Famous Cartoonists from the United States
- Kevin Smith, born August 2, 1970, in Red Bank, New Jersey, is an acclaimed American filmmaker, actor, comedian, public speaker, comic book writer, author, and podcaster. He shot to fame with his low-budget independent film Clerks, which he directed, co-produced, and acted in. The film was highly successful and garnered immense critical acclaim, marking Smith's entry into the world of mainstream cinema. Clerks showcased his knack for crafting relatable characters coupled with humor rooted in pop culture references. His other noteworthy films include Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, all of which feature his trademark style of storytelling. Smith's unique comedic lens extends beyond film as well. His popular podcast, 'SModcast', where he shares his views on various subjects, has a wide listener base and brought him recognition as a skilled podcaster. As a comic book writer, he has contributed to titles such as Daredevil and Green Arrow for Marvel and DC Comics respectively. His flair for blending humor and commentary has made him a favorite amongst readers.Smith's talent for public speaking has led him to tour colleges nationwide, where he performs Q&A sessions that are often packed with anecdotes and insights into his life and career. In addition to his diverse professional pursuits, Smith is also known for his charity work. He is actively involved in several philanthropic endeavors, particularly those supporting LGBT+ rights and animal welfare. Regardless of the medium he works in, Kevin Smith's irreverent humor, authentic storytelling, and affable personality continue to endear him to audiences worldwide. His creativity and versatility across different platforms demonstrate his stature as one of the most influential figures in contemporary entertainment.
- Birthplace: Red Bank, New Jersey, USA
- Stan Lee, born as Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922, was an iconic writer, editor, and producer who revolutionized the comic book industry with his innovative storytelling. Known for co-creating Marvel Comics' most famous superheroes, Lee is credited with transforming comic books from a niche product to a major part of the entertainment industry. Born in New York City, Lee began his career in the comic book industry at Timely Comics, which would later become Marvel Comics. As an imaginative storyteller, Stan Lee co-created an array of superhero characters including Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, and Ant-Man. His characters were unique, often possessing human flaws and struggles, unlike the perfect archetypes that dominated the genre during that period. This remarkable approach resonated with readers, making his creations relatable and intriguing, which significantly contributed to the immense popularity of Marvel Comics worldwide. Apart from creating memorable characters, Stan Lee also introduced the practice of regularly crediting writers and artists, earning him immense respect among his peers. Lee's influence extends beyond comic books; his characters have been featured in numerous blockbuster films, television series, and video games, further cementing his legacy in the world of pop culture. Stan Lee passed away on November 12, 2018, leaving behind a monumental legacy that continues to inspire countless individuals around the globe. He will always be remembered as the man who brought joy, excitement, and depth to the realm of comic books and beyond.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- A third-generation television writer, it came as little surprise when scripter Joss Whedon followed in his relatives' footsteps, although his astonishing success as series creator, producer, screenwriter and feature film director surely impressed even his formidable family. Receiving his start as a writer on the sitcom "Roseanne" (ABC, 1988-1997) and serving as a script doctor on several noted studio films, Whedon later created the cult hit "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (The WB, 1997-2001; UPN, 2001-03), developed from a campy horror comedy of the same name he had also written years earlier. With "Buffy," Whedon used the horror genre, combined with deft comedic touches, to explore the theme that life as an American teen could be pure hell. An instant cult favorite, it spurred Whedon on to create the "Buffy" spin-off, "Angel" (The WB, 1999-2004). While his critically acclaimed sci-fi opus "Firefly" (Fox, 2002-03) and its feature film sequel "Serenity" (2005) were poorly promoted by the studios, Whedon had plenty of other ideas to explore. Following another TV disappointment with the short-lived sci-fi adventure "Dollhouse" (Fox, 2009-2010), Whedon returned to film with a bang as a co-writer of the mind-bending horror movie, "Cabin in the Woods" (2012) and as the writer-director of the superhero blockbuster, "The Avengers" (2012) and its sequel "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015). In between, his small-scale reimagining of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" (2012) was an imaginative busman's holiday filmed at his own home on digital video. Brilliantly combining genres like science fiction, fantasy, horror and Westerns, Whedon achieved his own level of cult status, even as he grew in stature as one of Hollywood's most innovative purveyors of popular entertainment.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
The Best Joss Whedon TV Shows and Series, RankedSee all
- 1Buffy the Vampire Slayer1,885 Votes
- 2Firefly1,705 Votes
- 3Angel1,514 Votes
- Theodor Seuss Geisel ( or (listen); March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was an American children's author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Doctor Seuss ( or abbreviated Dr. Seuss). His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.Geisel adopted the name "Dr. Seuss" as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College and as a graduate student at Lincoln College, Oxford. He left Oxford in 1927 to begin his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for Vanity Fair, Life, and various other publications. He also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for FLIT and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM. He published his first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1937. During World War II, he took a brief hiatus from children's literature to illustrate political cartoons, and he also worked in the animation and film department of the United States Army where he wrote, produced or animated many productions – both live-action and animated – including Design for Death, which later won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.After the war, Geisel returned to writing children's books, writing classics like If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1955), If I Ran the Circus (1956), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), and Green Eggs and Ham (1960). He published over 60 books during his career, which have spawned numerous adaptations, including 11 television specials, five feature films, a Broadway musical, and four television series. Geisel won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 for Horton Hatches the Egg and again in 1961 for And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Geisel's birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day, an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association.
- Birthplace: Springfield, Massachusetts
The Best Dr. Seuss BooksSee all- 1Green Eggs and Ham703 Votes
- 2How the Grinch Stole Christmas!625 Votes
- 3The Lorax570 Votes
- As the creator of the long-running animated TV series "The Simpsons" (Fox, 1989- ), as well as the equally venerable weekly comic strip "Life in Hell," cartoonist Matt Groening watched his creations spawn numerous print and merchandise incarnations that helped make him a influential figure in world pop culture.
- Birthplace: Portland, Oregon, USA
- The artist is often reflected in his art, intentionally or not, and much of Charles M. Schulz could be seen in "Peanuts," his internationally popular comic strip that seemingly appealed to every demographic. A shy, retiring man, Schulz was an awkward, frequently lonely child who took solace in drawing. He polished his skills and eventually had one of his comic strip ideas accepted by United Features Syndicate. "Peanuts" became a cultural phenomenon and elements of its creator's personality and experience could be discerned throughout its history. Over the course of a career spanning 50 years, Schulz drew almost 19,000 strips and at the peak of its popularity, "Peanuts" was read in 75 countries by 300 million people. His earnings from the strip, both from its long run in syndication and its spin-offs into other mediums and endless merchandising, topped $1 billion. However, as more of Schulz's story became known after his death - including his bouts with anxiety and depression - it can be said that he was happy mostly during the time he was alone in his office drawing the next "Peanuts" strip. A complex man, gentle and reticent on the one hand, and driven and wonderfully creative on the other, Schulz was a remarkable talent and the most successful artist in American history.
- Birthplace: St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
- As the creative force behind of the long-running "King of the Hill" (Fox, 1997-2009) and its precursor, the headbang-worthy "Beavis & Butt-Head" (MTV, 1993-97) - not to mention the modern film classic, "Office Space" - Mike Judge was a powerful force in modern-day comedy throughout the nineties and into the next millennium. Much like his contemporary, Matt Groenig of "The Simpsons" fame, Judge created a mini-animated empire, populated with blue collar losers and rednecks, all struggling to make their way through life's minutia.
