gave the King a son, the Crown Prince of Ice-Creamia, an amusing little moppet who behaved much like his father. For Brooklyn's Abraham & Straus department store Soglow drew a Queen who strangely exercised her royal prerogatives by appearing publicly in a state of undress.

Year ago Artist Soglow, 33, bought a farm at Ossining, N. Y., where he spends his spare time playing croquet. Tiny, he has a tiny wife named Ann, a tiny daughter named Tono. Not exclusively a smartchart illustrator, he is a political pink, has contributed many a socially-conscious drawing to the radical New Masses.

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