Harold Knerr

Knerr was born on September 4, 1882 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. His father was Calvin B. Knerr, a German physician who had migrated to the United States. His mother was Melitta Hering, daughter of Constantine Hering, a pioneer of homeopathy. ==Comic strips==

According to Knerr authority James Lowe, Knerr was extremely prolific, producing more than 1,500 Sunday comic pages between 1901 and 1914 for a half-dozen continuing features in three different Philadelphia newspapers. He created his first comic strip, Zoo-Illogical Snapshots, for the Public Ledger. In 1899, when he was 18, he started working for The Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1901, he drew the Sunday strip, ''Willie's Revenge, followed by a number of comic strips, including the Mr. Jack-inspired Mr. George and His Wife (1904–14). In 1906, he took over the strip Scary William and continued it until 1914. From June 15, 1913 to November 15, 1914, he drew The Irresistible Rag. (The cartoonist Joe Doyle drew both Scary William and The Irresistible Rag'' after Knerr left these strips.) From 1903 to 1914, he drew The Fineheimer Twins, an imitation of The Katzenjammer Kids, which made it obvious he was the ideal artist to replace Rudolph Dirks on The Katzenjammer Kids. ==The Katzenjammer Kids==

Knerr took over The Katzenjammer Kids Sunday strip in November 1914 when Dirks left the Hearst-owned New York Morning Journal after a legal dispute. He continued to write and draw the strip until his death in 1949, when it was taken over by Charles H. Winner. Knerr's continuation of The Katzenjammer Kids has been praised as "a particularly brilliant job... true to the spirit of the original, and yet stylistically his own." ==Dinglehoofer und His Dog Adolph==

On May 16, 1926, Knerr started '' (sometimes titled Dinglehoofer und His Dog Adolph'' during the early 1930s), ==Personal life==

Knerr never married. In New York during the 1940s, he lived in the Hotel Blackstone at 50 East 58th Street. On July 8, 1949, he died in Manhattan from heart disease, survived by a sister in Carmel, California, and a brother in Philadelphia. He is buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. ==Bibliography==