At the age of 16, Ted Shearer sold his first cartoon to New York Amsterdam News. In the years to come, he went on to become one of the nation's first cartoonists of Color, who was openly known to be of Color to be syndicated to "mainstream" newspapers, to exhibiting his talent in one-man shows at some of the most prestigious galleries in the country.
Born in Jamaica, Ted Shearer's family emigrated to New York City when he was nine months old. He remained a New Yorker, by 'adoption' ever since. Mr. Shearer's high school years were spent at DeWitt Clinton High, then finished his early education at Pratt Institute. Even while in the army during WW2, where he attained the rank of Sergeant, he continued to submit cartoons about military life through Continental Features . Mr. Shearer received the Bronze Star for his work as art editor of the 92nd Division's "Buffalo," during the war.
Most biographies about Ted Shearer only recognize his cartooning contribution with the 1970 appearance of the newspaper comic strip "Quincy," which was distributed by King Features Syndicate for sixteen years. But cartoons can be found in the pages of the American Black press as early as 1937.
Throughout the 1940s he illustrated two single
panel cartoons. Drawn in a sketchy, dry-brush style was the contemporary
humor of "Next Door." The jokes in this panel appear
to revolve around youngsters interacting with each other and with adults
within the confines of an urban setting, probably New York's Harlem. Distributed
nationally by Continental Features, Next Door," over
time took on a slicker line appearance with use of shading screens or the
special paper that allowed lines & cross-hatching to appear when washed
with a special chemical to create the unique tones seen in the later "Quincy"
cartoons.
Similar in drawing style and containing the same sort of humor was his second panel Around Harlem. Signed Sgt. Ted Shearer "Around Harlem," appeared in the New York Amsterdam - Star News (New York Amsterdam News) was directed to a more mature audience, with adult themes as depicting soldiers in uniform and young adults at dances or "making out" on a sofa or settee with the very perturbed father of the girl about to pounce and young women locked in a hair pulling battle over a man or solder each thought she had an exclusive engagement to. Many references were made to contemporary fads of the 1940s with young women in bobby socks, men in zoot suits, jitterbug 'cutting a rug' and dialog salted with "jive" slang. The art work was lively with visual movement, invoking the swing music of Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, accompanied with the scat vocals of Ella Fitzgerald. These cartoons appeared until about the mid 1950s.
Although it is not known if Ted Shearer's racial identity was
made public knowledge during the early 1940s, he was a constant contributor
to "Ladies' Home Journal," illustrator for the "New
York Herald-Tribune" and King Features. He also submitted art to
the Black-owned "Our World" magazine. His goal as a cartoonist
was to present the lifestyles and conditions under which Black America lived.
He never tried to preach about discrimination or hard-hitting racial issues,
although in his words he was "...hurt so many times... but I always
have to catch myself and realize I'm doing a humor strip and not an editorial
cartoon." He put into his art all the internalized pains of segregation
in the army, unfairness his children had to endure the conditions he saw
around him, and allowed the viewers to come to a conclusion based upon his
own understanding.
Arriving on the wave of Civil Rights awareness in the late 1960s, Ted Shearer was an art director at an ad agency when his comic was accepted by King Features. Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there arose a need for comic strips with active Black characters. "Quincy" joined the newspaper pages along with "Wee Pals," "Dateline: Danger," "Luther," and "Friday Foster." as strips that had strong, regularly appearing Black characters. Of these comics that featured Black and White main characters as equals only the three which were actually drawn by African American artists survived beyond the 1970s. Ted Shearer's "Quincy" remained on the comic pages until 1986.
Quincy, © King Features Syndicate, Inc.
| 1. Quincy: "This gum-ball machine is round like the world..." | 2. Quincy: "...There are many different colored balls in it..." |
| 3. Quincy: "Brown ones, red ones, black ones, white ones, yellow ones..." | 4. Quincy: "Funny, once you get past the outside, they all chew the same." |
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