TURNING POINTS by Maggie Thompson

Here’s the latest installment of Maggie Thompson’s ongoing look at important beginnings, middles, and ends, this time for October 16-22, 2020…

180 years ago October 17, 1840 André Gill is born. Born Louis-Alexandre Gosset de Guines, the controversial and influential French caricaturist is credited with pioneering the practice of drawing a large head on a small body.

125 years ago October 18, 1895 Artist Ken Kling is born. He creates the Joe Quince and Windy Riley strips.

100 years ago October 17, 1920 Award-winning artist John Prentice is born. He takes over the Rip Kirby strip after Alex Raymond’s death and works for DC in the 1950s.

100 years ago October 17, 1920 The Swedish strip Adamson (known in English as Silent Sam) by Oscar Jacobsson begins.

90 years ago October 19, 1930 French artist Henri Gerbault dies at age 67.

85 years ago October 20, 1935 Sidney Smith dies at age 58 in a head-on collision on the way home from signing a $150,000 annual contract. The creator of The Gumps killed Mary Gold in that strip in 1926: the first character to die in a continuity comic strip.

85 years ago October 21, 1935 Quebec comics pioneering artist Joseph Charlebois dies at age 63.

80 years ago October 17, 1940 Le Soir-Jeunesse begins. The Hergé story The Crab with the Golden Claws is included, introducing Allan Thompson and Captain Haddock. (They’ll later be inserted in an older Tintin story.)

80 years ago October 19, 1940 Writer-editor Nadine Messner-Loebs is born.

75 years ago October 22, 1945 Glamor Girls by Don Flowers begins from King Features.

75 years ago October 22, 1945 Olle Kapoen by Phiny Dick, drawn by Coen van Hunnik, begins.

70 years ago October 21, 1950 John Dennis is born. He draws Caliber Press titles in addition to stories featuring characters including Spider-Woman and Wonder Woman.

65 years ago October 16, 1955 Gene Deitch’s Terr’ble Thompson begins.

65 years ago October 18, 1955 Writer-artist Sandy Plunkett is born.

65 years ago October 21, 1955 Award-winning writer-artist Geof Darrow is born. He’s especially known for his work on Shaolin Cowboy and (with Frank Miller) on Hard Boiled and The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot.

60 years ago October 21, 1960 Arrow and Caliber writer-editor Stuart Kerr is born.

55 years ago October 18, 1965 Cuban cartoonist, advertising agency founder, and publisher Conrado W. Massaguer dies at age 76.

35 years ago October 18, 1985 Children’s book writer-artist Jack Kent dies of leukemia at age 65. He created the King Aroo newspaper strip and featured some of its characters in his children’s books.

25 years ago October 21, 1995 Prolific Spanish writer-artist Jesús Blasco dies at age 75. He created Cuto.

25 years ago October 21, 1995 Spanish artist Manuel Vázquez Gallego dies of a stroke at age 65. One of the major contributors to Barcelona publisher Bruguera, he was the subject of the 2010 film El Gran Vázquez.

20 years ago October 16, 2000 Writer-artist and animator Ed Nofziger dies at age 87. He drew Mister Magoo for UPA and created the character Mother Magoo, he produced Hanna-Barbera comic strips and stories, and he created the Sir Lim’rick strip.

15 years ago October 17, 2005 Art teacher and Lone Ranger artist Tom Gill dies at age 92.