- Birthplace: Guayaquil, Ecuador
- Animator and filmmaker Chuck Jones helped to define or create some of the most iconic cartoon characters in screen history, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, and injected a blend of intelligent banter and unbridled absurdity into countless cartoons for Warner Bros. and other studios over the course of a celebrated and Oscar-winning career. Born Charles Martin Jones on September 21, 1912 in Spokane, Washington, he and his three siblings were raised in Los Angeles, California. He credited his initial interest in art to his father, an aspiring but largely unsuccessful businessman who bought supplies of pencils and paper for each new venture; when the business failed to take root, he turned the materials over to his children, who used them to hone their talents in drawing. Jones continued his training at the Chouinard Art Institute (later the California Institute of the Arts) in Pasadena, California, and upon graduation, supported himself by selling pencil portraits on Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles before taking a job as a cel washer at the studio of former Disney animator Ub Iwerks. He soon worked his way up to assistant animator before Iwerks terminated his position; Jones then worked briefly for producers Charles Mintz and Walter Lantz - the creator of Woody Woodpecker - before rejoining and then leaving Iwerks for a second time. But Iwerks' secretary, Dorothy Webster - who would become Jones' first wife in 1936 - secured him a position as assistant animator at Leon Schlesinger Productions, an independent studio that produced the "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" cartoons for Warner Bros. Schelsinger promoted Jones to animator in 1935 and assigned him to director Tex Avery's unit, which included "Beany and Cecil" creator Bob Clampett; the unit was housed in a small bungalow adjacent to the studio that the animators famously dubbed "Termite Terrace." There, Jones would make his debut as animation director on "The Night Watchman" (1938), and created his first original character, a winsome mouse named Sniffles (designed by Disney artist Charles Thorson), who starred in 12 cartoons between 1939 and 1946. Jones would create a slew of additional characters, including the hapless Three Bears, squabbling mice Hubie and Bertie, and the stereotypical African tribesman Inki, and worked with Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) on the Army education shorts featuring Private Snafu, before focusing his attention on the "Merrie Melodies" cast of characters. Jones directed the second and third cartoons to feature Bugs Bunny - 1939's "Prest-o Change-0" and "Elmer's Candid Camera" (1940), the latter also starring Elmer Fudd - and along with Tex Avery and artist Bob Givens, would be largely responsible for shaping the character's personality from a manic zany to a sardonic, prank-loving wiseguy. Jones also reworked another enduring "Merrie Melodies" character, Daffy Duck, who became an easily flustered opportunist whose squabbles with Bugs and Elmer Fudd comprised some of the best Warner cartoons of the 1950s ("Rabbit Season," 1951), and created four of the studio's most memorable characters: the amorous, Charles Boyer-inspired skunk Pepe LePew, ambitious alien Marvin the Martian, and Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, whose largely silent adventures became wry exercises in the inherent absurdity of overzealous pursuits and blind faith. Jones would win his first Oscar for Best Animated Short with a Pepe LePew cartoon, "For Scent-imental Reasons" (1949) and earned a second Oscar, this time for Documentary Short Subject, with "So Much for So Little" (1949), which promoted proper healthcare for infants, but the humorous output of Merrie Melodies and Loony Tunes remained his primary showcase, and he would direct some of his most enduring efforts in the 1950s, including "One Froggy Evening" (1955), another parable about blind ambition, this time focused on the discovery of a singing frog. ""What's Opera, Doc?" (1957), which used Wagner's "Ring Saga" as a backdrop for a battle between Elmer and Bugs, would later be named the greatest cartoon of all time. Jones' tenure with Warner Bros. would come to an abrupt end when he and wife Dorothy penned the animated feature "Gay Purr-ee" (1962) for UPA; the studio terminated him for breach of contract, and Jones, along with most of his animation staff, moved to MGM, where they reworked the venerable Tom and Jerry cartoons for a new series between 1963 and 1967. With Maurice Noble, he also earned a third Oscar in 1965 for his adaptation of Norman Juster's allegorical story "The Dot and The Line." With the end of the "Tom and Jerry" cartoons in 1967 and closure of the MGM animation unit in 1970, he opened his own animation studio, Chuck Jones Enterprises, which produced some of the most memorable animated specials for television. Chief among these were two reunions with Dr. Seuss on "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (CBS, 1966), with Grammy-winning narration by Boris Karloff, and "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat" (CBS, 1971), as well as adaptations of George Selden's "The Cricket in Times Square" (ABC, 1973) and a feature version of Norman Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" in 1969. Jones also returned to the Looney Tunes stable on several occasions, producing the compilation film "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie" in 1979 and new Road Runner shorts for "The Electric Company" (PBS, 1971-77). Though he claimed to be semi-retired in the 1980s and 1990s, Jones was remarkable active in a variety of capacities, including acting cameos in Joe Dante's "Gremlins" (1984) and "Innerspace" (1987) - and the creation of new Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck animation for "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" (1990). He received an honorary Oscar and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996 shortly before completing his final Looney Tunes short, "From Hare to Eternity" (1997). Jones would issue one last animated project - a series of shorts featuring a character called Thomas Timber Wolf, whom he had created in the 1960s - which were released online by Warner Bros. in 2000. Two years later, Jones succumbed to heart failure at the age of 89 on February 22, 2002.
- Birthplace: Spokane, Washington, USA
- The career of animation giant Friz Freleng encompassed much of the history of his chosen medium. He entered the industry in 1927 during the silent era as an animator on the popular Oswald the Rabbit series produced by the young visionary Walt Disney. Freleng also helped usher in the sound era in cartoons--notably with the three-minute pilot film "Bosko the Talk Ink Kid" (1929)--as the chief animator during the early days of the Harman-Ising studio (which soon evolved into producer Leon Schlesinger's animation unit at Warner Brothers). After a brief but transformative stint as a director at Fred Quimby's cartoon unit at MGM from late 1937 through early 1939, Freleng entered his multi-Oscar-winning glory days at Termite Terrace (the bungalow on the Warner lot where the animation department was housed) in the 1940s and 50s. Even during the artistically diminished era of 60s and 70s Saturday morning TV cartoons, he emerged as a major player in a very different field. Freleng truly saw it all and played a substantial role in making it happen.
- Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
- A prolific writer who has written in a variety of mediums, J. Michael Straczynski began his professional career dabbling in stage, radio and spec scripts while working as a newspaperman at the Los Angeles Times in the early 1980s. He landed his first TV gig when one of his scripts was picked up by the people behind the celebrated "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" animated series. From there, he wrote for the female-aimed spin-off series "She-Ra: Princess of Power," the vehicle-heavy "Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors," and the enjoyably spooky "The Real Ghostbusters." After branching out from animation in the late '80s, he was hired to make over the popular but waning amateur-sleuth series "Murder, She Wrote" and increased the show's ratings by moving main character Jessica Fletcher to New York City. He also co-produced 22 episodes of the show. It was this experience and success that allowed him the opportunity to create what would become his signature project, the hugely immersive sci-fi saga "Babylon 5." The hit '90s series had a 110-episode run, including five offshoot TV movies. Straczynski extended the franchise with "Crusade," a suspenseful spin-off series that, like its predecessor, was meant to unfold over a five-year run before it was cut short in its first season. He broke into film writing with the script for Clint Eastwood's wrenching missing-child drama "Changeling" ('08) and continues to work frequently in the comic-book genre.
- Birthplace: Paterson, New Jersey, USA
- Walter Benjamin Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, film producer, director and actor best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker.
- Birthplace: New Rochelle, New York, USA
- John Lindley Byrne (; born July 6, 1950) is a British-born American writer and artist of superhero comics. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on many major superheroes, with noted work on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics' Superman franchise, the first issue of which featured comics' first variant cover. Coming into the comics profession as penciller, inker, letterer and writer on his earliest work, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also served as penciler and inker). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He scripted the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing. In 2015, Byrne and his X-Men collaborator Chris Claremont were entered into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame. He is the co-creator of such Marvel characters as Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, Sabretooth, Shadow King, Scott Lang, Bishop, Omega Red and Rachel Summers.
- Birthplace: West Bromwich, United Kingdom
- William Henry "Bill" Mauldin (; October 29, 1921 – January 22, 2003) was an American editorial cartoonist who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work. He was most famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers, as represented by the archetypal characters Willie and Joe, two weary and bedraggled infantry troopers who stoically endure the difficulties and dangers of duty in the field. His cartoons were popular with soldiers throughout Europe, and with civilians in the United States as well.
- Birthplace: Mountain Park, New Mexico, USA
- One half of the most celebrated animation-producing duos in history, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's company, Hanna-Barbera Productions, created some of the best-loved animated television programming of the 20th century and beyond, including "The Huckleberry Hound Show" (syndicated, 1958-1961), "The Yogi Bear Show" (syndicated, 1961-62), "The Flintstones" (ABC, 1960-66), "The Jetsons" (ABC, 1962-63), "Jonny Quest" (ABC, 1964-65), "Super Friends" (ABC, 1973-1986) and "The Smurfs" (NBC, 1981-89). With Barbera, Hanna began his career with the Oscar-winning Tom and Jerry animated shorts for MGM. When the company shuttered its animation division, the duo launched their own company, striking pay dirt almost immediately with "Huckleberry Hound" and "The Flintstones," their first primetime series. Hanna-Barbera's cartoons, driven largely by bright, simple artwork, clever writing, and memorable characters, led the television animation field until the 1980s, when financial difficulties resulted in their sale to a variety of companies. They rebounded in the 1990s as part of Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network, for which they oversaw such cutting-edge cartoons as "The Powerpuff Girls" (1998-2005) before Hanna's death in 2001. William Hanna's vast output of animated fare over the course of his six-decade career contained so many beloved characters and shows that his position as one of the dominant forces in American animation was assured for eternity.
- Birthplace: Melrose, New Mexico, USA
- Michael Robert Gale (born May 25, 1951) is an American screenwriter, producer and film director. He co-wrote the science fiction comedy film Back to the Future with writing partner Robert Zemeckis, and the screenplays for the film's two sequels. Gale also co-produced all three films and served as associate producer on the subsequent animated TV series. Michael J. Fox noted that Back to the Future co-creator Bob Gale is "the gatekeeper" for the franchise.
- Birthplace: University City, Missouri, USA
- Allan Heinberg (born June 29, 1967) is an American film screenwriter, television writer and producer and comic book writer. Heinberg is the screenwriter of the film Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins. His television writing and producing credits include The Naked Truth, Party Of Five, Sex And The City, Gilmore Girls, The O.C., Grey's Anatomy, Looking, and Scandal. Most recently, Heinberg developed, wrote, and ran ABC’s The Catch, starring Mireille Enos and Peter Krause. For Marvel Comics, Heinberg created and wrote Young Avengers and its sequel, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade with co-creator/artist Jim Cheung. For DC Comics, Heinberg co-wrote JLA: Crisis Of Conscience with Geoff Johns (art by Chris Batista), and re-launched Wonder Woman with artists Terry and Rachel Dodson.
