George McManus was born of Irish parents in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1884. He dropped out of school at age fifteen and started working at the Saint Louis Republic. This newspaper published his first comic, 'Alma and Oliver'. In 1904, after winning some money, he moved to New York and was employed by the New York World. For this journal, he worked on several running stories, such as 'Snoozer', 'The Merry Marcelene', 'Panhandle Pete', 'Ready Money Ladies', 'Let George Do It', 'Cheerful Charlie' and 'Nibsby the Newsboy in Funny Fairyland'.
