Charles Perrault (12 January 1628 - 16 May 1703) was a French
author considered the founder of the modern fairy tale. When he had
completed one year at the New York art school, DIK BROWNE quit
school to start working at The New York American newspaper, where
he made various technical illustrations. He joined the art staff of
Newsweek, and then was inducted into the Army, where he spent three
years in the Corps of Engineers.
Simultaneously he published his first comic, 'Ginny Jeep', which
was distributed among American soldiers. In the 1940s he began an
association with Johnstone & Cushing, an ad company specialized in
advertising comics. Browne worked on promotional comic art for most
of the 1950s, including the design of 'Chiquita Banana', the
redesign of the 'Campbell Soup Kids' and a comic for Boy's Life,
the official magazine of the Boy Scouts of America.
Browne's contribution was a strip called 'The Tracy Twins', that he
drew from 1953 to 1960. But it would take him until 1954 before he
got his lucky break: King Features editor Sylvan Beck, who noticed
his work in Boy's Life magazine. Beck introduced him to Mort
Walker, who was looking for an artist to draw a newspaper comic
about the family life of the sister of his famous comic soldier
'Beetle Bailey'. By then, Walker had already picked the artist of
the newspaper ad comic 'The Trouble Twins', which turned out to be
Browne as well!
'Hi and Lois', written by Walker and drawn by Browne, debuted in
October 1954. The strip met with great success and after two years,
a Sunday page was added to the daily. Over the years, Browne has
been assisted by Jerry Dumas, Bob and Greg Gustafson, as well as
Mort Walker's sons Greg and Brian (script) and his own son Chance
(art), who finally took over completely after Browne's death in
1989.
In 1973, Browne came up with the viking family comic 'Hagar the
Horrible', also for King Features. Both 'Hi and Lois' and 'Hagar'
have earned Dik Browne a place among the greatest comic artists of
the U.S. 'Hagar' was continued by Browne's other son, Chris Browne.
PETE COSTANZA was an artist of the Golden Age. He drew numerous
issues of Fawcett's 'Captain Marvel'. He was a longtime assistant
to C.C. Beck. He contributed several comics to the legendary
Classics Illustrated series. He contributed Fennimore Cooper's 'The
Red Rover' (1953), Charles B. Hawes' 'The Mutineers' (1954),
Kipling's 'Captain Courageous'. Costanza has also drawn for ACG
(American Comics Group), such as 'Magicman', that appeared in the
Forbidden Worlds comic book. He came to work at DC in 1966. There,
he illustrated several 'Jimmy Olsen' stories. Peter Costanza
retired in 1970. After his family moved from Hungary to the USA,
ALEX BLUM studied at the National Academy of Design in New York. He
eventually joined the Eisner-Iger shop, and in 1939, he started
illustrating 'Samson' and 'Eagle' for Fox. In 1940 he illustrated
'Purple Trio', 'Neon' and 'Strange Twins' for Quality Comics. In
the same year, Blum started contributing to Fiction House,
illustrating 'Red Comet', 'Kaanga', 'Midnight' and 'Greasemonkey
Griffin' among others. He was presumably also the artist behind the
pseudonym Armand Budd, that also drew for Fiction House.
Alex Blum was a top artist for the Classics Illustrated series from
the early issues. He illustrated over 25 Classics and stood out for
his use of theatrical dramatics, which is probably why he
illustrated three of the five Shakespeare Classics. Alex Anthony
Blum retired in 1961 and died in 1969. WILLIAM "BILL" CROZIER WALSH
was born in New York City on September 30, 1913. "Bill" Walsh
joined the Disney Studio in 1943 as a gag writer for Mickey Mouse.
He was also known as an illustrator for Classics Illustrated
Comics. He later was the developer of the Mickey Mouse Club
television show. He died in Los Angeles on January 27, 1975.
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