Paul Fung

Paul Fung (1897–1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Dumb Dora.

Fung's father was a Baptist minister, the Reverend Fung Chak, a graduate of Stanford University. Paul was born in Seattle, where his father was pastor of Seattle's Chinese Baptist mission. In China, Fung Chak was renowned as a translator of hymns and patriotic songs, Paul studied traditional Chinese art, which included painting cherry blossoms on delicate fans. But he became familiar with cartooning because his sister in Portland, Oregon mailed him Sunday comics sections. Returning to Seattle, Fung received further art training by studying the Landon School of Illustrating and Cartooning's mail order correspondence course while he was attending Franklin High School, where he drew cartoons for the school paper. In addition to drawing, he also sang and played several musical instruments.

Sports cartoons

When his father died while he was in high school, Paul set out to find work. He drew cartoons which were displayed in the lobby of a Seattle vaudeville house, and he performed chalk talks at Seattle's Orpheum Theatre. In 1916, he began doing news and sports cartoons for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In 1919, he was profiled in Everybody's Magazine.