Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles, and ends, this time for October 11-17, 2019...
115 years ago October 16, 1904 Western actor Wild Bill Elliott is born. His comic book appearances begin in Dell’s Four Color #278.
110 years ago October 13, 1909 Herbert Lawrence Block is born. Using the signature “Herblock,” he is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.
105 years ago October 17, 1914 Superman co-creator writer Jerry Siegel is born.
100 years ago October 11, 1919 Voice artist Jean Vander Pyl is born. She is known for voicing such roles as Wilma and Pebbles on The Flintstones.
90 years ago October 14, 1929 Writer, artist, and editor Giovanni Gandini is born. He founds the Italian linus, “magazine of comics and illustration.”
85 years ago October 14, 1934 The Italian comics magazine L’Avventuroso begins.
80 years ago October 12, 1939 Spanish artist Llorenç Brunet dies at age 67.
80 years ago October 15, 1939 The newspaper strip Annibelle, created by Dorothy Urfer and continued by Virginia Krausmann, ends.
75 years ago October 15, 1944 Artist Cam Kennedy is born. He works on such projects as 2000 AD (including on Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper), on a number of comics for Marvel and DC, and on licensed Star Wars comics.
75 years ago October 16, 1944 Writer-artist-editor Bob Hall is born. He co-creates Marvel’s West Coast Avengers.
75 years ago October 16, 1944 Buford Tune takes over Jim McMenamy’s Dotty Dripple comic strip.
70 years ago October 11, 1949 Comics shadowbox artist Todd R. Reis is born.
65 years ago October 16, 1954 The British comics magazine Playhour begins.
60 years ago October 17, 1959 Bill Connor and Steve Dowling’s Belinda ends.
60 years ago October 17, 1959 The British comic The Comet ends, merging into Tiger.
60 years ago October 17, 1959 Sidney Smith’s The Gumps ends.
50 years ago October 13, 1969 The British comic strip Varoomshka by John Kent begins.
50 years ago October 14, 1969 Writer-artist Brandon Peterson is born. He is art director of CrossGen and is especially noted for his work on Uncanny X-Men, Codename: Strykeforce, and Ultimate Marvel characters.
45 years ago October 13, 1974 Writer Otto Binder dies at age 63. He was long involved with pulp science fiction and both Fawcett and DC comics. The brother of artist Jack Binder, co-writer of “Adam Link,” and creator and co-creator of many characters was friends with many fans in the early years of comics fandom.
40 years ago October 11, 1979 Doctor Who Magazine begins.
40 years ago October 16, 1979 French artist René Brantonne dies, age 76.
30 years ago October 12, 1989 Animator and producer Jay Ward dies of renal cancer at age 69. He produced such animated cartoon shows as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and George of the Jungle and was head of Jay Ward Productions.
30 years ago October 14, 1989 Artist Dale Conner Ulrey dies at age 85. The assistant to Martha Orr on the Apple Mary strip went on to draw Mary Worth’s Family and other strips.
25 years ago October 14, 1994 Magazine gag cartoonist and Amy panel cartoon creator Jack Tippit dies at age 70. His career included service as an organizer and officer of the NCS.
25 years ago October 17, 1994 Dutch artist Rik van Bentum dies, age 57. With novelist Jan Cremer, he produced what may have been the first Dutch underground comix: New Comic Strip Scandal 000.
15 years ago October 15, 2004 Artist Irv Novick, designer of The Shield, dies at age 88 following a long illness and a fall.
10 years ago October 12, 2009 Artist and letterer Joe Rosen dies at age 88. He began his career with Fawcett, going on to work at Harvey and DC, and then Marvel.
10 years ago October 15, 2009 Golden and Silver Age artist George Tuska dies at age 93. His working career spanned 1939 to 2009.
5 years ago October 15, 2014 Italian artist Giorgio Rebuffi dies at age 85. He co-founded the Bierreci studios (with Carlo Chendi and Luciano Bottaro) and produced Disney stories for Topolino.
