Thanks to an uncle who jealously held onto a special drawing over the decades, Racine, WI native, Chesterfield Commodore has proof that his love of cartooning since the age of 5. "As long as I can remember, I've been expressing my feelings with pencil & paper. My grandmother's dining room able was my drawing board & my uncle, John Prophet, was my teacher--- my early inspiration & guiding star..."
Before he became the leading staff cartoonist for
the Chicago Defender in 1948, he held a variety of different jobs.
Many having very little to do with editorial cartoons. He wanted to become
a race car driver, but his race was a barrier to that in Chicago. He considered
becoming a airline pilot, but "In those days they hardly wanted to
sell you a ticket to fly---let alone let you fly a plane." In the early
days, he had no interest in political matters, least of all in becoming
one of this nation's most prominent political cartoonists, receiving letters
from both then President Richard Nixon & amazingly, a glowing praise
from FBI Chief, J.Edger Hoover. (hmm...wonder what Hoover was really
plotting?) To see
letters.
In 1927, Chester Commodore came to the Chicago area, (Against
his wishes) where he enrolled in Tilden Technical High School. But in the
beginning, he had to wait, because the art classes were always too full
to accept him right away. However, he held onto his dream of art, &
continued drawing & sketching whenever & wherever opportunity allowed
.
Immediately upon completing high school, Mr. Commodore set out to find employment. Work consisted of a number of occupations--- none of which was the type of work he desired, in art. "I worked in a garage, served as a chauffeur, then while employed at the Pullman Company serving as a car cleaner, mechanic, porter, moving up to the position as a Journeyman Electro-mechanic. " In those days, job applications were color coded," Mr. Commodore added with a laugh. "Whites got the white applications, everybody else were given pink ones or some other color to let hiring managers know right off the applicant's race."
He recalls an incident in 1938 of being recommended for job as a cartoonist
for the Minneapolis Star, by famed lawyer James Rice who also wrote jokes
for the Jack Benny Show. Mr. Rice admired his skill in cartooning &
as a humorist. Mr. Commodore actually got the job on his name &
the recommendation, but when he came to the paper in person, the job was
mysteriously withheld. Through it all, Chester 
Commodore
"kept the faith" in his ability as an artist. As a hobby, to keep
in practice, he drew cartoons about some of the funny things that went on
around the railroad job which he displayed on the employee bulletin board.
The daily cartoons became an instant hit with his fellow co-workers.
One of his earliest published cartoons appeared in July of 1945. However
his dreams of working with a newspaper became reality when during the national
printers' strike of 1948, Mr. Commodore received a call from Charles Browning,
a school mate of his sister. Because of the strike, Mr. Browning needed
some extra help at the then, weekly paper called the Chicago Defender. Although
at the time, he had no experience in printing & publishing, Mr. Commodore
agreed to lend a hand three days out of the week to help strip up the
paper (this of course was before the days of desktop computer publishing.
Newspaper layout had to be carefully & precisely done by hand.) His
willingness to give of his time, & learn a new trade, led to a job offer
at the Defender. He held both the railroad job & the newspaper job at
the same time, until the jobs a the defender became more personally rewarding.
His task as an advertising page layout artist steadily advanced to a position in the editorial department where he began designing picture layouts & story illustrations. Quickly his responsibilities blossomed to include the layout of the general newspaper & his ultimate goal of the creation of not one but up to seven separate cartoons. (see Pioneer Gallery). One full-page cartoon, one comic strip & three one-panel cartoons. In 1950, Chester Commodore took over the writing & drawing of the regularly appearing comic strips after the passing of the paper's preceding cartoonist, Jay Jackson. This task exponentially grew when The Defender became America's first (& currently only) daily Black newspaper in 1956.
Among the many cartoons he developed or created during his tenure at the Chicago Defender, Mr. Commodore, along with the editorial panel, "Bungleton Green" & "So What ?" legacy left him by the Staff cartoonist before, he created a few of his own such as the domestic oriented strip, "The Sparks," "Ravings of Prof. Doodle" & spot illustrations throughout the paper. Also, he developed illustrations for love-lorn columns through King Features Syndicate.
But like all of us, no matter how deep our love for
cartooning, in the late 70s, Chester Commodore became burned out,
& went to the publisher to confess that he simply was not enjoying his
work as much. He felt his cartoons were no longer funny. He requested to
be cut back to doing only the editorial feature. Mr. Sengstacke agreed,
adding an occasional cover illustration for special magazine issues of the
Sengstacke family of newspapers nationwide. When he finally decided to retire
from the daily work at the Defender in April of 1981, he took along with
him nearly 200 pounds of cartoons, & moved with his wife to Colorado
Springs. Here he continues to paint & draw editorial cartoons.
In January of 1992, he came out of semi-retirement to provide occasional editorial cartoons to the Defender & other Sengstacke owned publications. At this point, he changed his focus from political to social commentary. "My cartoons now fight for the underdogs. What we call 'evergreens', cartoons with meaning that never die & can be used at any time, since the issues never change from year to year. In 1995, John Sengstacke made the decision to unify all his papers using the editorial cartoons of Chester Commodore.
Chester Commodore never hesitates to give credit to the people
who helped him along his growth as a cartoonist & journalist. "Prayer
is the biggest influence on my work," He says. His wife (now deceased)
Marcia was his daily inspiration,"...she pushed me to work & make
money..." His two sons (now grown) brought humor. The late Chicago
Defender publisher John
Sengstacke offered ideas that helped develop him into the political
cartoonist he is today. The Defender needed an editorial cartoon that wasn't
too wordy, so that 'the man in the street' could easily understand it &
identify without a lot of reading. "John Sengstacke caused me to use
capabilities that I didn't even know I had..." Also mentioned were
other pioneer cartoonists as Jay Jackson, Henry Brown, Jackie Ormes, Leslie Rogers, Jack Chancellor & Garrett
White from whom he borrowed techniques to develop his own unique style.
Among the 'mainstream' Chicago editorial cartoonists; John Fischetti, Bill
Maudin, Al Jennings, Wayne Staskil & even after a tenuously shaky start,
Dick Locher. From his 'downtown' lunches with them, he gained helpful advice
that added to his development as an editorial cartoonist.
(Spelling
of cartoonist's names to be confirmed in next update)
In his lifetime as a Pioneering Cartoonist of Color, Chester Commodore has been nominated for 12 Pulitzer awards--- however never won any. But in 1976 he was awarded the prestigious Gold Medallion Award, which is unlike the Pulitzer, is only awarded to one individual per year. In the December of 1973 issue of Cartoonist PROfiles, he was named as Best Editorial Cartoonist of the year. Mr. Commodore will also be featured In the upcoming documentary about the Black Press (upcoming as of the writing of this article, due out in the Fall of 98) titled "Soldiers Without Swords."
Chesterfield Commodore, award winning cartoonist, illustrator and pioneering cartoonist of Color, paving over half a century of creative inspiration to today's aspiring & professional cartoonists alike. His advice to new-comers, "You don't need a lot of words to make your point. You've already drawn the cartoon--- it should say it all !"
(After note: in 1995, Chester Commodore was pleased & surprised to learn that the Prairie School in Racine WI, had established a scholarship & Achievement Award for Creating & Writing named in his honor in 1985.)
visit the A
retrospective of Bungleton Green !
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