- Birthplace: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
- Samuel R. Delany (; born April 1, 1942), Chip Delany to his friends, is an African-American author and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism and essays on science fiction, literature, sexuality, and society. His fiction includes Babel-17, The Einstein Intersection (winners of the Nebula Award for 1966 and 1967 respectively), Nova, Dhalgren, the Return to Nevèrÿon series, and Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. His nonfiction includes Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, About Writing, and eight books of essays. After winning four Nebula awards and two Hugo Awards over the course of his career, Delany was inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2002. From January 1975 until his retirement in May 2015, he was a professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Creative Writing at SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Albany, and Temple University in Philadelphia. In 1997 he won the Kessler Award, and in 2010 he won the third J. Lloyd Eaton Lifetime Achievement Award in Science Fiction from the academic Eaton Science Fiction Conference at UCR Libraries. The Science Fiction Writers of America named him its 30th SFWA Grand Master in 2013.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
- Alfred Gerald Caplin (September 28, 1909 – November 5, 1979), better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner, which he created in 1934 and continued writing and (with help from assistants) drawing until 1977. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an' Slats (in the years 1937–45) and Long Sam (1954). He won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1947 for Cartoonist of the Year, and their 1979 Elzie Segar Award, posthumously for his "unique and outstanding contribution to the profession of cartooning". Comic strips dealt with northern urban experiences until the year Capp introduced "Li'l Abner", the first strip based in the South. Although Capp was from Connecticut, he spent 43 years teaching the world about Dogpatch, reaching an estimated 60 million readers in over 900 American newspapers and 100 foreign papers in 28 countries. M. Thomas Inge says Capp made a large personal fortune through the strip and "had a profound influence on the way the world viewed the American South".
- Birthplace: USA, Connecticut, New Haven
- Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business. His Dilbert series came to national prominence through the downsizing period in 1990s America and was then distributed worldwide, as Adams went door to door to promote the idea. Adams worked in various roles at big businesses before he became a full-time cartoonist in 1995. He writes in a satirical, often sarcastic, way about the social and psychological landscape of white-collar workers in modern business corporations.
- Birthplace: Windham, New York
- Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an American writer and artist noted for his illustrated books. His characteristic pen-and-ink drawings often depict vaguely unsettling narrative scenes in Victorian and Edwardian settings.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- One half of the most celebrated animation-producing duos in history, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's company, Hanna-Barbera Productions, created some of the best-loved animated television programming of the 20th century and beyond, including "The Huckleberry Hound Show" (syndicated, 1958-1961), "The Yogi Bear Show" (syndicated, 1961-62), "The Flintstones" (ABC, 1960-66), "The Jetsons" (ABC, 1962-63), "Jonny Quest" (ABC, 1964-65), "Super Friends" (ABC, 1973-1986) and "The Smurfs" (NBC, 1981-89). With Hanna, Barbera began his career with the Oscar-winning Tom and Jerry animated shorts for MGM. When the company shuttered its animation division, the duo launched their own company, striking pay dirt almost immediately with "Huckleberry Hound" and "The Flintstones," their first primetime series. Hanna-Barbera's cartoons, driven largely by bright, simple artwork, clever writing, and memorable characters, led the television animation field until the 1980s, when financial difficulties resulted in their sale to a variety of companies. They rebounded in the 1990s as part of Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network, for which they oversaw such cutting-edge cartoons as "The Powerpuff Girls" (1998-2005) before Hanna's death in 2001. Joseph Barbera's vast output of animated fare over the course of his six-decade career contained so many beloved characters and shows that his position as one of the dominant forces in American animation was assured for eternity.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- Frank Cho, born Duk Hyun Cho, is a Korean-American comic strip and comic book writer and illustrator, known for his series Liberty Meadows, as well as for books such as Shanna the She-Devil, Mighty Avengers and Hulk for Marvel Comics, and Jungle Girl for Dynamite Entertainment. Cho is noted for his figure drawing, precise lines, and depiction of well-endowed women.
- Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
- Sheldon Allan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer known for his cartoons, songs, and children's books. He styled himself as Uncle Shelby in some works. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold more than 20 million copies. He was the recipient of two Grammy Awards, as well as Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Pretty blonde performer Amber Benson racked up numerous film and television credits before rising to fame on the popular supernatural series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Benson moved with her family to Los Angeles at age fourteen in 1991. By 1993 she had made the first of three "Jack Reed" TV-movies, "Jack Reed: Badge of Honor," appearing as the daughter of the titular Chicago cop in this NBC entry as well as its 1994 and 1996 follow-ups. 1993 also saw the actress make her big-screen debut with featured roles in the teen thriller "The Crush" and Steven Soderbergh's coming-of-age drama "King of the Hill." Her relatively small but memorable parts in these very different features helped to launch the young performer's career. The following year she was featured in Anthony Drazan's period drama "Imaginary Crimes" and had a pivotal supporting role in the social satire "S.F.W.." Playing determined, pure-hearted and somewhat wise characters seemed to come easy to Benson, who brought a palpable intelligence to her powerful performances. She essayed the charmingly innocent daughter of divorced dad Randy Quaid in "Bye Bye, Love" (1995) and guest starred on an episode of the Fox series "Partners" the following year.
- Birthplace: Birmingham, Alabama, USA
- Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg (); August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew up in New York City, and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and editorial cartoons. He entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s, drawing various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss, before ultimately settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editor Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics, predecessor of Marvel Comics. During the 1940s Kirby regularly teamed with Simon, creating numerous characters for that company and for National Comics Publications, later to become DC Comics. After serving in the European Theater in World War II, Kirby produced work for DC Comics, Harvey Comics, Hillman Periodicals and other publishers. At Crestwood Publications, he and Simon created the genre of romance comics and later founded their own short-lived comic company, Mainline Publications. Kirby was involved in Timely's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, which in the next decade became Marvel. There, in the 1960s under writer-editor Stan Lee, Kirby created many of the company's major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and the Hulk. The Lee–Kirby titles garnered high sales and critical acclaim, but in 1970, feeling he had been treated unfairly, largely in the realm of authorship credit and creators' rights, Kirby left the company for rival DC. At DC, Kirby created his Fourth World saga which spanned several comics titles. While these series proved commercially unsuccessful and were canceled, the Fourth World's New Gods have continued as a significant part of the DC Universe. Kirby returned to Marvel briefly in the mid-to-late 1970s, then ventured into television animation and independent comics. In his later years, Kirby, who has been called "the William Blake of comics", began receiving great recognition in the mainstream press for his career accomplishments, and in 1987 he was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame. In 2017, Kirby was posthumously named a Disney Legend with Lee for their co-creations not only in the field of publishing, but also because those creations formed the basis for The Walt Disney Company's financially and critically successful media franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kirby was married to Rosalind Goldstein in 1942. They had four children and remained married until his death from heart failure in 1994, at the age of 76. The Jack Kirby Awards and Jack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor, and he is known as "The King" among comics fans for his many influential contributions to the medium.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- Dwayne Glenn McDuffie (February 20, 1962 – February 21, 2011) was an American writer of comic books and television, known for creating the animated television series Static Shock, writing and producing the animated series Justice League Unlimited and Ben 10, and co-founding the pioneering minority-owned-and-operated comic-book company Milestone Media. McDuffie earned three Eisner Award nominations for his work in comics.
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
- George Booth (born June 28, 1926) is a New Yorker cartoonist. Over time, his cartoons have become an iconic feature of the magazine. In a doodler's style, they feature everymen beset by modern complexity, goofballs perplexing their spouses, cats, and very often a fat dog.
- Birthplace: Cainsville, Missouri
- Stephen John Ditko (; November 2, 1927 – c. June 29, 2018) was an American comics artist and writer best known as the artist and co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics superheroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Ditko studied under Batman artist Jerry Robinson at the Cartoonist and Illustrators School in New York City. He began his professional career in 1953, working in the studio of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, beginning as an inker and coming under the influence of artist Mort Meskin. During this time, he then began his long association with Charlton Comics, where he did work in the genres of science fiction, horror, and mystery. He also co-created the superhero Captain Atom in 1960. During the 1950s, Ditko also drew for Atlas Comics, a forerunner of Marvel Comics. He went on to contribute much significant work to Marvel. In 1966, after being the exclusive artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and the "Doctor Strange" feature in Strange Tales, Ditko left Marvel for reasons he never specified.Ditko continued to work for Charlton and also DC Comics, including a revamp of the long-running character the Blue Beetle, and creating or co-creating the Question, the Creeper, Shade the Changing Man, and Hawk and Dove. Ditko also began contributing to small independent publishers, where he created Mr. A, a hero reflecting the influence of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Ditko largely declined to give interviews, saying he preferred to communicate through his work. Ditko was inducted into the comics industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990, and into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994.
- Birthplace: Johnstown, Pennsylvania
- Jay Ward was an American writer and producer who was known for writing "Mr. Peabody & Sherman," "Dudley Do-Right," and "George of the Jungle."
- Birthplace: San Francisco, California, USA
- Idealistic, controversial and sometimes a bit of a rabble-rouser: this could describe most of Garry Trudeau's characters in his iconic comic strip "Doonesbury" just as easily as it could the man himself. The Pulitzer Prize winning strip became an icon of its era and along the way spun off an animated television special, a Broadway musical and over 60 books, winning praise and censure in equal amounts.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator and director, known for producing and directing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His most significant work was for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, where he was crucial in the creation and evolution of famous animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, George and Junior, and Chilly Willy. Gary Morris described Avery's innovative approach:Above all, [Avery] steered the Warner Bros. house style away from Disney-esque sentimentality and made cartoons that appealed equally to adults, who appreciated Avery's speed, sarcasm, and irony, and to kids, who liked the nonstop action. Disney's "cute and cuddly" creatures, under Avery's guidance, were transformed into unflappable wits like Bugs Bunny, endearing buffoons like Porky Pig, or dazzling crazies like Daffy Duck. Even the classic fairy tale, a market that Disney had cornered, was appropriated by Avery, who made innocent heroines like Red Riding Hood into sexy jazz babes, more than a match for any Wolf. Avery also endeared himself to intellectuals by constantly breaking through the artifice of the cartoon, having characters leap out of the end credits, loudly object to the plot of the cartoon they were starring in, or speak directly to the audience. Avery's style of directing encouraged animators to stretch the boundaries of the medium to do things in a cartoon that could not be done in the world of live-action film. An often-quoted line about Avery's cartoons was, "In a cartoon you can do anything." He also performed a great deal of voice work in his cartoons, usually throwaway bits (e.g. the Santa Claus seen briefly in Who Killed Who?); Avery also voiced Junior from George and Junior, as well as occasionally filling in for Bill Thompson as Droopy.
