Shel Dorf, comics fan, letterer, and the driving force behind the early years of the San Diego Comic-Con, passed away yesterday from complications related to diabetes. He was 76.

Growing up in Detroit, the young Dorf organized fan gatherings and conventions, including the “Triple Fan Fest”, an interest he took with him when he moved to California in the late Sixties. Together with Ken Krueger and other enthusiasts, Dorf put on what become the mighty San Diego Comic-Con. As Mark Evanier writes in a personal reminiscence:

It was his friendship with so many heroes that led him to help put on the Detroit Triple Fan-Fairs in the sixties and then, when he moved to San Diego, to rally fans there to start something similar. I met him in late 1969 or maybe early 1970, shortly before a one-day con that he organized as a kind of “dry run” for the larger convention he hoped to stage. He was enthusiastic. He was optimistic. He was passionate, not just about the convention but about the wonders that could occur just by assembling so many talented creators and fans in the same building. As it turned out, he was right.

Dorf remained Chairman or president of the show for many years, although he was estranged from the show and those running it in recent years. His health had been poor for quite a while, and he was hospitalized for the last year of his life; he died with his brother Michael at his side.

Dorf was also the letterer for Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon newspaper strip for the last 14 years of its run, something he was very very proud of, and he was the inspiration for the character Thud Shelley. Jack Kirby, with whom Dorf is pictured above, on the right, included him in Mister Miracle as Himon.

There’s a Shel Dorf Tribute website, which was set up during his illness, with remembrances of the early days of the con, photos and more. The Comics Reporter and The San Diego Tribune have further obituaries.

Veteran artist George Tuska has passed away at age 93. Tuska’s career spanned the Golden Age with work for the Iger/Eisner shop, Lev Gleason, Fox and the Harry “A” Chesler Studio. In the 60s he was best known for a long run on IRON MAN and later, a 16-year-stint on The World’s Greatest Superheroes Present Superman comic strip, ending in 1993.

With a solid, dynamic style, Tuska can truly be said to be one of the architects of the Marvel Universe — integrating influences from his more innovative peers, Tuska’s work boiled down the essence of ’60s and ’70s superheroes to its purest elements. While the Onion called it “flavorless,” it’s also basic. Look at the two covers below: clichés that have become archetypes.

Spurgeon and Evanier have more.

Tuska is survived by his wife of 61 years, Dorothy, three children and numerous grand and great-grandchildren.

Longtime wrestling manager Captain Lou Albano passed away today at the age of 76. In the 1970s, Albano was one of the big three managers in the WWWF, along with the already-deceased Classie Freddie Blassie and The Grand Wizard.

In the 1980s, Albano became a crossover celebrity after appearing in Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” video and parlayed that into things like the Super Mario Brothers Super Show television show.

Rich Hafstead, partner in the Jim Hanley’s Universe chain in NYC, passed away on Friday, according to information making the rounds. Hafstead suffered a heart attack in 2006 and had been semi-retired since then.

Hafstead was a vital part of making Hanley’s, as it is called, a trailblazing store in a major comics market.

Our condolences to Jim Hanley and the rest of the Hanley’s staff.

Various sources are reporting the death of artist Rusty Haller this week, from this sad thread where his roommate reports finding his body. From what I can gather, he was in his mid forties. Haller worked mostly in licensed comics (his work can be seen here) but had most recently been working on his own strip, Ace and Queenie. He’d also been in poor health — from diabetes long undiagnosed– and had hit some rough economic times of late, with a benefit auction recently held for him.

Robert J. Sodaro writes:

It is with a sad heart that I pass along the information, that a friend of mine, Rusty Haller, creator of Ace & Queenie, and former cartoonist of Marvel’s Star Line passed away in his sleep last night. Rusty’s mother had passed away earlier this …year, forcing Rusty to re-locate to Ohio to live with a friend. It was his friend & roommate that discovered Rusty’s body.

Elin Winkler, Haller’s publisher at Radio Comics, has more:

I just talked to Rusty on the phone a few days ago, and we were full of plans to put Ace & Queenie up on the Radio Comix site with an eye towards a future collected print version. We also chatted about some other ideas he’d had kicking around for a few years- comics that could now come to light, with the advent of web publishing. I’m deeply saddened that all those great ideas will come to naught, and that Rusty’s dreams can’t be realized now.

Rusty was one of the nicest people we’ve had the pleasure of working with. He was always upbeat and positive, and he was a solid worker when it came to his pages. A consummate professional, he always welcomed honest criticism and constantly strove to improve his work.

