This Philadelphia Inquirer sports cartoonist (from 1907-1922) makes it onto the “Weird But True” roster on no less than three accounts. First, his name, Jim Nasium (okay, his real name was Edgar F. Wolfe). Secondly he may have had the dubious honor of inventing Clip Art!

An explanation in 1915 explained: “‘Jim Nasium,’ whose comic sporting cartoons are widely known throughout the country, is the clever inventor of a system whereby a cartoon illustrating the features of any given game may be inserted in the issue of the morning following the game. In adition he made a set of cuts illustrating stock expressions in use among baseball fans and these he was able to run at odd times, for the sake of variety. He sold these cuts to all papers subscribing to his syndicate, and sporting editors all over the country used them, with great economy to themselves and to the amazement of the public who greatly marveled at the amount of work done by the artist and writer between the end of the game and the appearance of the illustration. This illustrative outfit was sufficient to last throughout an entire baseball season. The same players head with different arrangements of comic inserts was made to do over and over again.”

The third reason Nasium makes the Weird roster? He was a scout for the Phillies for 2 years!

Below is some of the Jim Nasium clip art (click on the clip for a bigger look). PLUS a FREE Arf Lovers Blog Bonus: a look at the “electrotypes” furnished by Jim Nasium to the papers to print from.

(click for a closer look)

(click for a closer look)

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