- Birthplace: Taylor, Texas, USA
- Boleslav William Felix Robert Sienkiewicz ( sin-KEV-itch; born May 3, 1958), is an American artist known for his work in comic books—particularly for Marvel Comics' The New Mutants, Moon Knight, and Elektra: Assassin. Sienkiewicz's work in the 1980s was considered revolutionary in mainstream US comics, due to his highly stylized art that verged on abstraction and made use of oil painting, photorealism, collage, mimeograph, and other forms generally uncommon in comic books.
- Birthplace: Blakely, Pennsylvania, USA
- Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. (August 25, 1913 – October 18, 1973), commonly known as Walt Kelly, was an American animator and cartoonist, best known for the comic strip Pogo. He began his animation career in 1936 at Walt Disney Studios, contributing to Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo. In 1941, at the age of 28, Kelly transferred to work at Dell Comics, where he created Pogo, which eventually became his platform for political and philosophical commentary.
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- A former off-Broadway actor who began directing commercials and industrial films in the late 1950s, Richard Donner went on to become one of the top-grossing directors in the 1970s and 1980s before tapering off later in his career. After directing numerous episodes of top shows like "The Twilight Zone" (CBS, 1959-1964), "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." (NBC, 1964-68) and "Kojak" (CBS, 1973-78), Donner achieved critical and commercial success with his genre-defining horror movie, "The Omen" (1976), widely considered to be the best of its kind. He followed up with the epic "Superman: The Movie" (1978), which, after a difficult production that resulted in his firing while shooting "Superman II" (1980), became a huge box office hit while setting the bar for all other comic book-based movies to follow. After a few critical and financial flops like "Inside Moves" (1980) and "The Toy" (1982), Donner directed the cult favorite adventure, "The Goonies" (1985), before breaking the mold again - this time in the buddy action genre - with "Lethal Weapon" (1987), which spawned three sequels over the next decade. Throughout his career, Donner remained a true original that fans and colleagues held in high regard.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- Gregory Jacobs (August 25, 1963 – April 22, 2021), known professionally as Shock G (and his alter ego Humpty Hump), was an American musician, rapper, and lead vocalist for the hip hop group Digital Underground. He was responsible for Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance", 2Pac's breakthrough single "I Get Around", and co-producer of 2Pac's debut album 2Pacalypse Now.
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- Todd McFarlane (; born March 16, 1961) is a Canadian comic book creator and entrepreneur, best known for his work as the artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and as the writer and artist on the horror-fantasy series Spawn. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, McFarlane became a comic book superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man franchise, on which he was the artist to draw the first full appearances of the supervillain Venom. In 1992, he helped form Image Comics, pulling the occult anti-hero character Spawn from his high school portfolio and updating him for the 1990s with help from Tom DeFalco. Spawn was a popular hero in the 1990s and encouraged a trend in creator-owned comic book properties. Since leaving inking duties on Spawn with issue No. 70 (February 1998), McFarlane has illustrated comic books less often, focusing on entrepreneurial efforts, such as McFarlane Toys and Todd McFarlane Entertainment, a film and animation studio. In September 2006, it was announced that McFarlane would be the Art Director of the newly formed 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, founded by major league baseball pitcher Curt Schilling. McFarlane used to be a co-owner of the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers before selling his shares to Daryl Katz. He is also a high-profile collector of record-breaking baseballs.
- Birthplace: Calgary, Canada
- Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa parlayed his childhood interest in theater, comic books and horror into a successful career as an award-winning playwright, successful comic book author and film and television writer for "Carrie" (2013) and the 2015 NBC pilot "Brides." Born in 1973 in Washington, D.C., Aguirre-Sacasa was the son of a Nicaraguan diplomat and spent much of his childhood in both Central America and the United States. He developed an interest in theater while in high school, and studied drama at Georgetown University before moving into work as a publicist with the Shakespeare Theatre and writing arts and political coverage for the Washington Post, among other newspapers. A week-long workshop with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel spurred him to earn graduate degrees from both McGill University and the Yale School of Drama while also focusing his career on the theater. Aguirre-Sacasa began penning offbeat dramas based on his interest in horror films and comic books, including a romantic comedy "Say You Love Satan" (2001), based on the "Omen" film series, and "Archie's Weird Fantasy" (2003), which detailed comic book hero Archie Andrews revealing that he was gay. The production earned a cease and desist order from Archie Comics, but also led to work for Marvel Comics on their long-running "Fantastic Four" series and other titles. During this period, Aguirre-Sacasa also continued to write plays, including an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray," while also penning scripts for "Big Love" (HBO, 2006-2011) and "Glee" (Fox, 2009-2015). His fascination with Archie came full circle in 2014 when Archie Comics tapped him to write "Afterlife with Archie" (2013), which envisioned the citizens of Riverdale under siege by the living dead; the success of the book led to his promotion to Chief Creative Officer for the comic imprint. That same year, Aguirre-Sacasa also provided revisions to the book for the troubled Broadway musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" and also wrote the script for Kimberley Peirce's remake of "Carrie," with Chloe Grace Moretz as Stephen King's maligned heroine. A modest hit with viewers, he followed it with "The Town that Dreaded Sundown" (2014), a meta-remake based on both a series of unsolved murders in Depression-era Texas and a '70s-era horror film inspired by the events. The following year, Aguirre-Sacasa was tapped to write and executive produce the NBC pilot "Brides," which envisioned Count Dracula's trio of female vampires in modern day New York, while also penning the script for an "Archie" TV pilot on the CW and saw his book for a musical based on "American Psycho" enter previews before its debut on Broadway.
- Birthplace: Washington, D.C., USA
- Jim Lee (Korean 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean American comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He is currently the Co-Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work, Lee has received a Harvey Award, Inkpot Award and three Wizard Fan Awards. He entered the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and The Punisher War Journal, before gaining popularity on The Uncanny X-Men. X-Men No. 1, the 1991 spin-off series premiere that Lee penciled and co-wrote with Chris Claremont, remains the best-selling comic book of all time, according to Guinness World Records. His style was later used for the designs of X-Men: The Animated Series.In 1992, Lee and several other artists formed their own publishing company, Image Comics to publish their creator-owned titles, with Lee publishing titles such as WildC.A.T.s and Gen¹³ through his studio WildStorm Productions. Finding that the role of publisher reduced the amount of time he was able to devote to illustration, Lee sold WildStorm in 1998 to DC Comics, where he continued to run it as a DC imprint until 2010, as well as illustrating successful titles set in DC's main fictional universe, such as the year-long "Batman: Hush" and "Superman: For Tomorrow" storylines, and books including Superman Unchained, and the New 52 run of Justice League. On February 18, 2010, Lee was announced as the new Co-Publisher of DC Comics with Dan DiDio, both replacing Paul Levitz.
- Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
- Robert Rodi (born 1956 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American novelist, playwright, comic book writer, essayist, and performance artist.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Eric James Shanower (born October 23, 1963) is an American cartoonist, best known for his Oz novels and comics, and for the ongoing retelling of the Trojan War as Age of Bronze.
- Birthplace: Key West, Florida
- Harvey Lawrence Pekar (; October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010) was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a well-received film adaptation of the same name. Frequently described as the "poet laureate of Cleveland", Pekar "helped change the appreciation for, and perceptions of, the graphic novel, the drawn memoir, the autobiographical comic narrative." Pekar described his work as "autobiography written as it's happening. The theme is about staying alive, getting a job, finding a mate, having a place to live, finding a creative outlet. Life is a war of attrition. You have to stay active on all fronts. It's one thing after another. I've tried to control a chaotic universe. And it's a losing battle. But I can't let go. I've tried, but I can't."
- Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
- Daniel Charles Piraro (born 1958) is a painter, illustrator, and cartoonist best known for his syndicated cartoon panel Bizarro. Piraro's cartoons have been reprinted in 16 book collections (as of 2012). He has also written three books of prose.
- Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri
Sam Kieth
Age: 62Sam Kieth (born January 11, 1963) is an American comics artist and writer, best known as the creator of The Maxx and Zero Girl.- Phil Jimenez (born July 12, 1970) is an American comics artist and writer, known for his work as writer/artist on Wonder Woman from 2000 to 2003, as one of the five pencilers of the 2005–2006 miniseries Infinite Crisis, and his collaborations with writer Grant Morrison on New X-Men and The Invisibles.
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, USA, California
- Jim Davis is an American writer and producer who is known for writing "The Late Late Show With James Corden" and "Garfield." Davis won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1989 for "Garfield's Babes and Bullets."
