ABSTRACT
McCay's imaginative, often gaudy signs and posters for the dime museum brought him a local reputation and led to other work. Often he was employed by a young former poster painter, Philip (“Ph.”) Morton, who soon went into business for himself, eventually building signboards across America and became a millionaire. In 1891, McCay met Maude Dufour (1877–1949) at the dime museum, and, after a whirlwind courtship, they married that same year. Within five years, they had two children, Robert, born 1896, and Marion, born 1897. The Commercial Tribune newspaper hired McCay to draw advertisements, and as soon as he learned the techniques of print process reproduction, he became an artist-reporter illustrating local news, such as the 1898 Grand Army of the Republic parade (under huge arches designed by McCay) or traffic jams in midtown Cincinnati, tragic fires, and various political events. He also began submitting free-lance satirical cartoons to Life, the humor magazine. For the Cincinnati Enquirer, which he joined in 1900 for a larger salary, he became head of the art department, contributing hundreds of illustrations. Most significant is his first proto-comic strip Tales of the Jungle Imps, which led to a job offer in New York City at James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald newspaper, which he accepted in the fall of 1903.
