Author: Mike Gold

Tony DiPreta, a cartoonist with a pedigree as long as Joe Palooka’s reach, died on June 2.

Best known as the last artist on Joe Palooka (1959 – 1984) and Rex Morgan, M.D. from 1994 until 2000, Tony got his start at the fabled Quality Comics as a letterer in 1940. He assisted Lou Fine, Gill Fox and Bob Fujitani before working on such notable features as Airboy, Uncle Sam and Daredevil (the original pre-Marvel character). During the 1950s he did an enormous amount of humor, horror and western anthology work, primarily for Marvel (Atlas) Comics.He later worked on Marvel’s black and white horror magazines such as Tales of the Zombie, Monsters Unleashed, and Dracula Lives. His last published comic book work was Fantastic Adventures #3 (Oct. 1987) where he did the humorous “The Score Board Kid” written by former Mad editor Jerry DeFuccio.  

In addition to working on Joe Palooka and Rex Morgan — both highly visible features in their time – Tony also drew Mickey Finn during its waning years. 

Howard “Howie” Post, one of America’s premiere cartoonists, passed away last Friday.

At Harvey Comics, Howie worked on Hot Stuff, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Wendy the Good Little Witch, Richie Rich and his own creation, Spooky The Tuff Li’l Ghost. He produced literally hundreds of stories for the company during his tenure. He is best known among comics fans for his creation Anthro at DC Comics, where he also produced The Adventures of Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis (both with and without Dean Martin) Doodles Duck, J. Rufus Lion and numerous romance stories. He did The Monkey and the Bear, Stawberry Shortcake, Heathcliff, and other features for Marvel Comics as well as their Star Comics imprint.

In the mid-60s Howie succeeded Sy Kneitel as head of Paramount’s animation studio. He was fired for producing a cartoon called Two By Two, which lampooned a story
from the bible. This was very much in keeping with Post’s unconventional lifestyle – called “bohemian” in the days before the beatniks and the hippies. He played a variety of musical instruments and spoke numerous languages. Howie also did television animation for Hanna-Barbara, including their Richie Rich series.

Howie’s greatest exposure under his own name came from his syndicated strip The Dropouts, shortly after Anthro was canceled. It ran from 1968 to 1982 in hundreds of newspapers and enjoyed a short tenure as a Saturday morning animated feature.

In recent years Howie supplemented his retirement income by giving training sessions to budding young cartoonists in the general New York / Connecticut / New Jersey area.

Personally speaking, Howie Post was one of the most outrageous and interesting people I had ever met; I was always in awe of his sharp wit and his unique worldview.

(Thanks to Craig Yoe and Linda Gold for the lead.)

The two-part finale to the 31st season of Doctor Who will feature The Daleks, The Cybermen, The Sontarans, and the return of River Song, the woman who may or may not be the Doctor’s mother. Or ex-wife. Or bookie. Whatever.

According to Digital Spy UK, producer/overseer Steven Moffet is writing both episodes, entitled The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang. The Doctor and his assistant Amy Pond have been dealing with a large glowing crack in the space/time continuum all season, along with Amy’s neurotic betrothed. It is expected this two-parter will resolve the former storyline, if not the latter as well. With all those alien bad guys oozing around, there might not be time. Broadcast time, that is: Doctor Who is entirely about time.

The shows will air June 19 and 26th in the United Kingdom and June 26th and July 3 on BBC America. After that, the Doctor zots off to The Sarah Jane Adventures to meet his old friend and former assistant and recurring playmate…. for the first time.

According to biographer / publisher Russ Cochran, legendary illustrator and comics artist Frank Frazetta passed away this morning.

Perhaps best known for his illustrations on the covers of the 1970s Conan paperbacks for Lancer Books and the 1960s Warren Magazines (Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, Blazing Combat), Frazetta worked closely with EC artists Al Williamson and Angelo Torres as well as on various solo efforts for that and other publishers. He worked on The Shining Knight for DC Comics and the oft-reprinted jungle feature Thun’da created by Gardner Fox.

Frazetta spent years as Al Capp’s assistant – often, ghost – on the newspaper strip Lil Abner at the height of its popularity, where he first visualized the astonishingly sexy character Moonbeam McSwine. He went on to draw his own short-lived newspaper comic strip, Johnny Comet, and served as an assistant to Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder on Playboy’s Little Annie Fanny. Kurtzman once referred to Frank as “drawing sexy muscles in places where women don’t ordinarily have muscles.”

Generally regarded as one of the premiere illustrators of the latter half of the 20th Century, Frank Frazetta’s work has been gathered in numerous collections and calendars. His work continues to be licensed for poster reproduction and for adaptation into comic books.

Okay, I’ll admit for the past year or so I’ve found our friends over at Archie Comics to be the most innovative and most courageous outfit among the major publishers. The first to jump feet-first into the world of digital publishing, they’ve followed up with Mike Uslan’s media-quaking Archie Gets Married story arc, they’ve entered the slick magazine market, and – this month – they cover featured Archie Andrews’ interracial kiss.

They’re not resting on their laurels.

This September they’ll be introducing a new character, Kevin Keller. He’s a dreamboat, and Veronica Lodge dumps Archie like a he was Enron stock. But there’s one small problem for Ronnie.

Kevin’s gay.

“It just makes sense to have an openly gay character in Archie comic books,” Archie Comics Co-CEO Jon Goldwater noted. Whereas there have been a handful of openly gay characters from other mainstream publishers (although sometimes the publishers conveniently forget the characterizations), no other American comic book publisher is so dependent upon sales on the general newsstand. The press on this event – and make no mistake about it, this is an event – will get Archie titles pulled off of some racks in certain communities across the nation. Remember, even the citizens of the state of California voted to withdraw the right of same-sex marriage; this nation’s road to freedom continues to have its major potholes. And Archie Comics has the guts to steer right into one of the biggest.

What is troubling to this reporter is that Kevin Keller defeats Jughead Jones in a hamburger eating contest. This, to me, is a sign of the apocalypse.

The story “Isn’t it Bromantic?” will appear in Veronica #202. It will appear in comic shops September 1st; you might want to consider advance-ordering.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Fox network has passed on Torchwood after reading Russell T. Davies’ script.

Perhaps that’s when they discovered the lead character, an American who cannot stay dead for very long, is omnisexual… and that’s a critical part of his character.

BBC Worldwide stated “BBC
Worldwide Productions and the Fox Broadcasting Company have mutually
agreed not to progress together with a 13-episode serialized Torchwood
format. We are currently in
discussion with several interested networks.” Former Torchwood and Doctor Who producer and now BBC Worldwide American agent Jane
Tranter said they were still making progress in placing the vaguely more adult Doctor Who spin-off. “It’s
very much ongoing and very much alive,” Tranter said.

We’ll see. What American executives perceive as fit for your eyes differs – greatly – from their British counterparts.