- Birthplace: Marion, Indiana, USA
- Herbert George Gardner (December 28, 1934 – September 25, 2003), better known as Herb Gardner, was an American commercial artist, cartoonist, playwright and screenwriter.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
P. Craig Russell
Age: 73Philip Craig Russell (born October 30, 1951) is an American comics artist, writer, and illustrator. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards. Russell was the first mainstream comic book creator to come out as openly gay.- Birthplace: Wellsville, Ohio
- Jack Thomas Chick (April 13, 1924 – October 23, 2016) was an American cartoonist and publisher, best known for his evangelical fundamentalist Christian "Chick tracts." He expressed his perspective on a variety of issues through sequential-art morality plays. Many of Chick's views were controversial, as he accused Roman Catholics, Freemasons, Muslims, and many other groups of murder and conspiracies. His comics have been described by Robert Ito, in Los Angeles magazine, as "equal parts hate literature and fire-and-brimstone sermonizing".Chick's views have been spread mostly through the tracts and, more recently, online. His company, Chick Publications, says it has sold over 750 million tracts, comics tracts and comic books, videos, books, and posters designed to promote Evangelical Protestantism from a Christian fundamentalist perspective. They have been translated into more than 100 languages.Chick was an Independent Baptist who followed a premillennial dispensationalist view of the End Times. He was a believer in the King James Only movement, which posits that every English translation of the Bible more recent than 1611 promotes heresy or immorality.
- Birthplace: Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California
- Howard Cruse (born May 2, 1944) is an American alternative cartoonist known for the exploration of gay themes in his comics. He was the founding editor of Gay Comix in 1980. He also created the gay-themed strip Wendel and graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby.
- Birthplace: Springville, Alabama
- Daniel "Danny" Fingeroth is an American comic book writer and editor, better known for a long stint as group editor of the Spider-Man books at Marvel Comics.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Dan Jurgens (; born June 27, 1959) is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years.
- Birthplace: Ortonville, Minnesota
- Glen Hanson is an openly gay Canadian-born caricaturist and cartoonist, who works primarily in illustration and animation. He is best known as co-creator of the comic strip Chelsea Boys with Allan Charles Neuwirth. His illustrations have appeared in a variety of publications around the world including British Vogue, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, Maxim, and Variety. His animation work can be seen on the television series Babar, Beetlejuice, Daria and Spy Groove (for which he received an Annie Award in 2000). Hanson studied animation at the Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. Hanson was awarded a certificate of excellence from the American Institute of Graphic Arts for his work on Blink 182's The Mark, Tom and Travis Show album cover. In 2009 he designed and directed the animated music video "Ghost Town" for Universal Music recording artists Shiny Toy Guns.
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- William Aloysius Keane (October 5, 1922 – November 8, 2011), better known as Bil Keane, was an American cartoonist most notable for his work on the newspaper comic The Family Circus. It began in 1960 and continues in syndication, drawn by his son Jeff Keane.
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer best known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories throughout her career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing derived influence from existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular morality. She was dubbed "the poet of apprehension" by novelist Graham Greene.Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. Her 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley has been adapted numerous times for film, theatre, and radio. Writing under the pseudonym "Claire Morgan," Highsmith published the first lesbian novel with a happy ending, The Price of Salt, in 1952, republished 38 years later as Carol under her own name and later adapted into a 2015 film.
- Birthplace: Fort Worth, Texas
- Alison Bechdel ( BEK-dəl; born September 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist. Originally best known for the long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, she came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her graphic memoir Fun Home, which was subsequently adapted as a musical and won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 2015. In 2012, she released her second graphic memoir Are You My Mother? She's a 2014 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award. She is also known for the Bechdel test.
- Birthplace: Lock Haven, Pennsylvania
Jerry Ordway
Age: 67Jeremiah Ordway (born November 28, 1957) is an American writer, penciller, inker and painter of comic books. He is known for his inking work on a wide variety of DC Comics titles, including the continuity-redefining Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985–1986), his long run working on the Superman titles from 1986–1993, and for writing and painting the Captain Marvel original graphic novel The Power of Shazam! (1994), and writing the ongoing monthly series from 1995–1999. He has provided inks for artists such as Curt Swan, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Steve Ditko, John Byrne, George Perez and others.Eric Orner
Eric Orner (born ca.1965, Chicago) is an openly gay American cartoonist and animator, whose works often revolve around LGBT issues. He is best known for long-running syndicated comic strip The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green.- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Alfred Bester (December 18, 1913 – September 30, 1987) was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books. He is best remembered for his science fiction, including The Demolished Man, winner of the inaugural Hugo Award in 1953. Science fiction author Harry Harrison wrote, "Alfred Bester was one of the handful of writers who invented modern science fiction."Shortly before his death, the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) named Bester its ninth Grand Master, presented posthumously in 1988. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Allan Jaffee (born Abraham Jaffee; March 13, 1921 – April 10, 2023) was an American cartoonist. He is notable for his work in the satirical magazine Mad, including his trademark feature, the Mad Fold-in. As of 2014, Jaffee remains a regular in the magazine after 59 years and is its longest-running contributor. In the half century between April 1964 and April 2013, only one issue of Mad was published without containing new material by Jaffee. In a 2010 interview, Jaffee said, "Serious people my age are dead." In 2008, Jaffee was honored by the Reuben Awards as the Cartoonist of the Year. New Yorker cartoonist Arnold Roth said, "Al Jaffee is one of the great cartoonists of our time." Describing Jaffee, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz wrote, "Al can cartoon anything."
- Birthplace: Savannah, Georgia
- J.M. DeMatteis is a writer who is known for writing "Creature Commandos," "Batman: The Brave and the Bold," and "Marvel's Spider-Man."
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Milton Arthur Paul "Milt" Caniff (; February 28, 1907 – April 3, 1988) was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.
- Birthplace: Hillsboro, Ohio
- William Moulton Marston (May 9, 1893 – May 2, 1947), also known by the pen name Charles Moulton (), was an American psychologist, inventor of an early prototype of the lie detector, self-help author, and comic book writer who created the character Wonder Woman.Two women, his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston, and their polyamorous life partner, Olive Byrne, greatly influenced Wonder Woman's creation.He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.
- Birthplace: Saugus, Massachusetts
- Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters. He signed his cartoons Chas Addams. Some of the recurring characters, who became known as the Addams Family, have been the basis for spin-offs in several other forms of media.
- Birthplace: Westfield, New Jersey, USA
- Ub Iwerks (; March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971) was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician, who designed Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse. The works Iwerks produced alongside Walt Disney won numerous awards, including multiple Academy Awards.
- Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
- The multitalented Dan Povenmire has had a hand in creating some of the more iconic animated comedies of his time. His first major credit came as a storyboard artist for the pop culture phenomenon, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." He soon moved into character animation for "The Simpsons," perhaps the most well-known animated series of all time. He eventually left that position for the creative freedom he found as a writer and artist for Nickelodeon's "Rocko's Modern Life." He earned Emmy nominations for his work as director for FOX's lewd and irreverent "Family Guy," and Emmy wins for his own creation, "Phineas and Ferb," which follows the wacky exploits of two stepbrothers and their pet platypus.
- Birthplace: San Diego, California, USA
- Emmy winning animator, director and producer Craig McCracken was an instrumental figure in the rise of Cartoon Network as a dominant force in television animation thanks to his clever, alternative-minded programs like "The Powerpuff Girls" (1998-2005) and "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" (Cartoon Network/Kids' WB/Boomerang 2004-2009). Like fellow animation creators Genndy Tartakovsky ("Dexter's Laboratory," 1996-2003), David Feiss ("Cow and Chicken," 1997-1999) and John R. Dilworth ("Courage the Cowardly Dog," 1999-2002), McCracken's work for Cartoon Network blended classic animation tropes with a heightened sense of self-awareness, resulting in programs that pleased both its intended audience - children - as well as young adult and grown-up viewers. After shepherding "Powerpuff" and "Foster's" for nearly two decades, McCracken left the Cartoon Network in 2009 for Disney Channel, where he debuted a new series "Wander Over Yonder" (2013-16), which reflected his signature style and comic approach. McCracken's efforts represented a high water mark for animated television that other programs strove to emulate.
- Birthplace: USA, Charleroi, Pennsylvania
- Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), known best as Rube Goldberg, was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. The cartoons led to the expression "Rube Goldberg machines" to describe similar gadgets and processes. Goldberg received many honors in his lifetime, including a Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 1948 and the Banshees' Silver Lady Award in 1959. He was a founding member and first president of the National Cartoonists Society and the namesake of the Reuben Award, which the organization awards to its Cartoonist of the Year. He is the inspiration for international competitions known as Rube Goldberg Machine Contests which challenge participants to create a complicated machine to perform a simple task.
- Birthplace: California
- Jules Ralph Feiffer (born January 26, 1929) is an American cartoonist and author, who was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 as America's leading editorial cartoonist, and in 2004 he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame. He wrote the animated short Munro, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1961. The Library of Congress has recognized his "remarkable legacy", from 1946 to the present, as a cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, adult and children's book author, illustrator, and art instructor.When Feiffer was 17 (in the mid-1940s) he became assistant to cartoonist Will Eisner. There he helped Eisner write and illustrate his comic strips, including The Spirit. He then became a staff cartoonist at The Village Voice beginning in 1956, where he produced the weekly comic strip titled Feiffer until 1997. His cartoons became nationally syndicated in 1959 and then appeared regularly in publications including the Los Angeles Times, the London Observer, The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, and The Nation. In 1997 he created the first op-ed page comic strip for the New York Times, which ran monthly until 2000. He has written more than 35 books, plays and screenplays. His first of many collections of satirical cartoons, Sick, Sick, Sick, was published in 1958, and his first novel, Harry, the Rat With Women, in 1963. He wrote The Great Comic Book Heroes in 1965: the first history of the comic-book superheroes of the late 1930s and early 1940s and a tribute to their creators. In 1979 Feiffer created his first graphic novel, Tantrum. By 1993 he began writing and illustrating books aimed at young readers, with several of them winning awards. Feiffer began writing for the theater and film in 1961, with plays including Little Murders (1967), Feiffer's People (1969), and Knock Knock (1976). He wrote the screenplay for Carnal Knowledge (1971), directed by Mike Nichols, and Popeye (1980), directed by Robert Altman. Besides writing, he is currently an instructor with the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Awards-nominated animated short Your Face and his series of shorts Guard Dog, Guide Dog, Hot Dog, and Horn Dog.
