Classmates included Maynard Dixon and Edward Borein. (He would maintain a friendship with Dixon that would last for the remainder of Dixon’s life, the two frequently making sketch trips together into northern Arizona from the early 1900s into the 1930s.) During his brief stint at the school, he was tutored by William Keith, the “Old Master” of California Art, and Emil Carlsen. Although Swinnerton later claimed the institution primarily emphasized the development of his skills as a colorist, his initial ambition was to become a portrait painter. This led him to spend much of his classroom time caricaturing his instructors. By chance, some of his caricatures were seen by William Randolph Hearst. Impressed by what he saw, Hearst hired Swinnerton as a sketch artist for The San Francisco Examiner in 1892. After hearing that Swinnerton was going to work for a newspaper, William Keith allegedly refused to ever speak to Swinnerton again.
At The Examiner Swinnerton’s caricature skills naturally led him to cartooning. Newspapers had not yet developed a cost effective method of printing photographs and the pictorial reporting was still done by sketch artists. Swinnerton’s drawings soon appeared throughout the paper in sections ranging from the editorial to the sports pages, but his most well known figures were the “Weather Bears,” sketches of bear cubs which appeared on The Examiner’s daily weather report. If rain was forecast, the bear cub would be holding an umbrella. On a clear day, the bear would be at the beach. The popularity of the series led to a cartoon strip called The Little Bears.
It has been said that cartooning is America’s only true indigenous art form. The topic is highly debatable, but many consider the The Little Bears to be the nation’s original comic strip because it was the first to feature ongoing characters(Others consider Richard Outcault's The Yellow Kid to be the first). Shortly afterwards, Swinnerton began drawing images of small children to accompany the bears, and then began placing two frames together connected by a banner which spanned the page. The series was titled Little Bears and Tykes.
In 1896, after purchasing the New York Morning Journal, Hearst transferred Swinnerton to New York City. Soon afterwards Swinnerton changed his bears to tigers and created one of his best known characters. “Mr. Jack,” was a hapless woman-chasing feline that many thought was based on the Tammany Tiger and many others thought was not suitable for reading by younger audiences. 1904 saw the debut in the Sunday comics of Jimmy, a hugely successful strip which chronicled the mishaps and mischief of a small boy, Jimmy Thompson, and his dog, Beans. One of the first cartoons to be printed in color, there was uncertainty among the newspaper executives as to whether the appeal would justify the expense. But the strip went on to become the personal favorite of Swinnerton as well as millions fans nationwide through distribution by King Features Syndicate.
The comic was later renamed Little Jimmy after a daily was added to the Sunday series in 1920. Jimmy would usually start his endeavors, typically mundane errands for his mother or father, with good intentions. But his naiveté, absent mindedness and childlike tendency to become easily distracted always resulted in action filled misadventures. Outside of a two year hiatus during World War II (during which time Swinnerton drew a Western, Rocky Mason, Government Marshall) Little Jimmy ran continuously until 1958.
By 1906, Swinnerton was a hugely successful cartoonist and newspaperman who had already been through two tumultuous marriages. His first had been to Thalia Treadwell, a San Francisco heiress, in 1897. Two years his junior, all accounts indicate she was as strong willed and independent as her husband and within a year the marriage had shattered “on the rocks of booze and bickering”. (On October 23, 1897 The San Francisco Call reported the marriage ceremony “was not a long one nor was it civil”). In 1904, after a very brief courtship, he married a spirited, vivacious New Jersey woman named Harriet Hacker. One year his senior, Hacker had a taste for the night life. Swinnerton meanwhile, preferred to spend the evenings at home. Although the union was not legally over until 1917, by the end of 1905 the two had permanently separated. In addition to a chaotic personal life he described his work hours during this era as “long and hard” and his diet as consisting of “liquor and coffee.” It wasn’t long before heavy drinking, exhaustion and a bout with tuberculosis led to hemorrhages and a diagnosis of one month to live.
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