Fred Fredericks, R.I.P.

Irwin Hasen isn't the only long-running newspaper strip artist we lost this week. Harold "Fred" Fredericks, who drew Mandrake the Magician from 1965 until 2013 also passed away. Mr. Fredericks took over as illustrator of Lee Falk's famous wizard when the strip's previous artist, Phil Davis died and slowly made it his own. Though a strip like that can easily be a full-time job, Fredericks occasionally found time to draw comics for Western Publishing (Bullwinkle, Twilight Zone) and Marvel (Defenders of the Earth, G.I. Joe) Also, he created the long-running feature Rebel for Scholastic Scope.

I'm afraid I don't have much to say about Mr. Fredericks other than that he sure did a lot of popular, good-looking comics. I never met him. I'll try and direct you to some websites that have information about him if I come across any.