At the age of fifteen, James Edward Murphy Jr. already was a cartoonist for the Omaha Examiner. In 1910, he really started his career, when he was employed by a Washington newspaper. He traveled around the States, doing several cartooning jobs, among others for the Spokane Inland-Herald, the Oregon Journal, the San Francisco Call and the Los Angeles Herald, until he was noticed by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Hearst offered him the position of staff artist at the New York American, in 1918.
After creating 'Doc Attaboy', created his famous feature 'Toots and Casper', about a married couple and their baby, Buttercup. This strip became famous so quickly, that it was made into a film comedy in the twenties. Between 1926 and 1941, Murphy also drew a complementary strip, called 'It's Papa Who Pays'. After decades of success, Jimmy Murphy retired from the strip in 1958, due to illness. He died in 1965.
