Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles, and ends, this time for November 15-21, 2024...
140 years ago November 16, 1884 Pittsburgh Press cartoonist, production artist, and art editor Bert Link is born.
140 years ago November 19, 1884 Robert Collard is born. The French writer-artist, animation pioneer, and director works as “Robert Lortac.”
120 years ago November 15, 1904 Artist Ray Burnley is born. He inks Curt Swan’s Jimmy Olsen stories, among other DC work.
120 years ago November 16, 1904 Dutch writer-artist Jan de Poel is born. He founds Reclamebureau Studio.
110 years ago November 15, 1914 Thornton Robyn Utz is born. The artist is known for his Saturday Evening Post work, which includes sequential stories for the cover paintings.
110 years ago November 16, 1914 Argentine artist-editor Hector Torino is born. He creates his own company, Ediciones Torino.
105 years ago November 16, 1919 The Flemish artist who signs his work “Pom,” Jozef van Hove, is born. He’s known for his “Piet Pienter” stories.
100 years ago November 15, 1924 Award-winning cartoonist and TV cartoon show producer Eddie Germano is born. He’s known for his newspaper sports cartoons.
100 years ago November 19, 1924 Belgian writer-artist Karel Verschuere is born. He works in the Willy Vandersteen studio and creates the Bessy comic strip.
100 years ago November 21, 1924 Panel cartoonist Bernie Lansky is born.
95 years ago November 18, 1929 German artist Victor Schramm dies at age 64. His cartoons appeared in the Chicago Tribune.
90 years ago November 17, 1934 Snuffy Smith is introduced in Billy DeBeck’s Barney Google strip.
85 years ago November 20, 1939 The Argentinean-French writer-artist who works as “Copi,” Raúl Taborda Damonte, is born.
80 years ago November 16, 1944 The Argentine comics magazine Rico Tipo begins.
80 years ago November 16, 1944 The Russian-Serbian pioneering cartoonist Ivan Šenšin is executed by a Communist firing squad at age 47.
80 years ago November 18, 1944 Bulgarian writer-artist-producer Raiko Aleksiev is murdered at age 51 because of his political caricatures. He worked under such pseudonyms as “Fra Diavolo.”
80 years ago November 20, 1944 Marten Toonder cancels Tom Poes in the middle of a story in De Telegraaf after being told that the new editor will be a member of the SS.
75 years ago November 16, 1949 Le Crime ne Paie Pas begins, introducing the vertical strip format to French comics.
75 years ago November 17, 1949 Polish writer-artist Tadeusz Raczkiewicz is born.
70 years ago November 17, 1954 Dan Cooper by Albert Weinberg begins.
70 years ago November 21, 1954 The Gallup Institute of Public Opinion releases survey responses that say 70% of those polled agree that part of “the blame for teenage crime can be placed on the reading of comic books.” Sigh.
65 years ago November 18, 1959 Writer, artist, and editor J. David Spurlock is born. He founds Vanguard Productions.
65 years ago November 19, 1959 Cover artist Steve Lightle is born. Included in his work is a run on DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes.
65 years ago November 19, 1959 Rocky and His Friends begins on ABC, airing Tuesday and Thursday afternoons – eventually becoming The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends.
55 years ago November 15, 1969 Award-winning writer-artist Jessica Abel is born. She creates such works as Life Sucks and Drawing Words & Writing Pictures.
55 years ago November 17, 1969 Writer-artist and animator Steve Remen is born. He creates Him. (Yes.)
55 years ago November 20, 1969 Writer-artist Stephanie Gladden is born. She’s especially known for her work for Bongo and on Jingle Belle.
35 years ago November 16, 1989 Friendly Frank’s comics store manager Michael Correa is found not guilty of possessing obscene magazines with the intent to disseminate them. Appellate judges overturn Judge Foxgrover’s 1988 guilty verdict, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund continues as an organization initially formed to help what is termed “victims of First Amendment Abuse.”
35 years ago November 17, 1989 Walt Disney’s The Little Mermaid opens. Its ending [Spoiler!] differs from that of Hans Christian Andersen’s original, and its success kicks off what some have called a Disney Renaissance.
35 years ago November 19, 1989 DC Comics President Sol Harrison dies at age 71 or 72.
35 years ago November 20, 1989 Swedish writer-artist Sten Rinaldo dies at age 83.
30 years ago November 15, 1994 British artist Janet Ahlberg dies of breast cancer at age 50.
15 years ago November 21, 2009 Publisher, store owner, distribution company staffer, and convention organizer Ken Krueger dies at age 83.
5 years ago November 19, 2019 Award-winning Spanish artist Purita Campos dies at age 82.
5 years ago November 19, 2019 Writer-artist and teacher Tom Lyle dies of a brain aneurysm at age 66. For DC, he co-created (with Mark Waid) The Comet and (with Roger Stern) Starman. He also worked for AC, Marvel, and Eclipse.
5 years ago November 21, 2019 Award-winning writer-artist-editor Gahan Wilson dies at age 89. Known for macabre gags, he was the subject of the 2013 feature film Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird.