He also worked with Nat Gertler on several projects, as Gertler wrote to us:

Rusty has been in comics for a fair while, although he never became famous; he was largely one of those guys who loved comics more than comics loved him. He did some work for the big boys, notably on ALF for Marvel and The Flintstones for Archie (the best-looking Flintstones comics I’ve seen). He’d recently been focused on his own creation, Ace and Queenie, an anthropomorphic adventurer series done mainly for the Radio Comix anthology Furrlough, although some was done originally for his website at http://aceandqueenie.com/ Rusty was one of my regulars, working on a number of About Comics projects. He worked on every issue of Licensable BearTM, and also contributed to The Factor and Many Happy Returns. As some of his credits made suggests, he was strong at cartoony licensed material, and his projects beyond comics included things like drawing Teen Titans coloring books and designing Betty Boop cookie jars.

Back when I was editing kids comics, Haller was always around, and I met with him several times to look at his samples. He was a complete pro, always enthusiastic and personable. He was obviously someone who loved comics, and loved what he did, and we send our condolences to his friends and family.

The woman that inspired the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” passed away at the age of 46 from Lupus.

From the WaPo obit:
…

Mrs. Vodden’s connection to the Beatles dates to her childhood friendship with schoolmate Julian Lennon, John Lennon’s son.

Julian Lennon, then 4 years old, came home from school one day with a drawing, showed it to his father and said it was “Lucy in the sky with diamonds.”

While Japan mourns the creator of Shin-chan, Yoshito Usui, some rather heartbreaking details are emerging about his death on September 11th. Usui-sensei fell to his death while out hiking, and there’s a cautionary tale for all:
A Futabasha official said the last picture on the broken digital camera found near Usui’s body was one peering down a steep cliff.

“As he was full of curiosity, we think he fell off at the moment he took the picture,” the official told reporters.

Legendary illustrator Bernie Fuchs, who mixed modern art abstraction with the powerful imagery of illustration to create one of the most influential styles in 20th century commercial art, died last week. David Apatoff wrote about him several years ago:

At the same time, another painter– Bernie Fuchs– dealt with the exact same aesthetic problems in a different forum. Like Motherwell, Rauschenberg and Kline, Fuchs rejected the realistic painting of his predecessors (such as Norman Rockwell) and focused on broader qualities of abstract design and composition.

If we compare Fuchs’ art with the work of the other three painters, applying the same standards, it is difficult to tell which painter is superior. Fuchs’ compositions were equally bold and lovely. The colors and shapes were comparable. In fact, the only consistent difference between Fuchs and the three “fine” artists was the purpose for which the art was created. Motherwell, Rauschenberg and Kline created art for art’s sake. Fuchs’ art had a commercial function. He created art for a client’s sake, for he is an illustrator.

Very sad news out of Japan as the body of manga-ka Yoshito Usui was found over the weekend. Usui, 51, had left the house on September 11th, telling his family he was going hiking on Mt. Arafune. When he did not return by nightfall, his wife alerted the police. Over the past weekend a body matching Usui’s description was found at the base of a cliff, and family members and dental records ID’d the body. Usui is believed to have fallen off a steep part of the trail.

Usui was the creator of Crayon Shin-Chan, an extremely popular manga that sold 25 million copies of its first volume in Japan, and has been translated into dozens of languages and spawned an equally popular cartoon. Often called the “Bart Simpson of Japan”, the strip concerns five-year-old Shin Nohara and his uncensored behavior which drives his parents to tears at times. Usui’s art is in the simpler, more underground style of manga, and while the stories are often crude — one of Shin’s most notorious pranks involves drawing an elephant around his penis — they have universal verve and biting humor that has successfully survived translation — it has many of the same virtues (although the content is very different) as other great darkly humorous kid’s comics like Little Lulu and the work of Toriyama.

Crayon Shin-Chan is currently being published by CMX, and the cartoon aired on Adult Swim for a while (with dialoging by Evan Dorkin, no less!) Although it’s a cult strip here in the US, in some parts of Europe it’s extremely popular — it’s so well-known in Spain that Usui created a special episode where Shin-chan goes to Barcelona.

ANN reports that two more episodes of the strip which Usui finished before his death await publication. New episodes of the anime were also set to air in October, but their timing is being discussed.

Reflecting over the last day, it struck us how just how amazingly unique a pop culture figure the late Patrick Swayze really was. The guy pretty much defined heartthrob in both the dangerous bad boy role (DIRTY DANCING) AND the romantic ultra-faithful husband role (GHOST) for several generations of women….but guys and nerds loved him for his two goofy, over the top action films, the great Kathryn Bigelow’s wacky POINT BREAK and the deliriously so bad it’s good ROAD HOUSE.

As an aside, what do you think Keanu is thinking in this still?

Related: Rickey Purdin has a Patrick Swayza sketchbook started.

Poor Bluewater…bad timing.

UPDATE: Bluewater has released a statement:

The country is a lesser place with the passing of Senator Kennedy. Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum we could all learn a great deal if we followed his passion for public service.
 
