Al Posen

Al Posen, born Alvah Posen on October 2, 1894, in the United States, was an American cartoonist and film producer. He is best remembered for creating the long-running comic strip *Sweeney & Son*, which he wrote and drew from 1933 until his death in 1960. Posen also co-produced the now-lost Marx Brothers film *Humor Risk* (1921), an early venture into cinema. His path into comics began in the early 20th century, and he found steady work as an artist, inker, and writer on several strips. In the 1940s, he contributed to titles like *Super Comics*, with credits on 15 issues between 1940 and 1947. Posen’s signature style was clean and expressive, suited to the gag-a-day format of *Sweeney & Son*, which followed the misadventures of a father and son. He collaborated with editors and fellow cartoonists of the era, though his most enduring partnership was with the strip itself. Posen died on June 10, 1960. While he did not receive major industry awards during his lifetime, his work on *Sweeney & Son* remains a modest but fondly recalled piece of newspaper comics history, and his early film work is a footnote in Marx Brothers lore.