A great cartoonist named Zeke Zekley died yesterday at the age of 90, and others in his field are sadly phoning one another to ask, "Have you heard?" Zeke was born in Chicago on February 11, 1915 and grew up in Detroit. His first cartooning job was at age 18 for the Detroit Mirror which, he used to joke, promptly went out of business. He freelanced for a time, then moved to California where he quickly got a job at Disney…only to be laid off two weeks later when the studio shut down for the summer. Broke and desperate for work, he happened to be doodling on the tablecloth in a restaurant one night when a man noticed his work and introduced himself as the brother of George McManus.
McManus was one of America's most widely-read cartoonists with his newspaper strip, Bringing Up Father, and he was in desperate need of an assistant. Zeke was quickly hired and the two men became close friends, with Zeke eventually drawing and even writing more of Jiggs and Maggie than McManus. (Well into his eighties, Zeke was still able to draw those characters in a manner most would find indistinguishable from their maker.)
Zeke worked with McManus for years and it was assumed that when McManus died or retired, Zeke would take complete control of the strip. This did not happen. In 1954, McManus died and King Features Syndicate elected to give the job to an outsider — a move that was unpopular with other strip cartoonists and which caused some of them to make contractual demands about who would take over their strips after they passed away.
Zeke recovered from the disappointment and went on to create his own strip for the McNaught Syndicate — a Blondie clone called Dud Dudley. More than a few people could not remember if the comic strip character Dud Dudley was drawn by cartoonist Zeke Zekley or if the comic strip character Zeke Zekley was drawn by cartoonist Dud Dudley. Either way, the strip only lasted a year, which was a shame since it was one of the cleverest of the many strips that attempted to emulate the success of Blondie and Dagwood. Zeke tried a few others — Peachy Keen and a panel called Popsie — which also never caught on.
After that, Zeke devoted most of his energy to his own company, Sponsored Comics, which produced comic books for commercial and advertising purposes. He produced comics that were given out at McDonald's and at regional stores, and many other venues. For a time, he handled PS Magazine, the Army's semi-educational book that Will Eisner had done for years.
Zeke was a great guy, generous with his time and talents. He employed a great many cartoonists but was not above sitting down at the board and drawing or lettering pages himself. Funeral services will be held on Monday afternoon in Los Angeles. Drop me a note if you'd like details.