Gene Ahern

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Gene Ahern (1895-November 17, 1960) was a cartoonist best known for his bombastic Major Hoople, a pompous character who appeared in the long-run syndicated gag panel Our Boarding House. Many of Ahern's comic strips took a surreal or screwball approach, and he created the nonsense catch phrase "Nov shmoz ka pop."

After three years at the Chicago Art Institute, Ahern went to Cleveland and worked for the NEA syndicate (1914-15) on such strips as Dream Dope, Fathead Fritz, Sporty Sid and his Pals and Taking Her to the Ball Game, Squirrel Food, Balmy Benny and Otto Auto, about a man who loved driving so much that he couldn't stop. In 1921 he introduced the Nut Brothers, Ches and Wal, in The Crazy Quilt. Our Boarding House began that same year, scoring a huge success with readers after the January 1922 arrival of the fustian Major Hoople.

Leaving NEA in March 1936 for King Features, Ahern created Room and Board (1936-58). A resident in that boarding house was Judge Puffle, very much in the Hoople tradition. The Squirrel Cage (1937-45), featured a bearded hitchhiker who was obviously the inspiration for Robert Crumb's Mr. Natural character.