Tenth Letter of the Alphabet: Comics: Alice Kirkpatrick, Artist

Monday, March 4, 2024

Comics: Alice Kirkpatrick, Artist

March is Women’s History Month.

Alice Margaret Kirkpatrick was born on September 27, 1912, in Huntsville, Alabama. Her full name was published in a 1930 school yearbook. The birth date is from the Social Security Death Index. Her birthplace was recorded on passenger lists.

The 1920 United States Census said Kirkpatrick was the only child of John and Helen. They were Huntsville residents at 506 Randolf Street. Her father was a bookkeeper at a general store.

Kirkpatrick attended the Wills-Taylor School. Below are her fourth and fifth grade class photographs from The Wist yearbooks for 1922 and 1923.

The 1927 Huntsville city directory listed the Kirkpatrick family at 505 East Eustis Street. In 1929 they were at 456 East Eustis Street.

World Week, Scholastic Teacher Edition, October 27, 1954, published a profile of Kirkpatrick. It was reprinted in Senior Scholastic, February 9, 1955. Kirkpatrick majored in music and art at Huntsville High. At age 16, she “won a scholarship to take the two-year home-study art course of Art Instruction, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.”

The Kirkpatricks were at the same address in the 1930 census.

Kirkpatrick continued her education at the Ward-Belmont School in Nashville, Tennessee. Kirkpatrick’s nickname was “Kirk” as noted, below, in the Ward-Belmont Hyphen, May 10, 1930. Years later, she signed “Kirk” on some of her work.

—And speaking of batting as I believe we were, have you ever noticed Alice Kirkpatrick? You know “Kirk’s” appendages are rather lengthy and when she gets them placed to her liking ye poor pitcher is troubled as to what he is facing. Dear, dear, and we can’t even scratch our own back.—

The 1931 Milestones yearbook said she was a certificate art student and a member of the F.F. Club.

Hollywood Magazine, August 1936, reported the winners of the Pickford-Lasky trademark contest. Kirkpatrick won the magazine’s own contest.

The contest winners were also announced in Motion Picture, August 1936.

World Week said Kirkpatrick, in 1937, “moved to New York City and got a job designing wallpaper and fabrics. She also studied illustration at the Phoenix Art Institute at night. Shortly afterwards she became a free-lance commercial artist with her own business and own customers.” Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists said she also found work in pulp magazines.

According to the 1940 census, Kirkpatrick shared an apartment with Jacquline Franc at 40 West 53rd Street in Manhattan.

The Grand Comics Database said her comics career ran from 1948 to 1956.

In the 1950 census, Kirkpatrick was at the same address. Her occupation was commercial art drawing ads in the advertising industry.

A July 14, 1951 passenger list said Kirkpatrick and her roommate, Muriel Birckhead, were passengers aboard the steamship Queen Mary bound for Cherbourg, France. On August 29, 1951, they returned on the steamship Mauretania from Southampton, England to New York.

During 1959, Kirkpatrick designed and illustrated several book jackets and magazine covers in including Fifty Years with Music, Moura, Music Journal, April-May 1959 and June-July 1959.

The 1986 novel, Rising Thunder, had this dedication: