Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles, and ends, this time for March 7-13, 2025...

155 years ago March 13, 1870 Editorial cartoonist George F. Kerr is born. He anonymously draws Golden Age Raggedy Ann + Andy comic book stories.

145 years ago March 8, 1880 Harry G. Peter is born. He’s the first artist to draw Wonder Woman for stories scripted by William Moulton Marston.

135 years ago March 9, 1890 Cartoonist Ralph Fuller is born. He creates Fuller Humor and Oaky Doaks.

125 years ago March 8, 1900 Frans Meijer is born. The Dutch artist draws comics for the publisher Helmond.

125 years ago March 11, 1900 The pioneering newspaper strip Happy Hooligan by Frederick Burr Opper begins.

125 years ago March 13, 1900 Pioneering Columbian comics artist Adolfo Samper is born.

105 years ago March 10, 1920 Cartoonist Jack Kent is born. He creates, writes, and draws the King Aroo comic strip and writes and draws children’s books.

100 years ago March 12, 1925 Writer-artist and science fiction writer and editor Harry Harrison is born. His comic book work appears in EC and Fawcett titles.

90 years ago March 10, 1935 The screwball Smokey Stover strip created by Bill Holman begins.

90 years ago March 11, 1935 The soap opera comic strip Ruggles by Stephen and Frank Dowling begins.

85 years ago March 7, 1940 Kazuo Kamimura is born. The Japanese artist and voice artist is especially known for his collaboration with Kazuo Koike on Lady Snowblood.

85 years ago March 9, 1940 French musician and artist Jean Vern is born.

80 years ago March 8, 1945 Monkees band member Micky Dolenz is born. With the other three group members, he is featured on photo covers of Dell’s comics series featuring the Monkees. “Groovy! Boss! Outa site!”

75 years ago March 12, 1950 Actor Jon Provost is born. In the role of “Timmy,” he appears on photo covers and in some of the stories of Dell’s Lassie series.

65 years ago March 13, 1960 Pixar Animation Studio head of story Joe Ranft is born.

60 years ago March 9, 1965 Toots and Casper (no, not that Casper!) creator Jimmy Murphy dies at age 73. (Historian Martin Sheridan in Comics and Their Creators wrote in 1942 that Toots and Casper, begun in 1918, was “one of the first comic strips based on family life.”)

50 years ago March 8, 1975 IPC Magazines begins Battle Picture Weekly.

45 years ago March 9, 1980 Russian artist Konstantin Kuznjecov dies at age 84. Lambiek calls him “one of the most important artists during the [1930s] Serbian Golden Age of comics.”

40 years ago March 7, 1985 Albert Uderzo is made a knight in the Légion d’Honneur.

35 years ago March 12, 1990 Artist Woody Kimbrell dies at age 73. He was the first artist of the Little Lulu syndicated newspaper strip based on Marjorie Henderson Buell’s character.

30 years ago March 9, 1995 Marvel Entertainment Group agrees to buy trading card manufacturer Skybox International Inc. for about $150 million.

25 years ago March 10, 2000 Artist John Henry Rouson dies at age 91. He was known for his Little Sport strip.

20 years ago March 13, 2005 Animator and writer-artist Hal Seeger dies at age 87. He created Muggy Doo, Boy Cat, was director of the Hal Seeger Productions animation studio, and was known for his work on the Betty Boop strip and Leave It to Binky.

15 years ago March 11, 2010 Turkish cartoonist Turhan Selçuk dies at age 87.

15 years ago March 12, 2010 Finnish underground comix artist and film director Timo Aarniala dies at age 64.

15 years ago March 12, 2010 Brazilian artist Glauco Villas Boas is murdered at age 53.

10 years ago March 7, 2015 Award-winning Japanese manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi dies of lung cancer at age 79. Credited with starting the gekiga (“dramatic pictures”) style of Japanese alternative comics, he was known for his autobiography (A Drifting Life) and was the subject of the film Tatsum.

10 years ago March 8, 2015 Swedish artist Göte Göransson dies at age 94. He created the Western series Texas Jim.

10 years ago March 9, 2015 Comedy writer Lou Silverstone dies at age 90. He was one of Mad’s “Usual Gang of Idiots” and was editor-writer for Cracked.

10 years ago March 13, 2015 Artist Irwin Hasen dies at age 96. With a career beginning in the Golden Age, he co-created the Dondi comic strip with Gus Edson.

5 years ago March 9, 2020 Photographer and Golden and Silver Age artist Allen Bellman dies at age 95. He created the “Let’s Play Detective” crime feature, worked in the Timely bullpen, and wrote and self-published Timely Confidential.

5 years ago March 13, 2020 Award-winning Belgian artist René Follet dies at age 88.