Willard Mullin

Willard Mullin

• Born September 14, 1902 in Columbus, OH USA
• Died December 20, 1978 in Corpus Christi, TX USA

Biographical Information

Willard Mullin was the most famous sports cartoonist of his time. Based in the New York City area, he created the famous character of the "Brooklyn Bum", based on a hobo, meant to characterize both the sad-sack Brooklyn Dodgers team (at the time the character was created) and its suffering fans.

He was widely syndicated, with his cartoons appearing daily in the New York World Telegram & Sun, in addition to numerous other papers of the Scripps-Howard chain, and in The Sporting News. He was often commissioned to draw cover illustrations for official publications such as team yearbooks and game and series programs. He became a free-lance cartoonist when the World Telegram folded in 1966. His work features prominently in the book The Amazing Mets, written by Jerry Mitchell, the definitive history of the early years of the New York Mets.

While seen as the typical New Yorker, Mullin was actually born in Ohio and grew up in California and first began working for the Los Angeles Herald, where he first made traditional sports illustrations before turning to cartoons. He moved to the Big Apple in 1934.

Further Reading

• Willard Mullin, Hal Bock and Michael Powers: Willard Mullin's Golden Age of Baseball: Drawings 1934–1972, Fantagraphics Books, Seattle, WA, 2013. ISBN 978-1606996393
• Willard Mullin and Ernest Thayer: Willard Mullin's Casey at the Bat and Other Diamond Tales, Fantagraphics Books, Seattle, WA, 2015. ISBN 978-1606998144

Related Sites

• Biography from the Norman Rockwell Museum