Mr. Jack by Jimmy Swinnerton 1914!!

Jimmy Swinnerton was one of the pioneers of comic art. He worked on this lesser known series, Mr. Jack from 1903 until 1935. It features Mr. Jack who is a tiger and it is thought this might be the first anthropomorphic character created. Mr. Jack started in The Little Tigers which began in 1898 and introduced the Mr. Jack character in 1903 and it soon took over the strip. Mr. Jack was deemed too much for the comics section and was moved to the sports and editorial sections in 1905. Swinnerton concentrated more on his Little Jimmy strip which was a success and Mr. Jack later moved on to be a topper for for Little Jimmy. At the age of 31 Swinnerton was diagnosed with TB and was given 2 years to live. He moved from NYC to the deserts of Arizona where he lived to be almost 99 years old.