What’s Up With The Hobo Logo?

What’s Up With The Hobo Logo?

JBH Wonders, 2/2015

I am not photogenic so I use various images of cartoon characters and other things just to post an image (other than the default silhouette) on some social media pages. The “hobo clown” image appeared on a free clip art page that I was browsing and I decided to use it for my default image. This occurred at a time in my life when I had very little money, no income, no home, and survived by the graces of friends and family. So, things seemed relevant.

After much research I did not find the origin of the hobo clown face. This article was to originally give credit to the artist and perhaps relate any interesting facts about him/her. I did find some art by one Emmett Kelly whose work is very similar to the art that I am using. But I am no fine art critic so what do I know. Mr. Kelley was an actual circus clown and pretty famous at one time.

 <Painting by Emmett Kelly>

I also wanted to verify that the free use of this image is not infringing on any copyrights. The image that I use is fairly popular for clown paraphernalia. Just do an internet search on “hobo clowns” and it will appear on something for sale. I’ve seen it on refrigerator magnets, coffee cups, posters, plaques, etc. So I am assuming that the image is “public domain” since it seems to be used freely and I have not seen any warning labels to the contrary.

There seems to be an immense clown culture. Just do an Internet search on “clown” or “hobo” and it will you entertained for hours. You may not want to do this of course if you have “coulrophobia” (fear of clowns, really!). There seems to be a lot of that going around.