Oscar Jacobsson

The recluse Swedish artist Oscar Jacobsson (1889–1945) created Adamson, a surly, obstinate little man with three strands of hair on his otherwise bald head and a smoldering cigar ever present in the corner of his mouth. This unexpected hero would go on to conquer the globe, as his exploits were published all over the world during the first half of the twentieth century. As part of the Biographix series edited by Frederick Luis Aldama, Oscar Jacobsson reintroduces scholars and comics readers to this groundbreaking artist. Oscar Jacobsson started out as a cartoonist for caricature journals in the early nineteenth century and was asked by one editor to create a comic strip. The result, Adamson, soon started its journey around the world, with Jacobsson being invited to the US to create strips directly for the American market. Jacobsson didn’t like the fast-paced American life and soon returned to his beloved Sweden, but his character kept travelling the globe, being published all over Europe and the Americas as well as in China and Japan, becoming one of the biggest international comic strips of its time. This volume tells the story of Oscar Jacobsson’s artistic journey, analyzing the development of the Adamson strip throughout the twenty-five years he created it, but also examines how ghost artists in different parts of the world attempted to re-create the magic that made the strip so popular. Additionally, the book contains a visual geneaology of Adamson, revealing how artists such as Hergé and Osamu Tezuka seem to have been influenced by Adamson.