Frederick Francis "Fred" McCarthy, O.F.S., (5 September 1918 – 26 October 2009)[1] was an American Franciscan cartoonist, creator of the popular Brother Juniper single-panel comic strip.
McCarthy began drawing a cartoon friar while a student there, at first for his own amusement, and then for posters and flyers.[3] He named the short, freckled, and ever-cheerful (if sometimes naive) character "Brother Juniper" in 1942,[4] after the historical Brother Juniper, a companion of St. Francis of Assisi. McCarthy later served as art director of Friar, a national Franciscan magazine, and this led to the Brother Juniper character coming to the attention of the Publishers Syndicate, a distributor of comic strips.
The Brother Juniper strip was published from 1958 until 1989.[4] Running in over 100 American newspapers as well as overseas,[4]Brother Juniper was the only religious-themed comic ever syndicated in daily newspapers internationally.[5] McCarthy also created two less-successful religious-themed strips, Sister Suzie about a teaching nun, and Brother Rufus. He published these under the pen name "Fred Francis".[6]
McCarthy, a Secular Franciscan from 1938, was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1945 but left the friars and the priesthood in the early 1960s. He remained active as a Franciscan, however, resuming his life as a Franciscan tertiary, in which he was active till the end of his life.[5] He taught at a number of colleges and universities.[2]
McCarthy, Fred. Brother Juniper at Work and Play. (1960). Garden City:Hanover House.
McCarthy, Fred. Inside Brother Juniper. (1963). New York:Pocket Books.
McCarthy, Fred. Well Done, Brother Juniper. (1963). Garden City:Doubleday.
McCarthy, Fred. The Whimsical World of Brother Juniper. (1963). New York:Pocket Books.
McCarthy, Fred (as "Fred Francis"). Brother Rufus. (1964). Garden City:Doubleday.[9]
McCarthy, Fred (as "Fred Francis"). Sister Suzie. (1964). Garden City:Doubleday.[10]
McCarthy, Fred. The Ecumenical Brother Juniper. (1965). Garden City:Doubleday.
McCarthy, Fred (2012). The Definitive Brother Juniper. Empty-Grave Publishing. ISBN978-1620890134. Includes the eight previously published Brother Juniper collections in one volume.
^Emeric Szlezak, Tom Murphy, Pamela Nagle, Roy Gasnick, St. Anthony of Padua Fraternity (Winter 2009). "Tributes to Fred McCarthy"(PDF). Secular Franciscan Order, Five Franciscan Martyrs Region, newsletter. Archived from the original(PDF) on March 9, 2016. Retrieved January 6, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
