Editing The Little Bears (section)

==History==
[[Jimmy Swinnerton]] started his career in 1892 as a young [[illustrator]] for the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'', one of [[William Randolph Hearst]]'s newspapers. His chief task was to provide drawings for news stories in the days before [[photoengraving]], however, he also drew [[editorial cartoon]]s and other illustrations for the paper.

In 1893, the ''Examiner'' used an illustration by Frank "Cozy" Noble of a bear as the paper's mascot for the San Francisco Mid-Winter Exposition of 1894. Following this, Swinnerton was asked to provide a bear illustration every day to accompany the paper's coverage of the fair. Swinnerton's first bear illustration appeared on October 14, 1893, and rapidly evolved into a cute little bear cub. When the fair closed, the Little Bear disappeared from the paper, but he returned on September 10, 1894, and started accompanying the weather report from October 2, 1894 until May 1895.<ref name=Holtz/>

Starting June 2, 1895, ''The Little Bears'' became a regular feature on the children's page; each strip consisted of multiple illustrations of the bears, connected by a theme for the day. Human children were introduced to the strip on January 26, 1896, and the title changed to ''Little Bears & Tykes''.<ref name=Holtz/>

The ''Little Bears'' strip continued until June 7, 1897, when Swinnerton moved to [[New York City]] to draw cartoons for another Hearst paper, the ''[[New York Journal]]''. In the ''Journal'', Swinnerton's feature switched from bears to tigers as he launched ''[[Mr. Jack|The Little Tigers]]'' on February 20, 1898.<ref name=Holtz/> The change of animals apparently took place at the request of Hearst.<ref name=toonopedia-jack>{{cite web |last= Don Markstein's Toonopedia |title= The Escapades of Mr. Jack |url=http://www.toonopedia.com/mrjack.htm }}</ref> Gradually a defined, philandering character emerged from the strip, and on October 4, 1903, the Sunday feature was retitled ''[[Mr. Jack]]''.<ref name=Holtz/>

After Swinnerton ended the regular ''Little Bears'' strip, he continued to draw sporadic strips for the ''Examiner''. The Little Bear continued to appear in spot cartoons and with the weather forecast for several years, drawn by other artists including Grant Wallace, Ralph Yardley and Bob Edgren.<ref name=Holtz/>