The timing of our announcement of a biography comic based on the life of Ted Kennedy was in no way tied to the Senator’s declining health and ultimate passing. When Bluewater planned out the first year of biographies, Kennedy’s name was always at the top of the list. In fact, this issue has been in production since March and was solicited to retail shops through our national distributor in June. We will, of course, pay final respects to this American icon by adding a page to the completed issue to close the last chapter of his remarkable life.
 
We mourn his passing with the rest of the nation.

Cliff Chiang’s tribute

Posted by Evie

The L.A. Times reports that Heinz Edelmann, best known for his work as art director of the 1968 Beatles film “Yellow Submarine,” died last week at a hospital in Stuttgart, Germany. He also designed the cover for the German edition of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, among many other books. He was 75.

He was also living proof that you don’t need drugs to be an awesome surrealist:

“I had never taken any drugs,” the artist said in a 2004 interview with the British magazine Design Week. “I’m a conservative, working-class person who sticks to booze . . . so I just knew about the psychedelic experience. . . . I guessed what it was.”

So remember that, aspiring cartoonists: stick to booze.

I can’t seem to get video embedding to work, but here’s “When I’m 64″ from “Yellow Submarine,” enjoy.

The obituaries of famed newsman (and early Beat hero) Walter Cronkite are also the history of news in the 20th century, from his days as a cub reporter through newspaper, radio, and TV. There could be no more “trusted source” than Cronkite, a mantle which has now passed to institutions (CNN, Fox) but is slipping away from them. The development of trusted sources will be the history of news in the 21st century.

Eleanor Frazetta, business and life partner of her husband, the famed artist Frank, has passed away:

Eleanor ‘Ellie’ Frazetta, the wife of celebrated artist Frank Frazetta, passed away today to be with the Lord after a courageous one-year battle with cancer.

Eleanor Kelly was born in Massachusetts and moved to New York where she married Frank in November, 1956. She acted as his business partner as well as his lifelong companion. Known for her feisty personality as well as her intuitive business acumen, she was instrumental in successfully establishing record prices for Frank’s work throughout her life.

She is survived by her husband Frank, her four children, Frank Jr., Billy, Holly and Heidi, numerous grandchildren, and many friends.

A public memorial is planned and details will be announced shortly. In the meantime, the family requests privacy.

As several folks have pointed out, MJ was a real comics fan. During the height of his fame in the ’80s and ’90s he would occasionally shop at his favorite comics shop — it would have to be shut down so he could shop in peace. A more recent trip with his children resulted in tabloid images, like much of his later years. He was certainly no stranger to the comics section.

Laura Hudson and Tom Spurgeon have more round-ups of Jacko and the Comics inks. John Jackson Miller looks at the comics connections of MJ, Farrah and Ed McMahon. And here’s a tribute by James Kochalka.

Rick Marshall remembers Jackson’s attempt to buy Marvel Comics, one of those weird moment of ’90s Marvel history that Jim Salicrup should write a book about some day.

The above issue of Disney Adventures was, at the time, only the second magazine cover that Jackson had done a shoot for since he become the King of Pop. (The other was Vanity Fair.) It was his idea to pose with Pinocchio, an idea that’s pretty creepy in retrospect. But let’s try to look on the best side. In the end, the man lived a sad, sick life, but it’s the music that will live on forever and ever. Cliched but so true.

While running around the Internet, we happened upon the news of the death of animator/cartoonist Jaime Diaz. The Argentininan born Diaz had a lengthy career in animation, working with Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon on everything from Dexter’s Lab to Fairly Odd Parents and everything in between.

During a decade-plus stint back in Argentina, Diaz opened an animation/comics studio, and I worked with many of his fine artists in my Disney days. Their work was always completely professional and occasionally inspired, and I always got a kick out of the faxes with Diaz’s big signature at the bottom. The Jaime Diaz Studio hired many local artists who were were good enough to work for Disney, but couldn’t find enough work in original Argentinian comics…yet another case where the American product has drowned out the local, as far as I could tell. Anyway, if you ever picked up a copy of Disney Adventures or a Disney comics in the early ’90s, you certainly saw the work of the Jaime Diaz Studio, and they also did a lot of animation work.

I recall Cosme Quartieri as being one of the finest artists there, and Walter Carzon, who later drew a bunch of Warner Bros comics, including ANIMANIACS. From reading the comments on his death I learned that Bill Diaz, Jaime’s son, passed away two years ago. I also worked with Bill on various projects over the years, and that’s sad to hear; it seems the older Diaz had never recovered from this loss.

After Disney Comics shut down and other kids’ comics died away in the mid ’90s, Diaz came back to the US to resume work in the animation field. Larry Huber has much more on his life and career, including Diaz’s own original creations. Cartoon Brew has more, as does Fred Seibert.

