Fred Guardineer, R.I.P.

This obit is a little late but I have just learned that one of the first comic book artists, Fred Guardineer, passed away on September 13, 2002 a month shy of what would have been his 89th birthday. Guardineer was best known for the character of Zatara the Magician, a rather close knock-off of Lee Falk's Mandrake the Magician…and Guardineer didn't stop there. He did a couple other similar magician characters for other publishers, most of whom also looked like Mandrake. Fred was born in Albany, New York on October 3, 1913 and acquired a fine arts degree in 1935, by which time he was already doing illustrations for a number of New York-based pulp magazines. In 1936, he went to work for the shop of Harry "A" Chesler, whose studio was producing stories and artwork for some of the earliest comic book publishers (his main strip was a thing called Dan Hastings).

Shortly after, he began freelancing for Centaur and also for DC Comics where he did Zatara, Speed Saunders and Pep Morgan, as well as many striking covers. He drew for other companies including Marvel, ME, Hillman and Lev Gleason, often whipping out Zatara clones like Tor the Magic Master, which he did for Quality. When the industry hit a slump in the mid-fifties, Guardineer decided the time had come to get out and he went to work for the post office.

He remained effectively out of comics the rest of his life but in the sixties, comic historian Jerry DeFuccio (then the associate editor of MAD) tracked him down, interviewed him and became the first of many collectors to pay what Guardineer considered tidy sums to re-create some of his old covers. After a time, Guardineer again lost contact with the comic art community but in 1998, comic fan Dave Siegel located Guardineer in Northern California and got him to attend that year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. I was pleased to have him on two panels, one of which was a gathering of every surviving person who'd had a hand in the creation of the historic Action Comics #1. I also got to present him with the convention's coveted Inkpot Award, which meant a lot to him. Fred was confined to a wheelchair by then but with great effort, he insisted on standing as he made a brief but eloquent acceptance speech. Later, Dave got him to a WonderCon in Oakland and again, Fred had a wonderful time meeting people who treasured his work. A nice man and a good artist…sorry to hear he's no longer with us.