- Birthplace: Oregon, USA, Portland
- Bob Kane, best known for creating Batman, was interested in comics from an early age; he was a high-school chum of Will Eisner, who would go on to create "The Spirit." Kane studied at the renowned art school Cooper Union in Manhattan, and after graduation joined the Max Fleischer Studio as an assistant animator. He began freelance work in comics two years later, in 1936, contributing work to Eisner's comic studio. The company eventually became DC Comics, and in 1939 Kane created the character Batman. Bruce Wayne made his debut in the May issue of Detective Comics, and was an immediate hit. The characters Robin and the Joker appeared soon after, and the comic book's popularity soared. In 1943, Kane left the Batman comic books to focus on penciling the daily Batman newspaper comic strip. The character earned a television series in 1966, which was another major success. Starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin, the irreverent, campy "Batman" series ran for over 100 episodes, and made the Caped Crusader even more popular. In his later years Kane worked in TV animation, creating the characters Courageous Cat and Cool McCool. Kane was set to make a cameo in Tim Burton's 1989 blockbuster "Batman," but had to drop out for health reasons. He was inducted into the comic book industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1994.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- Influential character designer, producer and director Bruce Timm helped change the face of superhero animation when he shepherded "Batman: The Animated Series" (Fox, 1992-95) to phenomenal success. A frustrated comic book artist, he turned to animation, getting his career start as a layout assistant on cartoons like "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" (syndicated, 1983-85). Eventually landing at Warner Bros. Television Animation, Timm lent his talents to "Tiny Toons Adventures" (syndicated, 1990-92), before being put in charge of the game-changing "Batman" series. Soon the doors to traditional comics opened as well, allowing the artist to contribute to several books, including the award-winning "Mad Love" issue of The Batman Adventures in 1994. Much in demand, Timm went on to helm "Superman" (The WB, 1996-2000) and "Batman Beyond" (The WB, 1999-2001). He further expanded the scope of the animated superhero landscape with the series "Justice League" (Cartoon Network, 2001-04) and direct-to-DVD movies like "Justice League: The New Frontier" (2008). As the live-action comics-to-film craze reached its zenith during the first decade of the 21st Century, Timm and his fellow animation collaborators enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing that it was their groundbreaking work years earlier that was largely responsible for paving the way for mainstream acceptance of the beloved genre.
- Birthplace: Oklahoma, USA
- Paul Dini (; born August 7, 1957) is an American animator and comic creator. He is best known as a producer and writer for several Warner Bros. Animation/DC Comics animated series, including Tiny Toon Adventures, Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman/Superman Adventures, Batman Beyond, and Duck Dodgers. He developed and scripted Krypto the Superdog and contributed scripts to Transformers, Animaniacs, Freakazoid and Static Shock. After leaving Warner Bros. Animation in early 2004, Dini went on to write and story edit the popular ABC adventure series Lost. He has written a number of comic books for DC Comics, including Harley Quinn and Superman: Peace on Earth. October 2010 saw the debut of Tower Prep, a new live action/drama series Dini created for Cartoon Network. It was announced that after two decades of doing DC-related animated projects, Paul Dini had gone over to Marvel to serve as a writer and producer for Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H..
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- Maddie Blaustein is an actor who appeared in "Pokemon," "Pokemon The Movie 2000," and "Pokemon The First Movie."
- Birthplace: Long Island, New York, USA
- David Cloud Berman (born David Craig Berman; January 4, 1967 – August 7, 2019) was an American musician, singer, poet and cartoonist best known for his work with indie-rock band the Silver Jews. Although the band primarily existed as a recording project for most of its existence, the Silver Jews toured regularly from 2005 until 2009. In January 2009, Berman announced his retirement from music in hopes of finding a meaningful way of undoing the damage that his estranged father Richard Berman (a lobbyist and public relations executive for the alcohol and tobacco industries, among others) had brought upon society.In addition to the six full-length albums that Berman wrote and recorded with the Silver Jews, he released two books: Actual Air (1999) and The Portable February (2009). In early 2019, Berman returned to music under the new band name Purple Mountains, releasing a self-titled debut album in July 2019. On August 7, 2019, Berman was found dead in an apartment in Brooklyn, New York. His death was ruled a suicide.
- Birthplace: Williamsburg, Virginia
- Rachel Grace Pollack (born August 17, 1945) is an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on divinatory tarot. Pollack is involved in the women's spirituality movement.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Mike Mignola's career as a comic-book writer and artist has mostly centered on his creation of the character Hellboy. The comics were adapted into visually dazzling films by Guillermo del Toro in the 2000s, and the series spawned an Emmy-nominated animated show. Mignola began his career at 20 years old in 1980 as an illustrator for Comic Reader, and three years later he was tapped by Marvel Comics to ink "Daredevil" and "The Incredible Hulk." This led to higher profile work at DC Comics, including cover work on the "Batman" serials. He soon segued into film, working as a production designer on the Disney movie "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" and on the vampire flick "Blade II." In 1994 he began work on his own creation, that of demon and paranormal detective Hellboy. The comics drew on a variety of influences, from B-movies to Lovecraft-style horror, and became a huge hit. Mignola has stated that the character is largely based on his own father. The comic's success led del Toro to write and direct a feature film in 2004; Mignola worked closely with him on the film and received a co-executive producer credit. The film led to two animated direct-to-DVD films, "Sword of Storms" and "Blood and Iron." Mignola worked closely with del Toro again on the 2008 sequel "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."
- Birthplace: Berkeley, California, USA
- Brian Keller Vaughan (born July 17, 1976) is an American comic book and television writer, best known for the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, Pride of Baghdad, Saga, and, most recently, Paper Girls. Vaughan was a writer, story editor and producer of the television series Lost during seasons three through five. He was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2009 ceremony for his work on the fourth season. The writing staff was nominated for the award again at the February 2010 ceremony for their work on the fifth season. He was formerly the showrunner and executive producer of the TV series Under the Dome.Wired describes Vaughan's comics work as "quirky, acclaimed stories that don't pander and still pound pulses". His creator-owned comics work is also characterized by "finite, meticulous, years-long story arcs", on which Vaughan comments, "That's storytelling, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Something like Spider-Man, a book that never has a third act, that seems crazy." Erik Malinowski, also of Wired, has called Vaughan "the greatest comic book visionary of the last five years", comparing him to Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Paul Pope, and Steve Niles, and praised his addition to the TV series Lost as redeeming that series' third season.For his writing, Vaughan has won 14 Eisner Awards, 14 Harvey Awards, as well as a Hugo Award.
- Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio
Robert Crumb
Age: 81Growing up in the 1940s and '50s, R. Crumb was drawn to the world of comics and animation, specifically the works of Walt Kelly and the Fleischer Brothers. He followed that love when he graduated high school, and honed his artwork skills drawing cards for American Greetings. He wasn't happy, though, and he lived in squalor. It was around this time that Crumb, married with a young child, started heavily using drugs, mostly LSD. His use of the drug led to an insane, psychedelic creative process that produced most of his notable work. In 1965, at the age of 22, Crumb's drug-fueled work produced Fritz the Cat, a counterculture cat who went on wild adventures that were often risqué. Shortly after, he helped create Zap Comix, an underground comic magazine that featured Crumb's work, notably his racist caricature Angelfood McSpade. The comic also helped popularize Crumb and led to the Ralph Bakshi animated film "Fritz the Cat" (1972), which became a huge success in addition to being the first X-rated animated film. Shortly after, Crumb ditched the character, primarily because of how mainstream the cat had become. After Zap and his film experience, Crumb went on to create Weirdo, a quarterly comic anthology series that was filled with a mixture of weird and off-beat material. In the '90s, director Terry Zwigoff worked with Crumb and his family to create a documentary called "Crumb" (1994), which was released to critical acclaim and heightened a new generation's interest in his work. In his later years, Crumb lived quietly in France with his wife, fellow cartoonist Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and their daughter Sophie Crumb.- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Gary Baseman (born September 27, 1960) is an American contemporary artist who works in various creative fields, including illustration, fine art, toy design, and animation. He is the creator of the Emmy-winning ABC/Disney cartoon series, Teacher's Pet, and the artistic designer of Cranium, a popular award-winning board game. Baseman's aesthetic combines iconic pop art images, pre-and post-war vintage motifs, cross-cultural mythology and literary and psychological archetypes. He is noted for his playful, devious and cleverly named creatures, which recur throughout his body of work.
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
- LeRoy Robert Ripley (December 25, 1890 – May 27, 1949) was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur, and amateur anthropologist who is known for creating the Ripley's Believe It or Not! newspaper panel series, radio show, and television show which feature odd facts from around the world. Subjects covered in Ripley's cartoons and text ranged from sports feats to little-known facts about unusual and exotic sites. But what ensured the concept's popularity may have been that he also included items submitted by readers, who supplied photographs of a wide variety of small-town American trivia ranging from unusually shaped vegetables to oddly marked domestic animals, all documented by photographs and then depicted by his drawings.
