John Joseph Gallagher (1926–2005) was an American cartoonist and illustrator. He contributed to most major magazines in the 1950s and 1960s, signing his work “Gallagher.” He won the National Cartoonist Society Gag Cartoon Award in 1957 and 1971. Early life John Joseph Gallagher was born January 24, 1926, in Englewood, New Jersey. His parents were George and Gertrude Gallagher. He was the eldest of three children. One brother was Gerald, who became an attorney and the other was George “Gately” Gallagher who created the popular comic strip, Heathcliff. Gallagher’s father, renowned for his sense of humor, was a longshoreman who had always wished to be a cartoonist. He and his wife encouraged John’s and George’s artwork. John Gallagher began drawing Mickey Mouse and Popeye at the age of three. After John and George became professional cartoonists, their father clipped hundreds of cartoons from magazines and glued them in spiral bound notebooks for their reference. John grew up in Bergenfield, New Jersey and graduated from Bergenfield High School in 1944. He drew cartoons for “The B Hive”, the school newspaper, as well as the school yearbook, “Crossroads.” After he graduated high school, John went into the Navy. He served as a Signalman aboard a destroyer escort which was en route to invade Japan when the war ended. John attended Syracuse University School of Art on the G.I. Bill. While attending Syracuse, he did illustrations and cartoons for “The Syracusan” the university magazine. It was there he met cartoonist Brad (Marmaduke) Anderson, who became his lifelong friend. Anderson showed him how to put together cartoons for submission to magazines. After two years, John transferred to Pratt Institute, majoring in Illustration. Career In 1951, his senior year at Pratt, John sold his first cartoon to The Saturday Evening Post. In January, 1951, he married Dorothy “Dot” Lotter, whom he first met while in grammar school. After his graduation from Pratt, they moved to New York City where he became a staff artist for the Howell-Rojin Agency, which helped pioneer TV “green screen” technology, still used today by TV news weathermen. At this time, he began to submit cartoons regularly. When his freelance career began to take off, he and his wife moved back to Bergenfield, New Jersey. For the next 20 years, Gallagher enjoyed an immensely successful gag cartoon freelancing career. His cartoons appeared in magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s,