This is a Hopalong Cassidy Sunday Page by Dan Spiegle. Wonderful Western Artwork! This was cut from the original newspaper Sunday comics section of 1951. Size: 7.5 x 14 inches (Third Full Page). Paper: some light tanning, otherwise: Excellent! Bright Colors! Pulled from Loose Sections! (Please Check Scans) Please include $5.00 Total postage on any size order (USA) $10.00 International Flat Rate. I combine postage on multiple pages. Check out my other auctions for more great vintage Comicstrips and Paper Dolls. Thanks for Looking!
Dan Spiegle
| Dan Spiegle | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 12, 1920 (1920-10-12) |
| Area(s) | Artist |
| Notable works | Hopalong Cassidy Scooby Doo Nemesis Blackhawk Crossfire |
| Awards | Inkpot Award, 1983 |
Dan Spiegle (born October 12, 1920)[1] is an American comic book and cartoon artist and illustrator (penciller and inker). He has had a long career in drawing comics based on movie and television characters, and has worked for companies including Dell Comics, DC Comics and Marvel Comics.
Life and career
In his second year of high school, Spiegle sent a sample comic strip to King Features. It was politely turned down, but Spiegle vowed to become a cartoonist. Discharged from the navy in 1946, Spiegle enrolled at the Chouinard Art Institute of Los Angeles. Spiegle began his professional cartoonist career in 1949 drawing Hopalong Cassidy for the Mirror Syndicate. He continued to draw this strip after it was bought out by King Features in 1951, until it was canceled.
He then moved to Western Publishing Company drawing various comics for the Gold Key Comics line. This included the comic Space Family Robinson, Korak, Son of Tarzan, Brothers of the Spear, and many of their mystery/occult titles, as well as titles based on television series such as Maverick; Spiegle began work on Maverick comics before any publicity photographs of series star James Garner were available, so he met the actor on the set and the resultant drawings of Garner in the subsequent comics are eerily exact. In 1972, Spiegle explained in an interview:
| “ | I would say my favorite was Maverick, which ran about three years — fairly successful, considering the run of other western strips published then. I was assigned this strip even before they had stills available for the show, so I was sent down to Warner Bros. to see it in production — where I met James Garner, which is perhaps the reason I enjoyed it so much. Having met the star, I was extra careful to make the drawings I did look as parallel to the real person as possible. I put my all into that strip, having fun all the way.[2] | ” |
In 1966, at the height of the James Bond craze, Spiegle provided realistic backgrounds and human characters while funny animal artist Paul Murry drew Mickey and Goofy for the short-lived Mickey Mouse Super Secret Agent. As comic book historian Scott Shaw! notes, "What’s even weirder about these stories is that in them, none of the 'real' human characters seem to notice anything remotely unusual about occupying space with a three-foot-tall talking cartoon mouse!"[citation needed] While mostly known for his realistic style, he also proved capable of handling more cartoony material such as Scooby Doo. It was on Gold Key's Scooby Doo... Mystery Comics where Spiegle was first teamed with Mark Evanier, who called Spiegle "one of the three nicest people in the whole comic book business."[3] Except for issue 26, which was a reprint, Evanier wrote and Spiegle illustrated every issue of the title beginning with issue 21 and continuing through the end of the series. Hanna-Barbara sold the rights to its characters to Charlton, and neither Evanier nor Spiegle were involved in that run. Evanier and Spiegle did work on the character again under the Marvel imprint in 1977, and three of the issues for Archie Comics.[4]
Spiegle later moved to DC Comics and worked on many of their features, such as Batman, Unknown Soldier, Tomahawk, Jonah Hex and Teen Titans, until the early 1990s. His most notable work was the Nemesis backup series in Brave and the Bold, and on Blackhawk with Mark Evanier.
Although the character of Crossfire was created by Mark Evanier and Will Meugniot in DNAgents published by Eclipse Comics, Spiegle is the artist most associated with Crossfire. With Evanier writing, Spiegle penciled and inked every issue of Crossfire, as well as Crossfire and Rainbow, and Whodunnit? (featuring Crossfire). Evanier and Spiegle also did all five issues of Hollywood Superstars for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint. Both series had as their milieu the entertainment industry and drew on Evanier's years working as writer for television and films.
More recently Spiegle provided the art for Indiana Jones: Thunder in the Orient (1993–1994) and Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny (1995) published by Dark Horse Comics. Spiegle also re-teamed with Mark Evanier on three issues of Archie Comics' iteration of Scooby Doo. He is also credited with doing the artwork for Nintendo Power magazine's Nester's Adventures comic (formerly Howard & Nester) in its later stages until it was discontinued in 1993. In the mid-1990s he took over doing art for the short-lived revival of the comic strip Terry and the Pirates after Tim and Greg Hildebrandt left. Spiegle worked with the Bank Street College of Education as an illustrator of a number of "Bank Street Classic Tales" published in Boys' Life magazine, Bible Stories for the American Bible Society, and he recently teamed up with Evanier again for a new Crossfire story.
Spiegle's daughter, Carrie, is a noted letterer in the comic industry.[1]
Notes
- ^ Miller, John Jackson (June 10, 2005). "Comics Industry Birthdays". Comic Buyer's Guide. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5trAbNQWw. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
- ^ Gheno, Dan. "An Interview with Dan Spiegle," Graphic Story World (1972).
- ^ Evanier, Mark. Crossfire #2, Vol. 1; Eclipse Comics; June 1984
- ^ Evanier, Mark. Retrieved from the website Scooby Doo by Evanier & Spiegel—Comic Book Resources Forum, http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?p=11051217, retrieved on 12/15/10.
References
- Dan Spiegle at the Comic Book DB
External links
Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of popular short stories and twenty-eight novels based on the character.
In his early writings, Mulford portrayed the character as rude, dangerous, and rough-talking. Beginning in 1935, the character ‒ as played by movie actor William Boyd in films adapted from Mulford's books ‒ was transformed into a clean-cut, on-screen hero. A total of sixty-six immensely popular films were released, only a few of which relied on Mulford's original story lines. Mulford would later revise and republish his earlier works to be more consistent with the character's new, polished, on-screen persona.
Contents |
Film history
As portrayed on the screen, the white-haired Bill "Hopalong" Cassidy was usually clad strikingly in black (including his hat, an exception to the longstanding western film stereotype that only villains wore black hats). He was reserved and well spoken, with a fine sense of fair play. He was often called upon to intercede when dishonest characters were taking advantage of honest citizens. "Hoppy" and his white horse, Topper, usually traveled through the west with two companions — one young and trouble-prone with a weakness for damsels in distress, the other comically awkward and outspoken.[1]
The juvenile lead was successively played by James Ellison, Russell Hayden, George Reeves, and Rand Brooks. George Hayes (later to become known as "Gabby" Hayes) originally played Cassidy's grizzled sidekick, Windy Halliday. After Hayes left the series due to a salary dispute with producer Harry Sherman, he was replaced by the comedian Britt Wood as Speedy McGinnis, and finally by the veteran movie comedian Andy Clyde as California Carlson. Clyde, the most durable of the sidekicks, remained with the series until it ended. A few actors of future prominence appeared in Cassidy films, most notably Robert Mitchum, who appeared in seven of the films at the beginning of his career.
The sixty-six Hopalong Cassidy pictures were filmed by independent producers who released the films through the studios. Most of the "Hoppies", as the films were known, were distributed by Paramount Pictures to highly favorable returns. They were noted for their fast action and excellent outdoor photography (usually by Russell Harlan). Harry Sherman was anxious to make more ambitious movies and tried to cancel the Cassidy series, but popular demand forced Sherman to go back into production, this time for United Artists release. Sherman gave up the series once and for all in 1944, but William Boyd wanted to keep it going. To do this, he gambled his entire future on Hopalong Cassidy, mortgaging virtually everything he owned to buy both the character rights from Mulford and the backlog of movies from Sherman.
In the first film, Hopalong Cassidy (then spelled "Hop-along") got his name after being shot in the leg. Hopalong's "drink of choice" was the non-alcoholic sarsaparilla.
Television and radio
Boyd resumed production [2] in 1946, on lower budgets, and continued through 1948, when "B" westerns in general were being phased out. Boyd thought that Hopalong Cassidy might have a future in television, spent $350,000 to obtain the rights to his old films,[2] and approached the fledgling NBC television network. The initial broadcasts were so successful that NBC could not wait for a television series to be produced, and simply re-edited the old feature films down to broadcast length.[3] On June 24, 1949, Hopalong Cassidy became the first network Western television series.
The enormous success of the television series made Boyd a star.[2] The Mutual Broadcasting System began broadcasting a radio version of Hopalong Cassidy, with Andy Clyde (later George McMichael on Walter Brennan's ABC sitcom The Real McCoys) as the sidekick, in January 1950; at the end of September, the show moved to CBS Radio, where it ran into 1952.[4]
The series and character were so popular that Hopalong Cassidy was featured on the cover of national magazines, such as Look, Life, and Time.[2] Boyd earned millions as Hopalong ($800,000 in 1950 alone)[2], mostly from merchandise licensing and endorsement deals. In 1950, Hopalong Cassidy was featured on the first lunch box to bear an image, causing sales for Aladdin Industries to jump from 50,000 units to 600,000 units in just one year. In stores, more than 100 companies in 1950 manufactured $70 million of Hopalong Cassidy products,[2] including children's dinnerware, pillows, roller skates, soap, wristwatches, and jackknives.[5]
There was a new demand for Hopalong Cassidy features in movie theaters, and Boyd licensed reissue distributor Film Classics to make new film prints and advertising accessories. Another 1950 enterprise saw the home-movie company Castle Films manufacturing condensed versions of the Paramount films for 16 mm and 8 mm projectors; they were sold through 1966. Also in January 1950 Dan Spiegel began to draw a syndicated comic strip, with scripts by Royal King Cole; the strip lasted until 1955.[6][7]
Boyd began work on a separate series of half-hour westerns made especially for television. Edgar Buchanan was his new sidekick Red Connors (a character from the original stories and a few of the early films). The theme music for the television show was written by veteran songwriters Nacio Herb Brown (music) and L. Wolfe Gilbert (lyrics). The show ranked number 7 in the 1949 Nielsen ratings. The success of the show and tie-ins inspired several juvenile TV Westerns, including The Gene Autry Show and The Roy Rogers Show.
Boyd's company devoted to Hopalong Cassidy, U.S. Television Office, is still active and has released many of the features to DVD, many of them in sparkling prints prepared by Film Classics.
Hoppyland
On May 26, 1951, an amusement park named Hoppyland opened in the Venice section of Los Angeles. This was an expansion and re-theming of Venice Lake Park[8] (opened the previous year) as Boyd became an investor. Standing on some 80 acres (320,000 m2) it included a roller coaster, miniature railroads, pony rides, boat ride, Ferris wheel, carousel and other thrill rides plus picnic grounds and recreational facilities. Despite Boyd's regular appearances as Hoppy at the park it was not a success and shut down in 1954.[9]
Continuing fiction series
Louis L'Amour wrote four Hopalong Cassidy novels, which are still in print. In 2005, author Susie Coffman published Follow Your Stars, containing new stories starring the character. In three of these stories, Coffman has written the wife of actor William Boyd into the stories.
Beginning in 1950, Capitol Records released a series of Hopalong Cassidy "record readers", featuring William Boyd and produced by Alan W. Livingston.[10]
There have been a number of museum displays of Hopalong Cassidy. The major display is at the Autry National Center at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California. Fifteen miles east of Wichita, Kansas, at the Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Supper was the Hopalong Cassidy Museum. This museum was dedicated to the heroic image of Hopalong Cassidy. The museum and its contents were auctioned on August 24, 2007, owing to the failure of its parent company, Wild West World.
The classic song "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" includes a reference to Hopalong boots as a holiday gift desired by children.
See also
References
- ^ "William Boyd & Hopalong Cassidy", B-Westerns
- ^ a b c d e f "Kiddies in the Old Corral" Time, 27 November 1950.
- ^ Broadcast Firsts - Western Series
- ^ Radio Broadcast Log Of: Hopalong Cassidy part of Audio Classics Archive. Retrieved 2006-12-09.
- ^ Westerns - Museum of Broadcast Communications
- ^ Hopalong Cassidy Returns
- ^ Dan Spiegle
- ^ "Bill Boyd Will Appear at Hoppyland Opening" Billboard March 31, 1951 p.52
- ^ Hoppyland
- ^ Alan Livingston and The Capitol Record Readers
Further reading
- Caro, Joseph, Collector's Guide to Hopalong Cassidy Memorabilia (1991, out of print)
- Caro, Joseph, Hopalong Cassidy Collectibles. CCN Publishing (1998) — 1,300 color photos and item conditions
- Drew, Bernard A., The Hopalong Cassidy Radio Program. Albany: BearManor Media (2005) ISBN 1-59393-006-2
- Hall, Roger, Following the Stars: Music and Memories of Hopalong Cassidy. Stoughton: PineTree Press (2005)
- Spiegle, Dan and Royal King Cole, Paragon Publications Presents Clarence E. Mulford's Hopalong Cassidy and the Five Men of Evil. A.C. Comics (Jan. 1993) ISBN 978-1562250027 (comic strip reprint collection)
External links
*Please note: collecting and selling comics has been my hobby for over 30 years. Due to the hours of my job I can usually only mail packages out on Saturdays. I send out Priority Mail which takes 2-3 days to arrive in the USA and Air Mail International which takes 5 -10 days depending on where you live in the world. I do not "sell" postage or packaging and charge less than the actual cost of mailing. I package items securely and wrap well. Most pages come in an Archival Sleeve with Acid Free Backing Board at no extra charge. If you are dissatisfied with an item. Let me know and I wil do my best to make it right.
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