- Birthplace: Santa Rosa, California
- Joe Sacco (; born October 2, 1960) is a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist. He is best known for his comics journalism, in particular in the books Palestine (1996) and Footnotes in Gaza (2009), on Israeli–Palestinian relations; and Safe Area Goražde (2000) and The Fixer (2003) on the Bosnian War.
- Birthplace: Malta
Steve Niles
Age: 59Steve Niles (born June 21, 1965) is an American comic book author and novelist, known for works such as 30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre, Simon Dark, Mystery Society and Batman: Gotham County Line. He is credited among other contemporary writers as bringing horror comics back to prominence, authoring such works as 30 Days of Night, its sequel, Dark Days (IDW Publishing), and Criminal Macabre (Dark Horse Comics) with frequent artist collaborator Ben Templesmith.- Birthplace: USA, Jackson Township, New Jersey
- Alan Burnett (; born February 17, 1950) is an American television writer-producer particularly associated with Warner Bros. Animation, Hanna-Barbera Productions, DC Comics and Walt Disney television animation. He has had a hand in virtually every DC animated project since the waning years of the Super Friends. Burnett's contributions for Disney were largely a part of the 1990s Disney Afternoon, where he was attached to the Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears and various projects set in the Scrooge McDuck universe. Because of his primary focus on televised animation, he has occasionally been involved in film projects related to a parent television program. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and has an MFA in film production from the University of Southern California.
- Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of The Far Side, a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to over 1,900 newspapers for fifteen years. The series ended with Larson's retirement on January 1, 1995. His twenty-three books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more than forty-five million copies.
- Birthplace: Tacoma, Washington
- Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod on June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. He is best known for his non-fiction books about comics: Understanding Comics (1993), Reinventing Comics (2000), and Making Comics (2006), all of which also use the medium of comics. He established himself as a comics creator in the 1980s as an independent superhero cartoonist and advocate for creator's rights. He rose to prominence in the industry beginning in the 1990s for his non-fiction works about the medium, and has advocated the use of new technology in the creation and distribution of comics.
- Birthplace: Boston, USA, Massachusetts
- Elliot S. Maggin, also spelled Elliot S! Maggin (born 1950), is an American writer of comic books, film, television, and novels. He was a main writer for DC Comics during the Bronze and early Modern ages of comics in the 1970s and 1980s. He is particularly associated with the character of Superman. He has been active with the Democratic Party of the United States, twice running for the nomination of his party for the U.S. House of Representatives—once from New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district in 1984 and from California's 24th congressional district in 2008.
- Michael Layne Turner (April 21, 1971 – June 27, 2008) was an American comics artist known for his work on Witchblade, Fathom, Superman/Batman, Soulfire, and various covers for DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He was also the president of the entertainment company Aspen MLT.
- Birthplace: Crossville, Tennessee
- Ed Brubaker (; born November 17, 1966) is an American comic book writer and cartoonist. Brubaker's first early comics work was primarily in the crime fiction genre with works such as Lowlife, The Fall, Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives and Scene of the Crime. He later became known for writing superhero comics such as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Catwoman, Uncanny X-Men, and The Authority. He has won an Eisner Award on six separate occasions.
- Birthplace: USA, Bethesda, Maryland
- Pinto Colvig was initiated into show business on the carnival circuit via his talent for playing the clarinet and his ability to ham it up while doing so. In the off-time from attending Oregon State University (then known as Oregon Agricultural College), Pinto would perform in the circus and in vaudeville. It was at school that his second career as a cartoonist first blossomed, in the college newspaper. He moved his family to Hollywood in the early 1920s and found work with Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios as an animator. This turned into acting and writing work as well. In 1928, he met fellow cartoonist Walter Lantz (later of "Woody Woodpecker" fame) and the two began collaborating. The lure of the larger animation studios was too great, however, and Pinto was hired on at Disney where he voiced such notable characters as Goofy, Pluto, and the dwarfs Grumpy and Sleepy. After a falling out with Walt Disney, he ventured on to Warner Brothers MGM (where he sang as a Munchkin in "The Wizard of Oz"), and the Max Fleischer Studio (where he voiced Bluto in the "Popeye" cartoons). He returned to freelance at Disney for many years and was also integral in developing the character of Bozo the Clown with producer Alan Livingston at Capital Records. He was the first actor to portray the clown on television. A longtime smoker, Colvig passed away from lung cancer at the age of 75 .
- Birthplace: Jacksonville, Oregon, USA
- Joseph Kelly (born 1971) is an American comic book writer, penciler and editor who has written such titles as Deadpool, Uncanny X-Men, Action Comics, and JLA. As part of the comics creator group Man of Action Studios, Kelly is one of the creators of the animated series Ben 10.
Mort Gerberg
Age: 93Mort Gerberg is an American cartoonist and author best known for his magazine cartoons, which have appeared in numerous publications such as The New Yorker, Playboy, Harvard Business Review, Publishers Weekly, and on The Huffington Post. Besides magazine cartoons, Gerberg has drawn several nationally syndicated newspaper comic strips. His comic strip Koky, co-created and written by Richard O'Brien, was syndicated from 1979 to 1981 by the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate. Gerberg has written, edited and/or illustrated over forty books. They include Cartooning: The Art and the Business, LAST LAUGHS: Cartoons About Aging, Retirement... and the Great Beyond, Joy in Mudville: The Big Book of Baseball Humor, The All-Jewish Cartoon Collection, and the children's books, Why Did Halley’s Comet Cross The Universe?, and the best-selling More Spaghetti, I Say. Gerberg is a popular public speaker on the subjects of cartooning and creativity. He has appeared at numerous universities, conferences and seminars. He is a former president of The Cartoonists Guild and a member of the National Cartoonists Society and The Authors Guild.- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Naphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg (September 28, 1923 – July 12, 2010) was an American counterculture poet, author, singer, cartoonist, pacifist anarchist, publisher, and co-founder of the band The Fugs.
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- Danny Bilson is a writer, director, and producer who is known for writing "Fantastic Four," "Da 5 Bloods," and "The Rocketeer."
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
- Rick Geary (born February 25, 1946) is an American cartoonist and illustrator. He is known for works such as A Treasury of Victorian Murder and graphic novel biographies of Leon Trotsky and J. Edgar Hoover. Geary has won two awards from the National Cartoonist Society: a Magazine and Book Illustration Award in 1994, and a Graphic Novel award in 2017.
- Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
- James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, author, humorist, journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories published mainly in The New Yorker magazine, such as "The Catbird Seat", and collected in his numerous books. He was one of the most popular humorists of his time, as he celebrated the comic frustrations and eccentricities of ordinary people. He wrote the Broadway comedy The Male Animal in collaboration with his college friend Elliott Nugent; it was later adapted into a film starring Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland. His short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" has been adapted for film twice, once in 1947 and again in 2013.
- Birthplace: Columbus, Ohio
- Elzie Crisler Segar (December 8, 1894 – October 13, 1938) was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of Popeye, a pop culture character who first appeared in 1929 in Segar's comic strip Thimble Theatre.
- Birthplace: Chester, Illinois
- Erika Lopez (born 1968) is an American cartoonist, novelist, and performance artist of Puerto Rican descent who has published six books and speaks openly of her bisexuality. She lives in San Francisco, California.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- George Pérez (June 9, 1954 – May 6, 2022) was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling The Avengers for Marvel Comics, and returned to the franchise in the 1990s. In the 1980s he penciled The New Teen Titans, which became one of DC Comics' top-selling series. He penciled DC's landmark limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, followed by relaunching Wonder Woman as both writer and penciller for the rebooted series. In the meantime, he worked on other comics published by Marvel, DC, and other companies into the 2010s. He was known for his detailed and realistic rendering, and his facility with complex crowd scenes.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Alfonso Williamson (March 21, 1931 – June 12, 2010) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western and science-fiction/fantasy. Born in New York City, he spent much of his early childhood in Bogotá, Colombia before moving back to the United States at the age of 12. In his youth, Williamson developed an interest in comic strips, particularly Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon. He took art classes at Burne Hogarth's Cartoonists and Illustrators School, there befriending future cartoonists Wally Wood and Roy Krenkel, who introduced him to the work of illustrators who had influenced adventure strips. Before long, he was working professionally in the comics industry. His most notable works include his science-fiction/heroic fantasy art for EC Comics in the 1950s, on titles including Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. In the 1960s, he gained recognition for continuing Raymond's illustrative tradition with his work on the Flash Gordon comic-book series, and was a seminal contributor to the Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazines Creepy and Eerie. Williamson spent most of the 1970s working on his own credited strip, another Raymond creation, Secret Agent X-9. The following decade, he became known for his work adapting Star Wars films to comic books and newspaper strips. From the mid-1980s to 2003, he was primarily active as an inker, mainly on Marvel Comics superhero titles starring such characters as Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Spider-Girl. Williamson is known for his collaborations with a group of artists including Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, Angelo Torres, and George Woodbridge, which was affectionately known as the "Fleagle Gang". Williamson has been cited as a stylistic influence on a number of younger artists, and encouraged many, helping such newcomers as Bernie Wrightson and Michael Kaluta enter the profession. He has won several industry awards, and six career-retrospective books about him have been published since 1998. Living in Pennsylvania with his wife Corina, Williamson retired in his seventies. Williamson was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- Devin Kalile Grayson is an American writer of comic books and novels. Titles that she has written include Gotham Knights, The Titans, the Vertigo series USER, and Nightwing.
- Birthplace: New Haven, Connecticut
- Max Allan Collins (born March 3, 1948) is an American mystery writer. His work has been published in several formats and his Road to Perdition series was the basis for a film of the same name. He wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for many years and has produced numerous novels featuring the character as well.
