Dale Hale takes on Peanuts; George Lichty Grins and Bears It; Burne Hogarth becomes king of Tarzan’s jungle jive.
Dale Hale, cartoonist and Charles M. Schulz Comic Book Ghost
When Dell Comics took over the [Peanuts comic book] line in 1957, however, they chose a completely different direction. Instead of reprinting and re-reprinting newspaper strips, they decided they wanted brand new stories created just for the comic books. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz (known as “Sparky” to his pals) agreed to have the material generated from his studio, with the help of his talented friends Jim Sasseville and Dale Hale.
AAUGH.com interviewed Dale Hale in the studio behind his lovely house in Santa Monica, California on Friday, January 7, 2000, about a month before Schulz passed away.
The interview with some extras at Hogan’s Alley.
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The Press: Grin & Draw It
George Maurice Lichtenstein, 49, is a newspaper cartoonist who earns $50,000 [$577,000 in 2024 dollars] a year by illustrating an American homily of good-humored resignation: “Grin and Bear It.” In his satirical, topical “Grin and Bear It” cartoon, which runs in more than 270 U.S. dailies. Cartoonist “Lichty” has created such harried, irascible characters as potbellied, spindle-legged Bascomb Belchmore. Senator Snort, Mr. Snodgrass, and a diabolical moppet named Otis. They are inevitably trapped in ridiculous situations of their own making. In one cartoon Senator Snort, .dressed in flowered waistcoat and bat-winged collar, tells a group of reporters: “I welcome any inquiry into my program for a foreign policy, gentlemen … I have often wondered what it is myself.”
In 1955 Time magazine profiled cartoonist George Lichty.
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Tarzan in the City of Gold (The Complete Burne Hogarth Comic Strip Library volume 1)
Leaving [Rex] Maxon to cater the Monday through Saturday series of novel adaptations, Foster produced the [Tarzan] Sunday page until 1936 (233 weeks) after which he momentously moved to King Features Syndicate and created his own weekend masterpiece. Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur debuted on February 13th 1937. Once a four month backlog of material he had built up was gone, Foster was succeeded by a precociously brilliant 25-year old artist named Burne Hogarth: a young graphic visionary whose superb anatomical skill, cinematic design flair and compelling page composition revolutionised action/adventure narrative illustration.
Win Wiacek reviews the first volume of The Complete Burne Hogarth Tarzan which features the first three years of Hogarth’s Tarzan run. It would be a bit after this that Hogarth broke out of the 12 panel grid.
The better part of the 1937 to 1940 Sunday pages can be read at ERBzine. Or get the Titan books.