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 June 23-29, 2023…

165 years ago June 29, 1858 John “Dok” Hager is born. He creates Dok’s Dippy Duck.

160 years ago June 24, 1863 French artist Henri Gerbault is born.

145 years ago June 23, 1878 George Ernest Studdy is born. He creates the comics dog Bonzo.

135 years ago June 27, 1888 Award-winning newspaper cartoonist Cyrus Hungerford is born.

130 years ago June 24, 1893 Roy Disney is born. With his brother Walter, he co-founds the company now known as The Walt Disney Company, names Walt Disney World, and serves as the firm’s CEO, president, and chairman.

130 years ago June 29, 1893 New Yorker cartoonist Helen E. Hokinson is born.

100 years ago June 29, 1923 Artist Gene Bilbrew is born. He works with Will Eisner on material for the “Spirit” newspaper booklets and contributes to Irving Klaw publications.

95 years ago June 24, 1928 Artist Jesse Santos is born. He begins his comics work in 1946 in Halaklak, the first Filipino comic book, and co-creates DI 13. He also works for Western/Gold Key on such series as Dagar and Doctor Spektor.

95 years ago June 24, 1928 Influential and award-winning Belgian writer, artist, editor, and translator Yvan Delporte is born. He’s editor in chief of Spirou from 1955 to 1968 and helps found Union Professionelle des Créateurs d’Histoires en Images et de Cartoons.

95 years ago June 25, 1928 Influential writer-artist Alex Toth is born. His Golden Age comics career begins at Heroic. He goes on to work on DC superheroes including Flash, Green Lantern, and Atom and then moves to Standard Comics. While he works in animation for years on series including Space Angel, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and Super Friends, he continues a comic book career that includes art for Zorro.

95 years ago June 25, 1928 Pierre Culliford is born. Under the pen name of “Peyo,” he creates Schtroumpfs. (You probably know them as Smurfs.)

95 years ago June 27, 1928 Golden and Silver Age comic book and newspaper strip artist Joe Giella is born.

90 years ago June 26, 1933 Researcher Jerry Bails is born. The groundbreaking comics fan founds such publications as Alter Ego (1961) and the amateur publishing association CAPA-alpha (1964). Called the “Father of Comics Fandom,” he publishes 1960s fanzines, sets up annual comics awards, and publishes research on comic book creators.

85 years ago June 29, 1938 Albert Morse is born. He self-publishes Morse’s Funnies and serves as lawyer for some underground cartoonists.

75 years ago June 24, 1948 Writer Alan N. Zelenetz is born. The movie producer also co-creates Alien Legion.

70 years ago June 25, 1953 Artist Jerry Bingham is born.

70 years ago June 28, 1953 Colorist Adrienne Roy is born.

60 years ago June 24, 1963 Artist Mike Wieringo is born. He is known for his work on Flash and Fantastic Four and as co-creator of Tellos.

60 years ago June 24, 1963 Artist Denis Rodier is born. His work includes DC’s The Demon and Death of Superman.

55 years ago June 29-30, 1968 The Toronto Triple Fan Fair (also known as Fan Fair I) is run by George Henderson. He holds it in tents at his Memory Lane store at 594 Markham Street.

50 years ago June 29, 1973 The last issue of the Spanish En Patufet is published.

40 years ago June 25, 1983 Uruguayan artist and journalist Celmar Poumé dies at age 59. Lambiek calls him “one of the grandmasters of Uruguayan comics,” and he founded the Poumé Institute of Visual Arts in 1971.

35 years ago June 25, 1988 Dutch comics writer Evert Werkman dies at age 73.

30 years ago June 25, 1993 Spanish artist and animator Arturo Moreno dies at age 84. He co-founded Diarmo Films and such series as Punto Negro en el País del Juego.

30 years ago June 29, 1993 Tintin is canceled.

20 years ago June 28, 2003 Cartoonist-editor Guy Bara dies at age 79. He created Max, L’Explorateur, whose adventures appeared in a number of European newspapers.

15 years ago June 27, 2008 Pixar’s WALL-E opens, co-written and directed by Andrew Stanton. It grosses $23.2 million on its opening day.

15 years ago June 27, 2008 Writer-artist Michael Turner dies of bone cancer at age 37. Known for his work on Witchblade, Fathom, and Superman/Batman, he was president of Aspen MLT.

5 years ago June 28, 2018 Prolific award-winning influential writer, editor, critic, and collector Harlan Ellison dies at age 84. If you don’t know who he was – well, there’s Google. His life and work can’t be briefly summarized (at least, by me).

5 years ago June 29, 2018 Award-winning, influential writer-artist Steve Ditko dies at age 90. You know about Amazing Spider-Man, but his work was more varied than that. (If you seriously don’t know his work, do check the Internet and be impressed.)