Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles, and ends, this time for June 21-27, 2019...
145 years ago June 25, 1874 Writer-artist Rose O’Neill is born. She creates Kewpies.
100 years ago June 22, 1919 Old Doc Yak (featuring a talking goat) by Sidney Smith ends, with Yak selling his car to Andy Gump so he can move away.
95 years ago June 21, 1924 British cartoonist Wally Fawkes (who works as “Trog”) is born. He creates Flook.
95 years ago June 23, 1924 Writer-artist Frank Bolle is born. He starts at Magazine Enterprises drawing Westerns and later works for Gold Key and Warren comics as well as on such newspaper strips as Winnie Winkle, The Heart of Juliet Jones, Apartment 3-G, and Gil Thorp.
95 years ago June 27, 1924 Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Paul Conrad is born. He wins many other awards over the decades.
90 years ago June 24, 1929 Artist and art director Vic Carrabotta is born. Beginning his art career as a Famous Studios animator, he joins the Eisner Studio and goes on to work at Atlas.
85 years ago June 26, 1934 Cartoonist Bob Weber is born. His Moose strip eventually becomes Moose & Molly.
75 years ago June 21, 1944 Danton Burroughs is born; he supervises the legacy of Edgar Rice Burroughs, including a wide variety of comics adaptations.
75 years ago June 26, 1944 Dotty Dripple by Jeff Keate and Jim McMenamy begins.
70 years ago June 24, 1949 Joe Palooka marries Ann Howe in Ham Fisher’s Joe Palooka strip.
65 years ago June 24, 1954 Comics historian and artist Russ Maheras is born.
65 years ago June 24, 1954 Medieval character Pirlouit (Peewit) is introduced in Spirou in the Johan story “Le Lutin du Bois aux Roches” by Peyo.
65 years ago June 25, 1954 Book of the Month Club cancels its contract with Rinehart and Company to offer Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent as an alternative selection of the club.
65 years ago June 26, 1954 Artist Terry Tidwell is born. He is best known for his work on The Miracle Squad and The Twilight Avenger.
60 years ago June 21, 1959 Belgian children’s magazine Zonnekind begins and introduces Rikske en Fikske by Nonkel Fons and Gray Croucher.
60 years ago June 22, 1959 Marvel and Topps artist Armando Gil is born. He is especially known for his work on stories featuring Conan and Ka-Zar.
60 years ago June 27, 1959 Freelance comics artist and graphic designer Willie Peppers is born.
60 years ago June 27, 1959 Writer-artist Dan Jurgens is born. He creates Booster Gold and is known for work on Superman titles as well as for his involvement with DC’s “New 52.”
55 years ago June 23, 1964 Screenwriter, producer, and comics writer Joss Whedon is born. In the course of a variety of pop culture work, he creates Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whose adventures continue in Dark Horse comics. He also co-writes Toy Story, writes and directs The Avengers, develops Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and more.
55 years ago June 27, 1964 Karl Art writer-artist-editor Barry Alan Kraus is born.
50 years ago June 24, 1969 Cartoonist Frank King dies at age 86. The creator of Gasoline Alley aged his popular newspaper strip characters in real time.
45 years ago June 22, 1974 French writer-artist Alain Saint-Ogan dies, age 78. He’s known for Zig et Puce, is called the “founding father” of French comics and is honorary president of the first Angoulême International Comics Festival.
40 years ago June 25, 1979 Animation director and producer and Fleischer Studios co-owner (with Max and Lou Fleischer) Dave Fleischer dies of a stroke, age 84.
40 years ago June 25, 1979 Artist Nathan Hamill is born.
35 years ago June 23, 1984 The British comic Tammy ends with #689, merging with Girl.
30 years ago June 21, 1989 Flemish comics magazine ’tKapoentje ends.
25 years ago June 24, 1994 Walt Disney’s The Lion King, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff and voiced by such performers as Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, and James Earl Jones, opens in wide release, following a June 15 limited release in Los Angeles and New York City. The gross for the wide release is $40.9 million; by the end of the initial run, it earns $312,855,561 in North America.
20 years ago June 26, 1999 The Rip Kirby comic strip (created by Alex Raymond) ends.
15 years ago June 24, 2004 German artist and animator Heinz Rammelt dies, age 92.
5 years ago June 24, 2014 Artist Amadee Wohlschlaeger dies, age 102. He drew the “Weatherbird” newspaper feature for 49 years and created the Herkimer strip.
5 years ago June 25, 2014 Award-winning editorial cartoonist Etta Hulme dies, age 90. She served as President of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists.