Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles and ends, this time for July 22-28, 2016...
150 years ago July 28, 1866 Writer-artist Beatrix Potter is born. Her picture stories for children feature anthropomorphic animals, the best known being Peter Rabbit.
125 years ago July 27, 1891 Ruth Plumly Thompson is born. Although she’s known as the writer of many Oz novels after L. Frank Baum’s death, she is also the first editor of the King Comics comic book series, which brought many King Features series to comic book format, as well as the Ace Comics series a year later.
100 years ago July 25, 1916 Fred Lasswell is born. Hired by Barney Google and Snuffy Smith creator Billy DeBeck to assist on the strip, Lasswell takes it over after DeBeck dies in 1942.
70 years ago July 26, 1946 Award-winning art director and magazine designer David Folkman is born. He’s co-publisher and design director of Hogan’s Alley.
65 years ago July 24, 1951 TV’s Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter, is born.
65 years ago July 28, 1951 Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, based on the Lewis Carroll books, opens. Though not a huge success in its initial release, it is now considered to be one of the classics of the Disney animated features.
60 years ago July 23, 1956 Artist Frank Fosco is born. He’s especially known for his work on Vanguard and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
55 years ago July 25, 1961 Artist and animator John Robert Statema is born. He works on The Hero Alliance, Manhunter, Prime, and GrimJack.
50 years ago July 23, 1966 John Benson begins New York City’s first multi-day comic book convention. (Four females attend: Pat Lupoff, Lee Hoffman, Maggie Thompson, and Flo Steinberg.)
50 years ago July 28, 1966 The Return of Happy the Clown writer-artist Troy Boyle is born.
45 years ago July 24, 1971 Golden Age artist Lou Fine dies at age 56. He was known for his work on such features as “The Flame,” “Doll Man,” “Space Conquerors,” and fill-in art during World War II for Will Eisner’s The Spirit and for such comic strips as Peter Scratch.
40 years ago July 23, 1976 Don and Maggie (and Valerie and Stephen) Thompson attend the first day of their very first San Diego Comic-Con. Yeah, I should probably take this out of this Turning Points post. But golly.
30 years ago July 22, 1986 Mickey Mouse comic strip artist Floyd Gottfredson dies at age 81, following a stroke.
30 years ago July 24, 1986 The ABC TV news series 20/20 includes a Bob Brown segment saluting Marvel Comics’ 25th anniversary.
25 years ago July 27, 1991 Virginia Clark dies of cancer at age 91. Also known as Virginia Huget, she began work on comic strips in 1926 and continued Percy Crosby’s Skippy and Don Flowers’ Oh Diana!
10 years ago July 23, 2006 Cartoonist Vernon Grant dies at age 71, injured when suffering a heart attack. Intrigued by manga, he was known for A Monster Is Loose in Tokyo and for The Love Rangers SF series.
5 years ago July 22, 2011 Captain America: The First Avenger opens, starring Chris Evans as the Marvel hero, kicking off the eventual trilogy that will add Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War.