Friday, November 14, 2003

More on John Tartaglione

Just spoke with Marvel artist Marie Severin, who was back from attending the wake for John Tartaglione. She reminded me that John had recently been inking the Spider-Man newspaper strip (the daily, not the Sunday) over the pencil art of Larry Lieber. And she said that despite a recent battle with throat cancer that had robbed Tartag of his ability to speak, he managed to finish a week of strips the day before he died. There's some real devotion to duty there, and it's nice to report that John was a working artist right until the end.

• Posted at 6:42 PM · LINK

John Tartaglione, R.I.P.

I have no details but I am informed by two separate sources that longtime comic book illustrator John Tartaglione passed away within the last week. "Tartag," as his friends called him, was born in 1921 and he received his art training at Pratt Institute and the Traphagen School of Fashion. Details on his career are sketchy — I don't recall ever seeing an interview with him anywhere — but he seems to have broken into comics around 1941 as an errand boy and production artist for Harvey Comics, followed by several years doing likewise for Bernard Baily, who was then running a studio that produced comic art for various publishers. There is then a gap in his known history but around 1954, solo Tartaglione work began appearing in Atlas Comics like Journey Into Mystery and Spellbound. For the most part, he was a "quiet" artist, generally uncomfortable with the more grisly horror or outrageous superhero features. He illustrated a great many romance comics for Atlas (which later became Marvel) and for DC, and was often called upon for special projects of an educational or religious nature. In the sixties, Tartag work turned up in Treasure Chest, Classics Illustrated and in an array of Dell Comics, including Burke's Law, Ben Casey and the Dell comic book biographies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

In the late sixties, he moved back to Marvel where he was used primarily as an inker for Werner Roth's X-Men art, Gene Colan's Daredevil work and Dick Ayers on Sgt. Fury. He did good, professional work but reportedly lamented the dearth (to him) of more uplifting assignments in comics. Again, he became the "go-to" guy when a project came along that required historical research and/or spiritual themes. He was therefore the perfect artist when in 1982, Marvel issued a comic book biography of Pope John Paul II that through various religious channels, sold well into the millions, leading to a follow-up book on Mother Teresa. During this time, Tartag occasionally worked on staff at Marvel, colored for Harvey Comics and assisted on the newspaper strip, Apartment 3-G. Mostly though, he increased his non-comic work — mostly oil painting and portraiture — and had been concentrating on that area until his recent passing.

And that's really everything I know about John Tartaglione. If anyone reading this can offer additional details, please do. It's a life and career that have gone woefully unchronicled.

• Posted at 9:58 AM · LINK

Penny Singleton, R.I.P.

Penny Singleton had a pretty long career in show business but for the most part, it came down to two roles. From 1939 until 1960, she was Blondie (from the comic strip of the same name) in a string of radio shows and 28 movies that some cable channel ought to be rerunning. Then in 1962, she provided the voice of Jane Jetson for what was then a one season, unsuccessful cartoon series. But The Jetsons lived on in reruns to the point of eventually making more of them and Ms. Singleton became quite beloved as another cartoon mother. Somewhere between her two signature parts, she also became a mover and shaker in various actors' unions, holding office in some, always fighting for better pay and respect for the bit players, the dancers, the folks without much clout in the hierarchy of show business. I met her a few times and found her to be a delightful, spunky lady who clearly loved what she did, and loved the fact that so many others loved what she did. Here's a more extensive obit.

• Posted at 9:07 AM · LINK

Comic Artist Website of the Day

There's something I really like about Bob Staake's cartooning. It's simple but not easy, colorful but not garish. See if you don't agree as you wander around his website.

• Posted at 1:09 AM · LINK

November 15, 2003 • Current • November 13, 2003