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Billy DeBeck

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Artist

The Resume

    (April 15, 1890-November 11, 1942)
    Born in Chicago, Illinois
    Created the comic strip ‘Barney Google’ (1919), later renamed ‘Barney Google and Snuffy Smith’ (1939)

Why he might be annoying:

    He dropped out of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts after two years.
    Early in his career, he supported himself by copying Charles Dana Gibson drawings and selling them as originals.
    Singer Roy Acuff, among others, complained that the character Snuffy Smith perpetuated hillbilly stereotypes.
    The National Cartoonists Society’s award for Cartoonist of the Year was originally named the Billy DeBeck Memorial Award, but after his widow’s death (1954), it was renamed the Reuben Award in honor of Rube Goldberg.

Why he might not be annoying:

    William Randolph Hearst so admired his work on the pre-‘Barney Google’ strip ‘Married Life’ that Hearst bought the paper he worked for, the Chicago Herald, to acquire his services.
    ’Barney Google’ was credited with introducing or popularizing the phrases ‘horse feathers,’ ‘heebie-jeebies,’ ‘balls of fire,’ ‘hotsy totsy,’ and ‘time’s a-wasting.’
    Billy Rose wrote the song ‘Barney Google (With the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes),’ which became a smash hit (1923).
    Barney Google’s race horse Spark Plug was such a merchandizing phenomenon that he has been called the Snoopy of the 1920s.
    Coincidentally, Snoopy’s creator, Charles Schulz, was nicknamed ‘Sparky,’ after Spark Plug, by an uncle.
    The ‘Barney Google’ strip for Sunday September 18, 1938, was included in the time capsule buried at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
    ’Barney Google’ was one of 20 strips included in the ‘Comic Strip Classics’ set of commemorative US postage stamps (1995).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying