Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles, and ends, this time for September 5-11, 2025…

380 years ago September 10, 1645 Dutch writer-artist Romeyn de Hooghe, a pioneer of sequential illustrated stories, dies.

285 years ago September 8, 1740 Johan Tobias Sergel is born. The Swedish artist and sculptor also creates sequential stories.

195 years ago September 6, 1830 Portuguese comics pioneer Francisco Augusto Nogueira da Silva is born.

150 years ago September 11, 1875 The Daily Graphic publishes Professor Tigwissel’s Burglar Alarm by Livingston Hopkins; it’s one of the earliest newspaper strips.

120 years ago September 10, 1905 Award-winning artist Jay Paul Jackson is born. His work includes illustrations for science fiction pulps, and he is cartoon supervisor of the Chicago Defender.

110 years ago September 11, 1915 Carl Fallberg is born. The Disney comics writer-artist scripts most of the Paul Murry-illustrated Mickey Mouse serials in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories and is story director on several Hanna-Barbera TV shows.

105 years ago September 5, 1920 Sri Lankese artist Aubrey Collette is born. He teaches before doing political cartoons and is an award-winner in Australia.

105 years ago September 8, 1920 Portuguese artist Manuel Gustavo Bordalo Pinheiro dies at age 53.

100 years ago September 7, 1925 Serbian artist Zdravko Sulic is born.

95 years ago September 8, 1930 Blondie begins, created by Chic Young. It features the adventures of Blondie Boopadoop and her rich boyfriend Dagwood Bumstead.

95 years ago September 9, 1930 German artist Jochen Arfert is born.

95 years ago September 11, 1930 Award-winning French artist Jean-Claude Forest is born. He creates Barbarella and is editor in chief of Chouchou magazine.

90 years ago September 8, 1935 Writer-artist William Vance is born. (Actually, that’s the pen name of William van Cutsem.) The award-winning Belgian writer-artist is an early contributor to Tintin magazine and co-creates XIII with Jean Van Hamme, Bruno Brazil with Michel Greg, and more.

75 years ago September 5, 1950 Award-winning writer-artist Cathy Guisewite is born. She creates the Cathy comic strip.

75 years ago September 8, 1950 French artist Pierre Wininger is born.

70 years ago September 6, 1955 French animator, director, producer, and artist Bruno Bianchi is born. He co-creates Inspector Gadget and founds his own studio, Gingko Animation.

70 years ago September 9, 1955 Animator John Kricfalusi is born. He creates The Ren & Stimpy Show.

70 years ago September 11, 1955 Scottish artist and animator Mike Docherty is born.

65 years ago September 5, 1960 Prolific British artist Allan Morley dies at age 75. His work appeared in the first issue of The Dandy, and he drew many strips for D.C. Thomson.

65 years ago September 9, 1960 Award-winning artist Kevin Maguire is born. He’s especially known for his work on Justice League, Team Titans, and World’s Finest.

65 years ago September 10, 1960 Alison Bechdel is born. She’s the award-winning [including induction in the Hall of Fame of both Harvey Awards and Eisner Awards] writer-artist of such projects as Dykes to Watch Out For, Fun Home, and Are You My Mother? In 1985, she publicizes what has become known as “the Bechdel test” in which a movie needs to satisfy three requirements: “One. It has to have at least two women in it … who, two talk to each other about, three, something besides a man.”

65 years ago September 11, 1960 Fan Leah Adezio is born. She is active at conventions, and “Leah” by Peter David and Colleen Doran in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Annual #1 pays tribute to her.

60 years ago September 5, 1965 The Eek and Meek newspaper strip by Howie Schneider begins.

60 years ago September 11, 1965 Spanish writer-artist-editor Valentí Castanys Borràs dies at age 67. He created the El Once supplement for El Correo Catalán.

55 years ago September 11, 1970 Award-winning Hungarian cartoonist Pál Pusztai dies four days after his 51st birthday.

45 years ago September 7, 1980 Golden Age editor, writer, and artist Whitney Ellsworth dies of a heart attack at age 71. He was a DC editor and editorial director, Adventures of Superman producer and story editor, and – before that – he worked with Hollywood studios on DC projects. He was honored as one of “Fifty Who Made DC Great.”

40 years ago September 7, 1985 Filipino cartoonist José Zabala-Santos (who worked as “Mang Pepe”) dies at age 74.

35 years ago September 5, 1990 Cartoonist and comics packager Jerry Iger dies at age 87. His output included Sheena and The Flamingo, and he edited Wow! What a Magazine in 1936. In 1937, with Will Eisner, he founded the pioneering Eisner-Iger Shop, which produced many comics. He later presided over the S.M. Iger Studio, started Phoenix Features, and was art director for Farrell/Ajax-Farrell.

30 years ago September 7, 1995 Writer-artist Russ Johnson dies at age 101. The creator of Mister Oswald, which ran in the Hardware Retailing trade magazine, may be (with Australian Jim Russell) one of the two longest continuously active comics artists who worked without the help of an assistant.

30 years ago September 9, 1995 Dutch writer-artist and teacher Toon Rammelt dies at age 84.

30 years ago September 9, 1995 Dutch artist Pim van Boxsel dies of heart failure at age 71.

25 years ago September 5, 2000 Award-winning Danish artist and teacher Palle Nielsen dies at age 80.

25 years ago September 9, 2000 Japanese manga artist Takashi Fukutani dies of pulmonary edema at age 48.

25 years ago September 10, 2000 British-Canadian writer-artist and TV personality Ben Wicks dies of cancer 21 days before his 74th birthday.

20 years ago September 6, 2005 Marvel changes its name to Marvel Entertainment Inc., indicating its expansion into film production.

20 years ago September 10, 2005 Argentine artist and animator Carlos Costantini dies at age 69.

15 years ago September 10, 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Paul Conrad dies at age 86. He won many other awards over the decades.

5 years ago September 6, 2020 Bob Fujitani dies at age 98. The prolific Golden Age artist freelanced for Ace, Avon, Dell, Harvey, Lev Gleason, and Quality and worked on Flash Gordon, Judge Wright, and Rip Kirby strips. He co-created Doctor Solar.