Syd Hoff September 4, 1912 Bronx, New York – May 12,
2004 was a Jewish-American cartoonist and children''s book author.
Although best known for his classic early reader Danny and the
Dinosaur, his cartoons appeared in a multitude of genres,
including advertising commissions for such companies as Eveready
Batteries, Jell-O, S.O.S Pads, Rambler, Ralston Cereal and
more.
While Hoff was still in high school, Milt Gross, a popular 1930s
cartoonist, told him at an assembly that "Kid, someday you''ll be a
great cartoonist!" At 16, he enrolled at the National Academy of
Design in New York City. At 18, he sold his first cartoon to The
New Yorker, and would sell a total of 571 of them to the
publication from 1931 to 1975. Hoff became known for his cartoons,
in The New Yorker, depicting tenements and lower-middle
class life in the city.
Hoff drew two long-running syndicated comic strips: Tuffy
1939–1949 and Laugh It Off 1958–1978. One of Hoff''s
recurring characters, a walrus-mustached man, eventually appeared
as the father in his daily Tuffy, done for the King Features
Syndicate from 1940 to 1950.
His cartoons have appeared in a variety of publications
including, the New Yorker, Esquire, Look
magazine. He was also the host of a television show, Tales of
Hoff, in which he drew and told stories.
Hoff wrote and illustrated over 60 volumes in the
HarperCollins "I Can Read" series for beginning readers, most
notably Sammy the Seal and the popular Danny and the
Dinosaur 1958, which sold 10 million copies and has been
translated into a dozen languages.
In 1976, Hoff edited and published Editorial and Political
Cartooning: From Earlier Times to the Present, which contains
over 700 examples of works from the world''s editorial and political
cartoons.
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