Manga-ka Keiko Tobe has passed away at age 52. Tobe is known for her award-winning WITH THE LIGHT (published in the US by Yen Press), the sensitive story of a couple raising an autistic child. She stopped work on the title because of her illness a year ago, and her death leaves it unfinished.

The great author and recluse J.D Salinger has died at age 91. Author of The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey and Nine Stories, he was revered by would-be Zen Buddhists everywhere.

Leftist author, teacher and activist Howard Zinn passed away yesterday at age 87. His bestseller, A People’s History of the United States, was a ground level view of American history that focused on the lives of workers and dissidents while criticizing the usual heroes such as presidents. Although this would normally little concern a comics blog, toward the end of his life, Zinn adapted his work to a graphic novel with somewhat mixed results. But this Boston.com slideshow presents some excerpts of artist Mike Konopacki’s version of events.

Film director Eric Rohmer, part of the French New Wave in the 1960s, passed away Monday in Paris at the age of 89.

He might be best known in the US for MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD (MY NIGHT WITH MAUD) which was nominated for a Best Screenplay Academy Award in 1971 or his more recent films CONTE D’HIVER (A WINTER’S TALE) (1993) and CONTE D’AUTOMNE (AUTUMN TALE) (1998). His last picture was 2007’s LES AMOURS D’ASTREE ET DE CELADON (ROMANCE OF ASTREE AND CELADON).

Rohmer was also editor-in-chief of CAHIERS DU CINEMA from 1956 to 1963. He also co-wrote, with Claude Chabrol, the book “Hitchcock, the First Forty-Four Films.”

Rohmer’s pseudonym (his real name was either Maurice Henri Josepher Scherer or Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer) came from an amalgam of director Erich von Stroheim and author Sax Rohmer.

posted by mark coale

Barry Blair, a leading figure of the late ’80s black and white comics explosion, has died of a brain aneurysm, Bleeding Cool reports, and Blair’s website backs it up. He was about 56. According to Rich Johnston, “He complained to friends of an ear ache previously and was on medication as a result. However he felt so ill, he was eventually taken to hospital, but it was too late.”

Blair was a prolific writer and artist on B&W titles such as ELFLORD, SAMURAI, and later, ELFQUEST. He was the publisher of Aircel Comics, a briefly successful indie of the 80s which was later absorbed by Malibu Comics; Aircel was the original publisher of MEN IN BLACK, the basis for the movie. Blair had moved mainly into erotica for quite a while, and his work was often criticized for featuring very young looking characters.

Although his passing has been little noted outside of the BC item, Blair was a very well known figure in the growth period of the direct market, and leaves behind a large body of work.

A brief tribute to some of the cartoonists and pop-culture related deaths during the last 12 months:

Bob May

Ricardo Montalban

Patrick McGoohan
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Illustrator David Levine has passed away at age 83. In addition to being one of the most iconic illustrators of his era — his caricatures defined the New York Review of Books for decades — he was also the subject of Fantagraphics’ AMERCAN PRESIDENTS.

Mr. Levine’s drawings never seemed whimsical, like those of Al Hirschfeld. They didn’t celebrate neurotic self-consciousness, like Jules Feiffer’s. He wasn’t attracted to the macabre, the way Edward Gorey was. His work didn’t possess the arch social consciousness of Edward Sorel’s. Nor was he interested, as Roz Chast is, in the humorous absurdity of quotidian modern life. But in both style and mood, Mr. Levine was as distinct an artist and commentator as any of his well-known contemporaries. His work was not only witty but serious, not only biting but deeply informed, and artful in a painterly sense as well as a literate one. Those qualities led many to suggest that he was the heir of the 19th-century masters of the illustration, Honoré Daumier and Thomas Nast.

More art here.

Steve Bissette was first to break the news that Irving Tripp, collaborator with John Stanley on many of the great Little Lulu stories, died in November at age 88.

Tripp was an artist for Dell Comics in the ’40s and ’50s who teamed with Stanley. Stanley would write the Lulu stories in thumbnail fashion and Tripp would pencil, ink and sometimes letter. He also contributed covers — and worked until his retirement in the ’80s. While Tripp certainly drew in the style of Stanley, he contributed his own fine line — often just the angle of a line was enough to connote some shade of an emotion that took a panel from funny to hilarious — that was Tripp’s work.

The most common reaction to Tripp’s death among comics scholars was “He was still alive?” Comics Comics goes the extra mile and finds the only extant interview with Tripp, from the long out of print Another Rainbow Little Lulu collections. It is well worth reading in its entirety for the light it sheds on the comics world of the ’40s and ’50s, and the Lulu work of other contributors, such as Arnold Drake and Virginia Hubbell. As critical acclaim grows for John Stanley (who died in 1993, largely embittered by the way the industry had treated him), I’d suspect a lot of people, myself included, are sad that Tripp never got a chance to bask in some of the spotlight he so greatly deserved. It’s a reminder that we shouldn’t stop trying to find these “lost cartoonists” before it’s too late.

More from Tom Spurgeon and Mark Evanier. Also, his obituary.

Gerry Alanguilen writes that illustrator Sonny Trinidad has passed away in the Philippines. Known in the US for his work on Conan, Dracula, Morbius and DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU, Trinidad was also known as Celso Trinidad.

won the Best Serial Illustrator award during the 1984 KOMOPEB Parangal sa Komiks. His work VIRGA also won in the Best Novel Illustration Fantasy Category.

A native of Sta. Rosa, Laguna, Trinidad’s first professional exposure to comics came by way of working as an assistant to Francisco V. Coching, which would explain the similarity of his early work to Coching.

It must be said, in addition, Sonny Trinidad had the greatest name of any comics inker ever.

Ken Krueger, a co-founder of the San Diego Comic-Con and an influential figure in comics publishing and retailing on the West Coast in the formative era of the Direct Market, passed away over the weekend. Krueger owned Alert Books in Ocean Beach and helped Shel Dorf and other comics enthusiasts get what would eventually be known as The Con up and running, and by all accounts, was a level-headed, stabilizing force. He also managed the warehouse for Pacific Comics, one of the early indie comics publishers and distributors, and helped publish the first work of many important figures. One of them, Scott Shaw writes:

Jim Valentino just shared the sad news that Ken Krueger, who was not only one of the founders of the San Diego Comic-Con — and who also attended the very first science-fiction convention in NYC on July 4, 1939 — has died. No details of Ken’s death are available yet, but Ken recently appeared at SDCCI’s ‘09 for its 40th anniversary. Although he was not in good physical shape (to be kind), Ken’s mind seemed sharper than ever, with a memory for details of the past that were quite impressive. Ken published my first comic book story; he also published the first pro work by SF author Greg Bear, GARBAGE PAIL KIDS painter John Pound, Dave (ROCKETEER) Stevens, Jim (Image Comics) Valentino and others. I and many of my friends owe him a lot. When Pacific Comics was a major comic distributor, Ken oversaw the operation of their warehouse. Ken was a down-to-Earth guy who never sought titles or fame, but added legitimacy to the formation of Comic-Con due to his experience in fandom and as a publisher and retailer.

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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.