I never met Diaz, and I doubt that anyone reading this who didn’t work in animation this even knew his name, but they should have. Diaz is certainly exemplary of a level of talent and craft that touches and inspires those he worked with, and produced a body of work which entertains and charms generations. My condolences go out to his family.

The Ric Flair of Japan is dead after an in-ring accident.

Artist and animator Dave Simons has passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was 54.
Daniel Best has a tribute:

In his career Dave worked with some of the giants of animation and comic books. He was one of the best inkers to work with Gene Colan since Tom Palmer, a fact that Dave was damned happy to hear, especially when that praise came from Gene. He worked with Bob Budiansky on one of the best runs seen on Ghost Rider in the books life, and beyond. He worked with almost anyone you care to mention. His attention to detail and apparent inability to turn in a bad job held him in excellent stead and made him one of the go-to inkers of his generation. His generosity to others was known amongst his peers and there’s several inkers and artists who’ll happily tell you that Dave helped them along their way and gave them a start in their comic book careers.

Simons’ website can be found here.

The 72-year old star was found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok where he was filming his latest film.

The son of great character actor John Carradine, and brother of Robert and Keith, David Carradine was best known for his roles in the TV show Kung Fu and film Kill Bill. The prolific actor starred in over 100 other movies. After studying kung fu for his signature role as Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu, Carradine retained a lifelong interest in martial arts and Eastern philosophy.

Update: Sad details emerging.

Artist Ric Estrada passed away last week — there’s an obit retelling his remarkable life at the Salt Lake Tribune. His life included going to school with Fidel Castro, help from Ernest Hemingway, as well as many fine comic strips and comics, mostly for DC, where he drew such things as KARATE KID and OUR ARMY AT WAR. You can read more about his career at The Comics Reporter and Mark Evanier’s blog.

I actually worked with Estrada many moons ago on a project for Disney Adventures. He was a total pro and real “natural” — everything that came out of his pen was flowing, confident and beautifully drawn. He was also a fine storyteller…in short, one of those cartoonists who brings a craft to even tired genre stories that elevates them and gives them life.

There’s a website run by his son, where, we learn, a movie about his life is being made.

We have failed to properly mark the passing of Bea Arthur, but must now remedy that. As our pal Zena pointed out, there are now as many surviving Golden Girls as Beatles. As we probably noted when Estelle Getty passed away, our step-dad produced Golden Girls for a few years, so we know all about that and still have our Golden Girls cast jacket, even if it is too hot to ever wear it again.

Arthur, always a fierce, witty presence, made her great contribution to nerd culture playing the manager of the Cantina in the Star Wars Holiday Special. You can see her crooning, serving up drinks, dealing with Rodians AND Harvey Corman in the above clip. It’s pretty amazing.

As you watch it, you realize there was never a character in the whole Star Wars canon any tougher than Bea Arthur. RIP.

We’re a little under the weather today, so it’s late and light, but we had to make mention of this Not Comics obit: The legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff has died at age 94:

An Oscar winner for Black Narcissus, in 1948, Cardiff’s career as cinematographer spanned an astonishing eight decades, with his career in films going all the way back to an 1918 acting job.

Cardiff will be best remembered for his long collaboration with directors Powell & Pressburger on films like A Matter of Life & Death and The Red Shoes, but he also worked on classics like The African Queen for John Huston, The Barefoot Contessa for Joseph L. Mankiewicz and King Vidor’s War and Peace.

And CONAN THE DESTROYER and RAMBO, of all things. Cardiff was still working even a few years ago, and directed several films himself, including SONS AND LOVERS.

The Powell/Pressburger films remain one of the great treasures of film, and Cardiff’s unbelievable photography on BLACK NARCISSUS — a delirious story of repressed nuns in the febrile Himalayas — remains a singular cinematic achievement of beauty and psychological expression. Under Cardiff, even a potboiler like THE VIKINGS looked great. Truly, one of the masters.

Newsday reports the death last week of veteran artist Frank Springer at age 79.

Springer was a gregarious and practical man who labored for hours a day in his backyard studio, said his son, Jon Springer of Brooklyn. “He’d be out there basically all day long, morning until dinnertime.”

The artist would listen to jazz and opera while he worked, and he never got too high-minded about his outstanding talent, his son said. “He was a normal, conservative kind of guy,” Jon Springer said.

Frank Springer drew for a wide variety of companies, including DC Comics and Marvel. He also illustrated an adult-themed satire, “The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist,” a comic that Springer considered one of his best works.

Springer worked on Nick Fury, the Dazzler, Batman, and may other characters of the Silver and Bronze Ages. He worked on comics strips and creator-owned comics and did it all with style and craftsmanship. For more on his work and life, there’s this fairly recent interview, the Mark Evanier obit, and Springer’s Wikipedia entry..