17 Facts About Dave Breger

Dave Breger was his signature and the byline on his books.

Dave Breger studied architectural engineering at the University of Illinois and then transferred to Northwestern University, where he edited the campus humor magazine, Purple Parrot, while studying pre-med and psychology.

Dave Breger had no schooling in art or cartooning, and his college cartoons were drawn in a style similar to John Held, Jr.

Dave Breger returned to Chicago and the sausage stockyard, rising to the position of office manager of his father's firm, where he devised the company slogan, "Our Wurst Is the Best".

In 1937, after receiving a $30 check from The Saturday Evening Post, Dave Breger arrived in New York and began freelancing to Collier's, Parade, This Week, Esquire, Click and The New Yorker.

Dave Breger drew at night in the bakery or while sitting in a truck with netting overhead to keep the bugs away.

The Saturday Evening Post, under the heading Private Dave Breger, began publishing these cartoons as a series starting August 30,1941.

Yank wanted Dave Breger to do cartoons like those in The Saturday Evening Post, but the editors asked him to devise a new title.

The character remained a private throughout World War II, while Dave Breger himself was promoted through the ranks to corporal, sergeant and eventually lieutenant.

From 1943 to 1946, Private Dave Breger was reprinted in David McKay's Ace Comics and Magic Comics.

In one cartoon, Dave Breger predicted that since television showed so many old movies, the day would come when movie theaters would turn to vintage television for product.

Mister Dave Breger received comic book reprints in The Katzenjammer Kids, Popeye, Beetle Bailey and Flint Comix and Entertainment.

In 1946, Dave Breger became a founding member of the National Cartoonists Society.

When Dave Breger died in 1970, he was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Mister Dave Breger continued to run as a daily panel until March 21,1970.

Between 1942 and 1951, Dave Breger did five books collecting his Army cartoons.

In But That's Unprintable Breger wrote about newspaper and magazine taboos and illustrated his text with 135 unpublished cartoons by leading cartoonists, including Bo Brown, Milton Caniff, Irwin Caplan, Eric Ericson, Stan Fine, Rube Goldberg, Leo Garel, Don Flowers, Phil Interlandi, Reamer Keller, Fred Lundy, Jack Markow, Charles E Martin, Fred Neher, Russell Patterson, Mort Walker and George Wolfe.