English-American artist and illustrator (1856-1943) best known for his depiction of the titular hero of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1886 novel Little Lord Fauntleroy. Detailed original comic artwork by Reginald Birch, accomplished in graphite and ink on an off-white 21 x 18 sheet of artist’s cardstock, signed in the lower right, "Birch." The comic, entitled "A Candy-man in the Sun," depicts a trio of children, the boy clad in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit, wanting to purchase a small candy-man from an elderly confectionary vendor, with a smiling sun casting its rays upon the man's table of sweets. The adjacent sketch shows the same vendor table from a closer perspective, and the candy-man now melted down to a weeping head. The above poem tells the story: "The candy-man, who was in the sun, / And who never could walk, began to run, / Till you couldn't have told, so fast he ran, / That he ever had been a candy-man." Reverse bears editorial notes in pencil, adding the title, "The Candy Man," and date, "Nov. 94." In fine condition, with chipping to the edges and light soiling.
