Cartoonist, comic artist, animator

Oscar Emil “O.A.” Andersson ― started working as a teenager at the Royal Mint. When he realized that his passion was connected with drawing, he entered a Technology school and graduated with honors. However, he was not interested in the design. His teacher, Caleb Altin, encouraged him to take up caricature.

At the age of twenty, Andersson made his debut with his cartoons in the magazine Söndags-Nisse, where he soon got a job. Inspired by early comics artists from the USA and England of the late 19th century, Andersson created the first serial comics in Sweden: Bröderna Napoleon och Bartholomeus Lunds från Grönköping Resa Jorden Runt (about two brothers on a world tour), Mannen Som Gör Vad Som Faller Honom In (about a strange man who does everything that comes to him in the head) and Urhunden (about a prehistoric man and his pet dinosaur).

Andersson’s most famous tape is “Mannen som gör vad som faller honom in” (“The man who does everything that comes into his head”) was one of the first recurring comics in the history of Sweden. It was a 20-episode series about the misadventures of an anarchist man who does whatever he wants, no matter how immoral it may be.

Other caricature works by Oskar Andersson include Urhunden, a film about a prehistoric man and his pet dinosaur, as well as countless caricatures of political satire. Among his contemporaries, Andersson was primarily known for his cartoons, which were published in the Swedish newspapers Söndags-Nisse and Strix in the period from 1897 to 1906.

In 1906, Oscar, apparently suffering from long-term depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, committed suicide by shooting himself. The reasons for this are not entirely known, but Andersson was also known for his social anxiety, as well as incidents during his work as a reportage cartoonist when he was mistreated by military horses, which as an animal lover aggravated his depression.

Reference: Wikipedia, 2010