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Brother Juniper Index Page Books Background Biography Examples
Brother Juniper books in the Archives' collection
Brother Juniper. Garden City: Hanover House, 1957.
Brother Juniper at Work and Play. Garden City: Hanover House, 1960.
Brother Juniper Strikes Again. Garden City: Hanover House, 1959.
The Ecumenical Brother Juniper. Garden City: Doubleday, 1965.
Inside Brother Juniper. New York: Pocket Books, 1963
More Brother Juniper. New York: Pocket Books, 1960.
Well Done, Brother Juniper. Garden City: Doubleday, 1963.
The Whimsical World of Brother Juniper. New York: Pocket Books, 1963.
Most of these are also in Friedsam Library's circulating collection, call number NC1429.M212.
To see some more samples of images from the collection click here
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Brother Juniper Index Page Books Background Biography Examples
Fred McCarthy (1918- ) grew up in Boston, Mass. He started drawing cartoons with crayons, and, by age 12, was the only kid in his neighborhood who had a collection of rejection slips from The New Yorker. (Irwin, 164) At an early age he met Al Capp (L'il Abner) who taught him how to ride the hitches of the local trolleys. McCarthy was destined to become familiar with many other well known names in the comic strip trade.
| After a couple of years at Boston College, where he continued his cartooning for some campus publications, McCarthy felt called to the Catholic clergy and relocated to St. Bonaventure College. It was at Saint Bonaventure that his artistic skills started him on the road to Brother Juniper. His drawing ability made him a popular sign maker for campus events. He put little friar cartoons in the margins of many of these signs and, as they developed into a recognizable character, others recognized Saint Francis' friend Brother Juniper in the pictures. (See Brother Juniper) |
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| One of McCarthy's most vivid memories of life at Saint Bonaventure is from the flood of 1942. In those days the campus farm extended over what is now McGraw-Jennings field. Included in the farm was a piggery of 150 or so swine. As the Allegany's waters rose the pigs were in great danger of drowning, in fact that was the expectation. McCarthy and a number of his fellow clerical students set up a rope and boat "ferry" to bring the pigs to higher ground. Fr. Peter Biasiotto, one of the instructors, took to the water and hefted the several hundred pound animals up into the boat. McCarthy can "still recall him in those rapidly moving flood waters, grabbing 2 big hogs by the ears and dragging 'em to our wooden duck-pen raft." And, since only four could go at a time, it took a lot of trips! Fr. Biasiotto "was up to his chin all day!" Most of the animals were saved. The students' reward for their labor was plenty of pork chops for the rest of the year. |
After completing his schooling, McCarthy continued drawing, with his "Friar Sad Sack" appearing in a newsletter sent to Franciscan chaplains. He was encouraged to develop this unique medium by a throat condition that made him fear that he would lose his voice entirely. While that condition cleared up, his artistic bent became even more pronounced and his efforts as art director of Friar, a national Franciscan magazine, impressed an agent who was able to successfully promote the Brother Juniper idea to an editor of the Publishers Syndicate of Chicago. According to McCarthy, "It was a case of a Catholic cartoonist being sold by a Jewish agent to a Methodist editor." (Irwin, 165)
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Having studied sculpture at Boston's Museum School for a
semester, McCarthy entered this stone carving of Christ in the 1955 New
England International Art Festival. It was accepted for the show,
but won no jury awards. However, it did finish first or second
among the visitors to the show in their "Popular" voting
category, according to McCarthy. "Boston's Catholics voted me
right up there, close to the top," he recalled with a fond smile.
Brother Juniper also appeared in three dimensions. McCarthy modeled a score of figurines in Japan for a US company to market. He stayed in Seto, a Japanese town filled with ceramics factories belching black smoke. He vouches for the truth of the Japanese saying that "There is not one white cat in Seto." |
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McCarthy has taught at a number of colleges and universities, and lectured on the history of comics and humor. Besides Al Capp, his work has introduced him to many of the best known comic artists of the twentieth century, including Charles Schultz (Peanuts) and Jerry Siegel & Joe Schuster (Superman). He has been known to join some of his fellow comic artists in playing street football in front of New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and, at 84 (in 2003), can still punt a football 40 yards.
McCarthy, and his wife Lilly, are now an enthusiastic members of the Secular Franciscan Order. They make their home in southern Florida, where he continues to work with his art and introduces Brother Juniper into new situations. A great sports fan, McCarthy has done work for the Miami Dolphins and various newspapers.
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In a recent interview McCarthy described his
philosophy of humor. He "believes that everyone has a sense of
humor, which is a gift from God, a heavenly help that keeps our souls in
balance. |
References:
Hamel, Joanne. "Local cartoonist shares his comics with a new generation."
The Florida Catholic 8 Jan. 2004: A5+.
Irwin, Theodore. "The wistful world of 'Brother Juniper'." Coronet
(Sept. 1960): 162-167.
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Brother Juniper Index Page Books Background Biography Examples
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Page created 01 Dec. 2003 by Dennis Frank (dfrank@sbu.edu)
Last updated: 02 March 2006
