Irving Joel Rafsky, known as Jay Irving, was a cartoonist notable for his syndicated strip about a good-natured, dutiful New York police officer,, who sometimes came in conflict with his sergeant.
Background
Born in New York, Irving became familiar with police activities at an early age, since his father, Abraham Rafsky, was a captain in the New York Police Department. Dorothy Prago and Jay Irving married in 1922, and their only child, Clifford Irving, was born November 5, 1930. Clifford Irving said about his father, "He didn’t want the family to know he was a cartoonist - they thought he was a respectable insurance salesman - and he also felt there was anti-Semitism in the cartoon business.
Career
After attending Columbia University, Irving was employed as an insurance salesman and a police reporter for the New York Globe. A self-taught artist, Irving became a sports cartoonist in the late 1920s. He drew the strip Bozo Blimp for King Features Syndicate and spent two years doing advertising art
So kept his work a secret from the family and his real name a secret from the cartoon world.
He drew under his name Jay Irving, which was derived from his real name, Irving Joel Rafsky. Then, when he became successful, he confessed, and changed his name legally."
In 1932, Irving began a 13-year association with Collier"s, drawing the weekly cartoon panel Collier"s Cops.
He also did covers for Collier"s, including one for the October 26, 1940 issue. In 1946, he created the short-lived comic strip Willie Doodle, also about a police officer, for the Herald-Tribune Syndicate.
His strip was syndicated by the Tribune-News Syndicate from 1955 until 1970.
Irving"s son, Clifford, was an art student in the mid-1940s at the High School of Music & Art, and he assisted his father by doing lettering on both Willie Doodle and Clifford Irving later wrote about the art world in his book Fake! The Story of Elmyr de Hory, the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time (1969). The word "" entered the language during the run of the strip. A police officer who prevented the loss of his badge by wearing a fake badge referred to the fake as a Later, these fake badges became known as "dupes".
He was the official historian for the Police Department"s Honor Legion, and he owned a unique collection of police memorabilia dating back more than 300 years.
Membership
Irving was a founding member of the, although his name is curiously absent from the organization"s online roster of members.