Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles and ends, this time for October 12-18, 2018...
105 years ago October 17, 1913 Robert Lowery is born. He’s the second actor to play Batman (via the 1949 Batman and Robin serial).
95 years ago October 15, 1923 Marvel and DC inker Vincent Colletta is born.
80 years ago October 13, 1938 Writer-artist Elzie Crisler Segar dies at age 43 of leukemia and liver disease. He created Thimble Theatre and (with it) Popeye.
80 years ago October 15, 1938 British comic book Radio Fun begins.
75 years ago October 17, 1943 The speech about friendship in the Army by Flip Corkin in this day’s episode of Terry and the Pirates by Milton Caniff will become a classic after it is read into the Congressional Record.
75 years ago October 18, 1943 SS soldiers shoot Dutch writer A.M. de Jong to death. The writer of Bulletje en Boonestaak is 55.
60 years ago October 16, 1958 Artist Mark Badger is born.
60 years ago October 17, 1958 Writer-artist Bill Holbrook is born. He’s best known for the comic strip On the Fastrack, and his other work includes Safe Havens and Kevin and Kell.
40 years ago October 14, 1978 IPC merges 2000 AD and Starlord into 2000 AD and Starlord.
30 years ago October 16, 1988 The last installment of Ponytail by Lee Holley is published.
25 years ago October 16, 1993 The Beano goes to full color with #2674.
15 years ago October 12, 2003 Writer-artist Pete Morisi dies at age 75. Though he worked for many different projects starting in 1948, he may have best been known as “PAM,” especially for his work for Charlton.
10 years ago October 15, 2008 Dutch artist Guus Boissevain (also known as “Gub”) dies at age 79.
10 years ago October 16, 2008 Samurai Penguin artist and film model maker Mark Christopher Buck dies in a traffic accident at age 41.
5 years ago October 13, 2013 Known for his work on Anpanman, Japanese manga artist Takashi Yanase dies at age 94. He was 2000-2012 chairman of the Japan Cartoonists Association.
5 years ago October 15, 2013 Golden Age artist George Olesen dies at age 88. A major focus of his work was the Phantom comic strip, on which he worked for about four decades.