A grittier and less sentimental predecessor to Norman Rockwell, Clare Briggs exemplified the larger journey of American society from small-town innocence to urbane sophistication. The son of a farm machinery salesman, Briggs left his rural home as a young man to forge a career as an illustrator and cartoonist, earning success in such big-city papers as The Chicago Examiner, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Tribune. Within a few years, he became one of the most popular and imitated cartoonists in America: Frank King, Milton Caniff, and the first generation of New Yorker cartoonists all emulated Briggs. Eschewing the roughneck humor of early comic strips, Briggs drew low-key strips in two modes: nostalgic reveries focused on memories of small-town boyhood and satirical strips about the squabbles inherent in married life.
First published in 1913 by P. F. Volland and Company of Chicago, Oh Skin-Nay! is a collaboration between Briggs and poet Wilbur D. Nesbit and portrays a year in the life of small-town America through the eyes of the twelve-year-old boy―wood gathering, sleigh rides, games of post office, swimming holes, and sandlot ball games.
This book is presented as a facsimile edition of double-page spreads containing short poems and full-page cartoons as well as an expanded afterword on Briggs by comics historian Jeet Heer.
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