Doc Bird Finch

• Born 1879-02-06 · Died 1950-09-01

Doc Bird Finch was a newspaper cartoonist and comic strip artist, who worked primarily in the Denver, Colorado area. Finch began his career before 1900 as a newspaper cartoonist, working for Terre Haute Evening Gazette (Terre Haute, Indiana), followed by the Dayton News (Dayton, Ohio), and by 1903 he was working for the Saint Joseph News-Press (Saint Joseph, Missouri). It was his work for the News-Press that on October 23, 1903, that he first drew "Little Doc" his bird character that would continue to be a part of his signature and eventually his pen name. By 1906, Doc Bird was working for the Denver Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado). It was with this newspaper he created the weekday comic panel, The Troubles of Forgetful Joseph (Rocky Mountain News) from October 11, 1906, possibly ending sometime later in the year. By 1908, Finch was working for the Denver Post (Denver, Colorado). When the owners of the Denver Post purchased the Kansas City Post (Kansas City, Missouri), Finch started shuttling between Denver and Kansas City, from 1912 to 1915, doing cartoon work for the newspaper. He returned to the Denver Post and remained there until he retired from newspaper cartooning in 1931. From possibly 1921 to possibly 1930 (maybe sooner and/or later), Finch syndicated through the Denver Post a full-page Sunday panel featuring his cartoons under his Doc Bird name. It might have been released periodically and not a regular feature. Finch also did advertising illustration work starting sometime in the 1900s, which led after his retirement to the weekly comic strip The Early Bird (Greeley Tribune) from January 19, 1933, to February 23, 1933. The strip was used on the same page and in conjunction with a full page of merchant advertisements for newspapers. During the Second World War, Doc Bird came out of retirement to voluntarily do posters and cartoons for the Adams and Westlake Company plant in Elkhart, Indiana as a morale booster for its workers.