C. M. Payne

Who was C. M. Payne?

Charles M. Payne was an American cartoonist best known for his popular long-run comic strip S'Matter, Pop? He signed his work C. M. Payne and also adopted the nickname Popsy.

In 1896, Payne was employed at the Pittsburgh Post. Coon Hollow Folks, his first comic strip, was followed by Bear Creek Folks, Scary William and Yennie Yonson. He created Honeybunch's Hubby, for the New York World, and in 1911, he drew Peter Pumpkin for The Philadelphia Inquirer. His 1910 strip, Nippy's Pop, was later retitled S'Matter, Pop? Initially carried by the Bell Syndicate, it ran from 1911 to 1940. During the 1920s, S'Matter, Pop? was a Sunday strip in the New York World, followed by decades as a daily strip in the The Sun.

Traveling with his wife and two daughters, Payne spent the summer of 1915 in Los Angeles and Southern California, where he planned an automobile trip to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Diego.

He was a member of the Southern California Camera Club, and in 1920, he exhibited photographs he had taken at remote locations in the Arizona desert.

In 1964, Payne died in poverty.