Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles, and ends, this time for May 8-14, 2026…

175 years ago May 8, 1851 French writer-editor Jacqueline Rivière is born. She creates the Bécassine comic strip.

140 years ago May 11, 1886 French artist Georges Pavis is born.

140 years ago May 12, 1886 Norwegian artist Haaken Christensen is born.

120 years ago May 9, 1906 Dutch artist Bram Ohm is born.

120 years ago May 14, 1906 Artist Arthur Radebaugh is born.

115 years ago May 9, 1911 Jess “Baldy” Benton is born. The writer for Golden Age Fawcett comics also writes the 1940s Jasper Jooks comic strip.

115 years ago May 12, 1911 Writer-artist-editor Charles Biro is born. His creations include Airboy and Steel Sterling, and he’s known for his work on Daredevil for Lev Gleason. (He helps create the “crime comics” genre for Gleason.)

110 years ago May 9, 1916 Award-winning writer-artist William Pène du Bois is born. He remains unacknowledged as the character designer of Cruella De Vil (as introduced in Dodie Smith’s The Great Dog Robbery in Woman’s Day magazine in 1956).

110 years ago May 10, 1916 Australian cartoonist Arthur Horner is born.

105 years ago May 9, 1921 Award-winning cartoonist and commercial artist Frank O’Neal is born. He creates the newspaper strip Short Ribs.

105 years ago May 12, 1921 Lily Renée Willheim Phillips is born. Working as Lily Renée, she’s known for providing art to 1940s Fiction House on such features as “The Lost World,” “Señorita Rio,” and “The Werewolf Hunter” – and then for later features for St. John.

105 years ago May 13, 1921 German artist Arpad Schmidhammer dies at age 64.

100 years ago May 8, 1926 Comedian Don Rickles is born. He stars as a character in DC’s Jimmy Olsen #139 and #141.

100 years ago May 9, 1926 Italian artist Carlo Boscarato is born.

100 years ago May 9, 1926 Norman McMurray’s Fish and Chips begins.

100 years ago May 11, 1926 French writer-artist Paul Gillon is born. He co-creates Les Naufragés du Temps with Jean-Claude Forest.

100 years ago May 13, 1926 Comic book writer and artist and movie and cartoon producer and director Norman Maurer is born. He co-creates 3-D comics with Joe Kubert.

95 years ago May 8, 1931 “The Moose Hunt” introduces the Walt Disney dog named Pluto.

95 years ago May 8, 1931 Spanish artist Emilio Frejo Abregón is born.

95 years ago May 9, 1931 Award-winning editorial cartoonist Richard D. Hodgins Jr. is born. His comic strip work includes Half Hitch, Henry, and Hagar the Horrible.

90 years ago May 8, 1936 Manga writer Kazuo Koike is born. He’s especially known for Lone Wolf and Cub and Crying Freeman.

90 years ago May 8, 1936 Belgian animator and artist Jacques Michel is born. He works as “Jamic” and is co-creator (with Serge Gennaux) of Les Télé-Graphistes.

90 years ago May 9, 1936 Czech writer-artist Stanislav Lolek dies at age 62. He was known for Liška Bystrouška.

85 years ago May 12, 1941 R.B. Clark’s Boofhead begins.

85 years ago May 13, 1941 Indonesian artist, animator, and producer Dwi Koendoro is born.

80 years ago May 12, 1946 Gim Toro by Andrea Lavezzolo and Edgardo Dell’Acqua begins.

80 years ago May 13, 1946 Editor and award-winning writer Marv Wolfman is born. He co-creates (with Gene Colan) Blade, (with John Buscema) Nova, and (with Bernie Wrightson) Destiny. He’s especially known for work on The Tomb of Dracula and (with George Pérez) The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths.

75 years ago May 10, 1951 Writer-editor-historian Murray R. Ward is born.

70 years ago May 14, 1956 Flying Colors Comics retailer Joe Field is born. He suggests in Comics & Games Retailer magazine for August 2001 that the comics industry begin a Free Comic Book Day. (It begins May 4, 2002.)

55 years ago May 8, 1971 Al Capp is charged with crimes including sexual harassment, attempted adultery, and indecent exposure.

55 years ago May 8, 1971 Brazilian comedian and cartoonist Jozenilton Veloso is born. He works as “Shaolin.”

55 years ago May 10, 1971 Dutch artist Ted Mathijsen (who worked as “Roberic”) dies at age 44.

45 years ago May 12, 1981 Artist Henry Formhals dies at age 72. He assisted on Freckles and His Friends (eventually continuing it himself), Joe Jinks, and Ella Cinders.

35 years ago May 8, 1991 Australian artist Kathleen O’Brien dies at age 76. She was known for the Wanda comic strip.

35 years ago May 11, 1991 The British comic book Mandy merges with Judy.

35 years ago May 14, 1991 British writer-animator and film director Joy Batchelor dies at age 77. She co-founded the Halas and Batchelor cartooning company with her husband, John Halas.

30 years ago May 9, 1996 Carl Faalberg dies at age 80. The Disney comics writer-artist scripted most of the Paul Murry illustrated Mickey Mouse serials in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories and was the story director on several Hanna-Barbera TV shows.

30 years ago May 14, 1996 More than six years after Sylvester McCoy’s “Survival” wrapped up the Doctor Who BBC series after more than a quarter of a century of broadcasts, Fox Tuesday Night Movie airs a continuation. Doctor Who stars Paul McGann and is written by co-producer Matthew Jacobs. Though not enough of a success to bring back the series, it is considered to be in continuity.

25 years ago May 14, 2001 British artist Eric Bradbury dies at age 80.

20 years ago May 12, 2006 Art School Confidential featuring Dan Clowes goes into wide release. (Earlier showings began in January.)

20 years ago May 12, 2006 Italian artist Ferdinando Tacconi dies at age 83.

20 years ago May 14, 2006 Writer-artist Bob Laughlin dies at age 80. He created Kitz ’n’ Katz.

15 years ago May 8, 2011 Prolific Argentine writer Carlos Trillo dies at age 68. He was co-founder and art director of the satirical magazine Satiricon.

15 years ago May 10, 2011 Daily News sports cartoonist Bill Gallo dies from complications of pneumonia at age 88.

15 years ago May 13, 2011 Brazilian-French artist Alain Voss dies of a stroke at age 65.

10 years ago May 13, 2016 French editorial cartoonist “Piem”(Pierre Georges de Barrigue de Montvallon) is named Commander in the Ordre National du Mérite.

10 years ago May 14, 2016 Award-winning Canadian animator and writer-artist Darwyn Cooke dies of cancer at age 53. He adapted Donald E. Westlake’s Parker novels to comics form and wrote and drew the DC: The New Frontier miniseries.

5 years ago May 10, 2021 Belgian writer-artist and Studio Max! co-founder (with Rik De Wulf) Marc Daniëls dies at age 61 from the effects of COVID-19.