The Best of Zimmie 1908-1922

Arch Bristow (1882-1964) was a prolific cartoonist. In 1905, at age 23, he began his owl cartoon in Johnstown, PA. Tribune. He developed the owl into the Zimmie character, and by 1908, at age 26, it gained syndication and appeared in 152 newspapers with 14 million readers in the United States and Canada. The Zimmie cartoons were a form of entertainment and part of the Johnstown residents' lives. They were saved in scrapbooks, embroidered onto pillows, and even immortalized in wood decorations, a true testament to the community's love and connection towards Zimmie. Zimmie was a single-panel cartoon that typically appeared with the weather report. He often appeared with his girlfriend and foil for jokes, Lizzie. In 2009, Mary Grishaver collected many Zimmie Cartoons from its period of national syndication and found examples of the owl’s thoughts on various topics for this book.