Al Posen

Alvah Posen (October 2, 1894 - June 10, 1960) was an American cartoonist on several comic strips, but he is best known for his 1933-1960 comic strip Sweeney & Son and as co-producer of the now-lost Marx Brothers film, Humor Risk.

Early life Born in New York City, Posen served in the Army during World War I and worked for a film advertising agency when the war ended. He then travelled in the Orient as a member of a geological and mining expedition, spending a year in Siam and Yunan.

Comic strips

In 1922, with no formal training in art, Posen created the rhyming daily comic strip, Them Days Are Gone Forever (aka Them Days Is Gone Forever). Distributed by United Features Syndicate, it was published in 1000 newspapers within a year, and continued until April 4, 1925. On April 19, 1926, Posen began another daily strip called Jinglet, which used several rhymed words in a four-panel gag. (For example: "Pals / Gals / Luck / Stuck".) This ran until March 19, 1927.

Posen followed it with another rhyming Sunday strip, the short-lived Ella and Her Fella, from May 21 to September 30, 1933. This also featured a revival of Jinglet as the topper. Jinglet continued to be the topper strip from 1933 to 1950. Rhymin' Time was a four-panel strip with lyrics set to "Turkey in the Straw'", such as:

My business is conducting polls And, gosh, is my face red! Since last election, everyone Hurls insults at my head! They used to think me wonderful. "Infallible," they said. Them Days Are Gone Forever.

Awards Posen received the National Cartoonists Society's Silver T-Square Award in 1956.