- Birthplace: USA, Muscatine, Iowa
- Diane Duane (born May 18, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Her works include the Young Wizards young adult fantasy series and the Rihannsu Star Trek novels.
- Birthplace: New York City, New York
- William Steig was a writer who was known for writing "Shrek," "Shrek 2," and "Shrek the Third."
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
- African-American writer, director, and producer John Ridley gained popularity from being involved in several high profile television shows and films, most notably the Academy Award-winning drama, "12 Years a Slave" (2013). Ridley was born in 1965 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He first started off as a writer for the hit sitcoms "Martin" (Fox 1992-97) and "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" (NBC 1990-96), after which he served as both a writer and co-producer of the critically-acclaimed "The John Larroquette Show" (NBC 1993-96). Audiences next saw Ridley's first foray into feature films, "Cold Around the Heart" (1997) which starred David Caruso and Chris Noth. Ridley then wrote a script about American soldiers out to look for gold bullion at the end of the Persian Gulf War, which director David O. Russell adapted into the film "Three Kings" (1999), starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, reportedly without using any of Ridley's original script, which caused a feud between writer and director. Ridley continued to write for television, including his own original series "Platinum" (UPN 2003), the film adaptation "Barbershop" (Showtime 2005) and "The Wanda Sykes Show" (Fox 2009-2010); he also served as executive producer of the latter two shows. Ridley's career reached new heights when he was tasked to write the screenplay for "12 Years a Slave," a film adaptation of Solomon Northup's memoir that chronicled the story of how he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the mid-19th century. The film was universally praised by critics and Ridley himself garnered numerous awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay at the 86th Academy Awards. Ridley made his directorial debut the following year with "Jimi: All Is By My Side" (2014), a film starring Andre Benjamin of the hip hop duo Outkast as rock legend Jimi Hendrix, portraying him in 1966 just prior to his international breakthrough. Despite critical acclaim for Benjamin's performance, the film was met with general disinterest at the box office. Ridley next made the move into television, creating and producing the drama "American Crime" (ABC 2015- ), which follows the repercussions of a single crime throughout an entire season.
- Birthplace: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
- Phil Hester (born 1966) is an American comic book artist, penciller and writer.
- Birthplace: Iowa
- Actor Kevin Grevioux has found success in many different areas, most notably from his close connection to the "Underworld" film franchise. Grevioux graduated from Howard University in 1993 with a degree in microbiology; after graduation, he attended graduate school, and there decided to pursue an acting career. He left school after a semester to move to Los Angeles and act full-time, landing small parts in a number of films. He met Len Wiseman while working as an extra on "Stargate," and the pair quickly struck up a friendship. The pair collaborated on the concept and screenplay for 2003's "Underworld," in which Grevioux also acted as the vampire Raze. He returned to the role in 2009's "Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans." His other parts include Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" remake, "Men In Black II," and the video game "Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath." He has also done voice acting for cartoons including "Pokemon" and "The Batman." In 2006, Grevioux founded a pair of comic book publishing companies, Astounding Studios and DarkStorm Studios. In recent years, he has done writing work for Marvel Comics on their "New Warriors" series. He has also written the script for Eminem's forthcoming horror film, "Shady Talez."
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Zenas Winsor McCay (c. 1866–71 – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip Little Nemo (1905–14; 1924–26) and the animated film Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). For contractual reasons, he worked under the pen name Silas on the comic strip Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. From a young age, McCay was a quick, prolific, and technically dextrous artist. He started his professional career making posters and performing for dime museums, and in 1898 began illustrating newspapers and magazines. In 1903 he joined the New York Herald, where he created popular comic strips such as Little Sammy Sneeze and Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. In 1905 his signature strip Little Nemo in Slumberland debuted—a fantasy strip in an Art Nouveau style about a young boy and his adventurous dreams. The strip demonstrated McCay's strong graphic sense and mastery of color and linear perspective. McCay experimented with the formal elements of the comic strip page, arranging and sizing panels to increase impact and enhance the narrative. McCay also produced numerous detailed editorial cartoons and was a popular performer of chalk talks on the vaudeville circuit. McCay was an early animation pioneer; between 1911 and 1921 he self-financed and animated ten films, some of which survive only as fragments. The first three served in his vaudeville act; Gertie the Dinosaur was an interactive routine in which McCay appeared to give orders to a trained dinosaur. McCay and his assistants worked for twenty-two months on his most ambitious film, The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918), a patriotic recreation of the German torpedoing in 1915 of the RMS Lusitania. Lusitania did not enjoy as much commercial success as the earlier films, and McCay's later movies attracted little attention. His animation, vaudeville, and comic strip work was gradually curtailed as newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, his employer since 1911, expected McCay to devote his energies to editorial illustrations. In his drawing, McCay made bold, prodigious use of linear perspective, particularly in detailed architecture and cityscapes. He textured his editorial cartoons with copious fine hatching, and made color a central element in Little Nemo. His comic strip work has influenced generations of cartoonists and illustrators. The technical level of McCay's animation—its naturalism, smoothness, and scale—was unmatched until the work of Fleischer Studios in the late 1920s, followed by Walt Disney's feature films in the 1930s. He pioneered inbetweening, the use of registration marks, cycling, and other animation techniques that were to become standard.
- Birthplace: Michigan, USA, Spring Lake
Rick Veitch
Age: 73Richard Veitch (born May 7, 1951) is an American comics artist and writer who has worked in mainstream, underground, and alternative comics.- Juan Felipe Herrera (born December 27, 1948) is a poet, performer, writer, cartoonist, teacher, and activist. Herrera was the 21st United States Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017.Herrera's experiences as the child of migrant farmers have strongly shaped his work, such as the children's book Calling the Doves, which won the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award in 1997. Community and art have always been part of what has driven Herrera, beginning in the mid-1970s, when he was director of the Centro Cultural de la Raza, an occupied water tank in Balboa Park that had been converted into an arts space for the community.Herrera’s publications include fourteen collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and picture books for children, with twenty-one books in total in the last decade. His 2007 volume 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007 contains texts in both Spanish and English that examine the cultural hybridity that "revolve around questions of identity" on the U.S.-Mexico border. Herrera was awarded the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry for Half the World in Light. In 2012, he was appointed California Poet Laureate by Gov. Jerry Brown.In 2011, Herrera was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. In 2015, Herrera was appointed as the nation's first Chicana or Chicano poet laureate.On June 11, 2016, Herrera was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Oregon State University.
- Birthplace: Fowler, California
- Joseph "Joe" Oriolo (February 21, 1913, – December 25, 1985) was an American cartoon animator, writer, director and producer, known as the co-creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost and the creator of the Felix the Cat TV series.
- Birthplace: Union City, New Jersey
- Mark LeRoux (born November 22, 1976) is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Lash LeRoux. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling from the late-1990s to early-2000s.
- Birthplace: Lafayette, Louisiana, USA
- Javier Hernandez (born April 23, 1966) is an American artist, comic book creator, and radio host from Whittier, California. Perhaps best known for creating the popular series, El Muerto: The Aztec Zombie, the majority of his works are published through his privately owned imprint, Los Comex.
Peter David
Age: 68Peter Allen David (born September 23, 1956), often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man 2099 and X-Factor. His Star Trek work includes both comic books and novels such as Imzadi, and co-creating the New Frontier series. His other novels include film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy. David often jokingly describes his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and is noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.David has earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.- Birthplace: Fort Meade, Maryland, USA
- Aaron Vincent McGruder (born May 29, 1974) is an American writer, lecturer, producer, screenwriter and cartoonist best known for writing and drawing The Boondocks, a Universal Press Syndicate comic strip and its animated TV series adaptation for which he was the creator, executive producer, and head writer.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan (born 26 May 1964) is an Irish-born American author of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including ten novels, many comic books, and more than two hundred and fifty published short stories, novellas, and vignettes. She is also the author of scientific papers in the field of paleontology. Kiernan is a two-time recipient of both the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards.
- Birthplace: Republic of Ireland, Dublin
- Nick Simmons is an actor who appeared in "Starry Eyes," and "Gene Simmons Family Jewels."
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
Larry Marder
Age: 73Larry Marder (born May 29, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American cartoonist and writer, best known as the creator of comic book Tales of the Beanworld, which began as an "essentially self-published title" in 1984. Beginning in 2009, Dark Horse Books began to reprint Tales of the Beanworld, in two volumes, and then went on to publish two more volumes of new Beanworld stories by Larry Mauder.- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Glen Keane is an American animator, author and illustrator. Keane was a character animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios for feature films including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan and Tangled. Keane received the 1992 Annie Award for character animation, the 2007 Winsor McCay Award for lifetime contribution to the field of animation and in 2013 was named a Disney Legend. In 2017, Keane directed Dear Basketball, an animated short film based on Kobe Bryant's retirement poem in The Players' Tribune. At the 90th Academy Awards, Keane and Bryant won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for their work on Dear Basketball.
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Jim Steranko
Age: 86James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator. His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and in the subsequent eponymous series. Steranko earned lasting acclaim for his innovations in sequential art during the Silver Age of Comic Books, particularly his infusion of surrealism, pop art, and graphic design into the medium. His work has been published in many countries and his influence on the field has remained strong since his comics heyday. He went on to create book covers, become a comics historian who published a pioneering two-volume history of the birth and early years of comic books, and to create conceptual art and character designs for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bram Stoker's Dracula. He was inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.- Birthplace: Reading, Pennsylvania, USA
