Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles, and ends, this time for January 14-20, 2022...
150 years ago January 19, 1872 German artist Friedrich Lossow dies at age 34.
140 years ago January 18, 1882 Writer Alan Alexander Milne is born. His classic Winnie the Pooh stories are the basis for many Walt Disney cartoons.
120 years ago January 17, 1902 Award-winning Chicago Daily News editorial cartoonist Cecil Jensen is born. He creates the Syncopating Sue comic strip.
110 years ago January 19, 1912 Belgian writer-editor Daniel Omer de Kesel is born. He defended using comics as a means of education.
100 years ago January 19, 1922 Milton Schiffman is born. He serves as Marvel vice-president of production in the mid-1980s.
95 years ago January 19, 1927 German writer Lothar Dräger is born. He scripts material for Mosaik magazine.
95 years ago January 20, 1927 Ching Chow by Sidney Smith and Stanley Link begins.
90 years ago January 16, 1932 Award-winning editorial cartoonist Jim Berry is born. He launches Berry’s World in 1963 and is 1981-1982 Association of American Editorial Cartoonists president.
90 years ago January 19, 1932 Cartoonist, writer, and agent Jack Caprio is born. He works with Johnny Hart on B.C. and Wizard of Id, is cartoon editor for Creator’s Syndicate 1990-1998, and is National Cartoonists Society vice president 1990-1998.
65 years ago January 17, 1957 Writer and Marvel editor Ann Nocenti is born. She co-creates such characters as Typhoid Mary and Longshot and writes Daredevil for more than four years. For DC, she writes Kid Eternity and Green Arrow.
60 years ago January 15, 1962 Record introduces Iznogoud, co-created by Jean Tabary and René Goscinny.
55 years ago January 17, 1967 Award-winning writer-editor Tom Brevoort is born. He becomes Marvel Executive Editor in 2007 and Senior Vice President of Publishing in 2011.
40 years ago January 15, 1982 Cartoonist Wally Bishop dies at age 76. He created the Muggs and Skeeter strip.
40 years ago January 19, 1982 Artist Charles Plumb dies at age 82. He co-created the Ella Cinders strip with writer Bill Conselman.
30 years ago January 15, 1992 Animator and artist Walter Clinton dies at age 85. The Disney character designer and layout artist then went to MGM and then Hanna-Barbera.
25 years ago January 19, 1997 Voice artist Adriana Caselotti dies of cancer at age 80. She voiced the character of Disney’s Snow White.
15 years ago January 16, 2007 Well known comics fan Leah Adezio dies of liver and kidney failure at age 46.
5 years ago January 15, 2017 Belgian writer and editor Jean-Luc Vernal dies at age 72.
5 years ago January 17, 2017 Belgian artist Pascal Garray dies at age 51. He drew many comics using Peyo creations – including Smurfs.
5 years ago January 17, 2017 Belgian artist Pascal J. Zanon dies from complications of an operation at age 73. He was known for the Harry Dickson comic strip.
5 years ago January 18, 2017 French writer-artist Raoul Giordan dies at age 90. He worked with his brother Robert on a variety of comics characters.
5 years ago January 19, 2017 Actor and voice artist Miguel Ferrer dies of throat cancer at age 61. His comics connections include co-creation (with Bill Mumy) of Comet Man and Trypto the Acid Dog, performance (with co-performers Bill Mumy, Max Allan Collins, Steve Leialoha, and John Christensen) in the Seduction of the Innocent singing group, acting as the vice president in Iron Man 3, and voicing such characters as Martian Manhunter and Shan Yu.
5 years ago January 19, 2017 Award-winning Dutch artist Jan Kruis dies at age 83. Known for his family comics series Jan, Jans en de Kinderen, he founded the studio Jan Kruis Producties. He was knighted in 1996, and the Jan Kruis Museum opened in 2019.