TURNING POINTS by Maggie Thompson
Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles, and ends, this time for January 24-30, 2020…
130 years ago January 26, 1890 Spanish artist Marino Benejam Ferrer is born.
110 years ago January 24, 1910 Award-winning artist Noel Sickles is born. He’s best known for the newspaper strip Scorchy Smith.
100 years ago January 28, 1920 Lewis Wilson is born. He’s the first actor to play Batman on screen (in the 1943 serial Batman).
100 years ago January 28, 1920 Editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich is born. His awards include a Reuben and two Pulitzer Prizes.
90 years ago January 24, 1930 Artist John Romita is born. He produces a wide variety of work, catching Marvel fans’ attention when he draws Amazing Spider-Man starting in 1966. He’s Marvel’s art director for more than a decade.
90 years ago January 27, 1930 Tack Knight’s Little Folks comic strip begins.
60 years ago January 26, 1960 Writer-artist Daniel A. Reed is born. His work includes stories featuring such characters as Blue Beetle, The Hulk, Captain America, and The Punisher.
60 years ago January 26, 1960 Animator and artist Riley Thomson dies at age 47. He worked for Warner Brothers and Walt Disney and drew Disney stories for Dell.
60 years ago January 29, 1960 David W. Olbrich is born. He co-founds (with Tom Mason) Malibu Comics, publisher of the Ultraverse line of comics and of such titles as Men in Black.
60 years ago January 30, 1960 The British comics magazine Princess begins.
60 years ago January 30, 1960 Artist Denys Cowan is born. He’s a Milestone Media co-founder and TV producer.
55 years ago January 26, 1965 Filmmaker and artist Jacob Pander is born. Working with his brother, Arnold, he produces stories featuring such characters as Grendel and Batman.
55 years ago January 27, 1965 Artist Sean Phillips is born. He contributes to such comics as Sleeper, Marvel Zombies, WildC.A.T.s, Incognito, and Hellblazer.
55 years ago January 30, 1965 Writer Link Yaco is born.
25 years ago January 24, 1995 Artist Frank Emery dies at age 37.
15 years ago January 25, 2005 Animator and artist Chad Grothkopf dies at age 90 or 91. He created Hoppy the Marvel Bunny for Fawcett and Willie the Worm for Fleischer and worked on Howdy Doody comics stories.
15 years ago January 25, 2005 Artist Jill Elgin, known for her work on Girl Commandos, dies at age 82.
10 years ago January 25, 2010 Scots Artist Bill Ritchie dies at age 78. Known for his work for D.C. Thomson magazines, he created such series as “Toots,” “Pip the Penguin,” and “The Twitz of the Ritz.”
10 years ago January 26, 2010 Writer-artist John Dirks dies at age 92. He collaborated with his father (Rudolph Dirks) on The Captain and the Kids from 1955 to 1968, then continued it himself until 1979.
5 years ago January 27, 2015 Indian artist R.K. Laxman dies, age 93. He was best known for The Common Man and You Said It.
