Percy Crosby was a creator of oil paintings, watercolors, and sculpture, as well as poems, fiction, and nonfiction. He was an expert in recording the flow of motion in his ink drawings and watercolors. Crosby made his mark with his cartoon Skippy, about a mischievous, yet philosophical kid, loosely drawn in a sketchy, effortless manner. At the peak of its popularity the strip ran on the front page of the New York American.

Crosby was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Richmond Hill, Long Island. He dropped out of high school to work as an office boy in the art department of the popular Delineator magazine, sold an idea to Life when he was 16 years old, worked as a newspaper sketch artist at 19. He then attended Pratt Institute and the ...