Harris, Larry, 1956-....

Larry Harris graduated from Rossford High School near Toledo, Ohio in 1927. While attending the University of Toledo, he studied art in the design school at the Toledo Art Museum and later went to school in the evenings at Keane's Art School. His first job was at the Toledo Bottle Cap Company designing milk bottle caps. While this was not the design work Harris wanted to do, the Depression limited opportunities for work in commercial art. The job provided him with experience in lettering and layout, which helped to advance his career. At the outset of World War II, Harris went to work with a Detroit engineering firm doing mechanical drawing and projection illustration. These new skills led to a position at General Motors Styling Section. WWII had put a hold on car design and Harris's work focused on three-dimensional illustration of military equipment, and design and layout for military manuals and handbooks. In his spare time he created the "Catfish Joe" comic strip that appeared in Pep Comics, until a wartime paper shortage of newsprint caused the publication to fold. At the end of WWII he decided to move to La Jolla, California and focus full-time on magazine cartooning. He became known as a gag cartoonist and published cartoons in many popular magazines of the day. He continued to work on developing cartoon panels and comic strips for syndication. In addition he created and designed board games for children that were published by Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley. Due to shrinking freelance market of the 1970s, Harris decided to leave cartooning and took a position as Art Director at a television station in Southern California. He retired from the television station in 1980.

From the guide to the Larry Harris Collection, 1930s-1989, (The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum)