Cartooning – Page 71 – Prattling Before the Pratfall

The Dilbertarian View

The Daily Cartoonist covers the introduction of Dilbert’s new character, Dave the Black Engineer.

https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2022/05/03/dilbert-presents-black-character-gets-dragged/

Dilbert’s ‘Franklin’ Moment

July 31, 1968 – Charles M. Schulz introduces Franklin.

May 2, 2022 – Scott Adams introduces Dave the Black Engineer.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-05-02

Green Lantern and Green Arrow

Only an hour after my last post, there came the stunning news that Neal Adams has died at age 80.

Jack Kirby was the most influential comic book artist of the 1960’s, and Neal Adams was certainly the most influential of the ’70’s.

After Gil Kane left DC to work for Marvel full-time, Adams took over drawing Green Lantern in a series reboot with Green Arrow.

About five years ago I was at a convention in Rhode Island with Joe Sinnott, his family, and a group of our friends. By then Joe needed a wheelchair to cover longer distances, and I enjoyed wheeling him around. (I was doing the same thing for my father in Arizona.)

Joe was scheduled to appear on a panel, and as we were heading to the end of the hall, Joe and Neal spotted each other. Joe wanted me to take him over to see Neal at his table, and once those two old pros got started talking, there was just no stopping them.

As reluctant as I was to break up their mutual admiration society, after I-don’t-know-how-long, I started to pull back on Joe’s chair to hint that we needed to go. Joe gave me the okay, he and Neal said their good-byes, and we were on our way to a late arrival at the panel discussion. As we entered the room everybody applauded and Joe waved to his fans. This is probably my all-time favorite fanboy memory.

Adams… was honored in the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2019.

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/neal-adams-dead-dies-comic-book-artist-1235254617/

Superman and Green Lantern

I was thrilled when Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” hit Musicradio 77 WABC in July 1966. “Superman or Green Lantern ain’t got a-nothin’ on me.”

Superman’s main artist at that time was Curt Swan.

Curt Swan pencil drawing inked by George Klein

Gil Kane was Green Lantern’s artist.

Curt Swan and Gil Kane were my two favorite DC comic book artists. What I didn’t know was that Curt Swan was a member of the Silvermine Golf Club. Our backyard literally bordered the golf course. My school bus stop in the 7th and 8th grade was in front of the clubhouse. Gil Kane lived along the route of my 2-mile bike ride to a shopping center where I bought most of my comic books.

What if I had known about this when my family was preparing to move to Massachusetts, soon after my 13th birthday? Hoo boy, there would have been trouble!

An Animated Radio Guy

In the Sixties, Filmation was one of the cartoon studios that began competing with Hanna-Barbera for Saturday morning TV network time. Comic book artist Curt Swan is mentioned in this featurette, and I’ll say more about him in my next post.

Filmation later produced a well-regarded Star Trek TV cartoon that featured writing worthy of the original series.

As stated in the featurette, Filmation co-founder Norm Prescott was originally a radio announcer. In the 50’s he had a stint here in Boston on WBZ-AM 1030, as heard in this aircheck.