| Dan DeCarlo | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daniel S. DeCarlo (1919-12-12)December 12, 1919 New Rochelle, New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 18, 2001(2001-12-18) (aged 82) New Rochelle, New York, U.S. |
| Area | Penciller,Inker |
Notable works | |
| Awards | Inkpot Award (1991)[1] National Cartoonists Society Award (2000) |
| Spouse | Josie Dumont |
| Children | 2 |
Daniel S. DeCarlo (December 12, 1919 – December 18, 2001)[2] was an Americancartoonist best known for having developed the look ofArchie Comics in the late 1950s and early 1960s, modernizing the characters to their contemporary appearance and establishing the publisher's house style up until his death. As well, he is the generally recognized co-creator of the charactersSabrina the Teenage Witch,Josie and the Pussycats (the title character of which was named for his wife), andCheryl Blossom.
Dan DeCarlo was born inNew Rochelle, New York,[3] the son of a gardener.[4] He attendedNew Rochelle High School, followed byManhattan'sArt Students League from 1938 to 1941, when he wasdrafted into theU.S. Army. Stationed in Great Britain, he worked in the motor pool and as a draftsman, and painted companymascots on the noses of airplanes. He also drew a weekly militarycomic strip,418th Scandal Sheet.[5] He met his wife, French citizenJosie Dumont, on ablind date in Belgium not long after theBattle of the Bulge.[3]
DeCarlo was married, with a pregnant wife, and working as a laborer for his father when he began to pursue a professional art career.[4] Circa 1947, answering an ad, he broke into the comic book industry atTimely Comics, the 1940s iteration ofMarvel Comics. Under editor-in-chiefStan Lee, his first assignment was the teen-humor seriesJeanie. DeCarlo went uncredited, as was typical for most comic-book writers and artists of the era, and he recalled in 2001, "I went on with her maybe ten books. They used to call me 'The Jeanie Machine' because that was all Stan used to give me, wasJeanie.... Then he took me offJeanie and he gave meMillie the Model. That was a big break for me. It wasn't doing too well and somehow when I got on it became quite successful."[4]
He went on to an atypically long, 10-year run on that humor series, from issues #18–93 (June 1949 – Nov. 1959), most of them published by Marvel's 1950s predecessor,Atlas Comics.[6] DeCarlo and Lee also took over theMy Friend Irma comic strip, spun off from the hit Marie Wilson radio comedy.[7] For a decade, DeCarlo wrote and drew theslapsticky adventures of Millie Collins, her redheaded friendly nemesis Chili Storm and the rest of the cast. He also contributed the short-livedSherry the Showgirl andShowgirls for Atlas.[8] In 1960, he and Atlas editor-in-chiefStan Lee co-created the short-livedsyndicatedcomic stripWillie Lumpkin, about a suburbanmail carrier,[9] for theChicago-basedPublishers Syndicate.[4] A version of the character later appeared as a long-running minor supporting character in Lee's later co-creation, theMarvel Comics seriesFantastic Four.[10]
As well during this period, DeCarlo created and drewStandard Comics' futuristic teen-humor comic bookJetta of the 21st Century. Running three issues, #5–7 (Dec. 1952 - April 1953), it featured red-haired Jetta Raye and her friends at Neutron High School.[11]
In addition to his comic-book work, DeCarlo drew freelance pieces for the magazinesThe Saturday Evening Post andArgosy, as well as Timely/Atlas publisherMartin Goodman'sHumorama line ofpin-up girl cartoon digests.[3]
DeCarlo first freelanced forArchie Comics, the company with which he became most closely associated, in the late 1950s while still freelancing for Atlas. He said in 2001,
I was looking for extra work. I went down to seeHarry Shorten [at Archie] and he gave me a job. The pay wasn't too good, but I did it and he liked it – but I didn't go back right away. Finally after two or three weeks go, he called me up and wanted to know what happened, why I wasn't around. I said, 'Well, you know I'm very busy.' ... I hadMillie the Model, I hadMy Friend Irma, [and]Big Boy. ... I told him, 'The people that I'm working for now let me do my own thing. But when I do work for you, it's "Draw likeBob Montana." And it's hard to look at your reference, and then back at your own page. It's very slow, and very tedious and I didn't like it too much.' He said, 'Come on in, and you can draw any way you like.' That made me go back with him.[4]
DeCarlo is tentatively identified with Archie as early as the Jughead story "The Big Shot" inArchie Comics #48 (Feb. 1951),[8] with his earliest confirmed credit the 3 3/4-page story "No Picnic" inArchie's Girls Betty and Veronica #4 (published in September 1951).[12] His art soon established the publisher's house style.[13] As well, he is the generally recognized creator of the teen-humor charactersSabrina the Teenage Witch,Josie and the Pussycats, andCheryl Blossom.[5]
DeCarlo created Josie on his own in the late 1950s; his wife, named Josie, said in an interview quoted in a DeCarlo obituary, "We went on aCaribbean cruise, and I had a [cat] costume for the cruise, and that's the way it started."[3] DeCarlo first tried to sell the character as a syndicated comic strip calledHere's Josie, recalling in 2001:
When Publishers Syndicate in Chicago got interested inWillie Lumpkin ... I was also hustling my own strip and trying to get it published. Before we got to Publishers Syndicate, I went toUnited Feature in New York City with two strips —Barney's Beat andJosie. [United Feature] told me they liked them both, and they'd like to see more samples, because I didn't bring much. I brought maybe six dailies ofBarney's Beat and six dailies ofJosie. That posed a problem for me. I knew I couldn't handle both strips and still keep up with the comic book work, because a syndicated bit was very risky. So, I decided to shelveJosie, and concentrated onWillie Lumpkin. [When that strip ended after] a year, maybe a year and a half[,] I quickly submitted the Josie strip back to the publishers and Harold Anderson, and he sent it back and said, 'It's not what we're looking for, Dan, but keep up the good work,' or words of that kind. Then is when I decided to take it to Archie to see if they could do it as a comic book. I showed it toRichard Goldwater, and he showed it to his father, and a day or two later I got the OK to do it as a comic book.[4]
Josie was introduced inArchie's Pals 'n' Gals #23. The first issue ofShe's Josie followed, cover-dated February 1963.[14] The series featured levelheaded, sweet-natured Josie, herblonde bombshell friend Melody, andbookwormish brunette Pepper. These early years also featured the characters of Josie and Pepper's boyfriends Albert and Sock (real name Socrates); Albert's rival Alexander Cabot III; and Alex's twin sister Alexandra. Occasionally Josie and her friends appeared in "crossover" issues with the main Archie characters.She's Josie was renamedJosie with issue #17 (Dec. 1965),[15] and again renamed, toJosie and the Pussycats, with issue #45 (Dec. 1969), whereby Pepper was replaced by Valerie and Albert was replaced by Alan M. Under this title, the series finished its run with issue #106 (Oct. 1982).[16] Josie and her gang also made irregular appearances inPep Comics andLaugh Comics during the 1960s.
WhenUniversal Pictures was preparing the live-action movie adaptationJosie and the Pussycats in 2001, DeCarlo and Archie Comics became involved in a lawsuit over the character's creation, leading the publisher to terminate its 43-year relationship with him. A federal district court ruled in 2001 that Archie Comics owned thecopyright to the Josie characters; this decision was affirmed by theSecond Circuit Court of Appeals.[17] On December 11, 2001, theU.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by DeCarlo's attorney, Whitney Seymour Jr., who had argued that the issue was a matter of stateproperty law and not federal copyright law.[17]
DeCarlo was listed as a creator in the end credits of the filmJosie and the Pussycats. He received credit as co-creator of the live-action television showSabrina the Teenage Witch.[18]
Among DeCarlo's final works were a story forPaul Dini's independent comics seriesJingle Belle, and stories forBongo Comics'The Simpsons TV tie-in comic,Bart Simpson.[13]
DeCarlo died inNew Rochelle, New York, ofpneumonia.[3] Comics creatorPaul Dini said upon DeCarlo's death, "It was tragic that when he was at an age when many cartoonists are revered as treasures by more beneficent publishers, Dan felt spurned and slighted by the owners of properties that prospered greatly from his contributions."[13]
His twin sons,Dan Jr. andJames "Jim" DeCarlo (born January 27, 1948)[19][20] were also prolific Archie artists, penciling and inking respectively.[21] The two predeceased their father. Dan Jr. died in October 1990[21] of stomach cancer,[22] and James died in August 1991[21] from complications from a stroke.[22] Josie DeCarlo, the inspiration for the Archie characterJosie, died in her sleep on March 14, 2012.[23]
Josette Marie "Josie"DeCarlo (néeDumont; September 8, 1923 – March 14, 2012) was a French-born model who became the inspiration andnamesake for Josie McCoy ofJosie and the Pussycats comics and the 1970Hanna-BarberaSaturday morning cartoon series.[24][25][26]
She met future husband Dan DeCarlo on ablind date in Belgium in 1945, Shortly after theBattle of the Bulge.[24] At the time, Dumont did not speak English, while DeCarlo, a member of theU.S. Army during World War II, spoke very little French.[24]
Unable to have a conversation due to theirlanguage barrier, the two communicated through his cartoons. She later explained, "We communicated with drawing.... He would draw things for me to make me understand what he had in mind. He was really so amusing. Instead of just using words, he would use cartoons to express himself. Right away, we knew that we were meant for each other."[24] The couple married in 1946.[27]
She became the inspiration forJosie and the Pussycats while the couple were on acruise.[24] Josie DeCarlo wore acatsuit costume during the cruise, which became the basis for the fictionalJosie and the Pussycats trademark outfits.[24]
Later, when she got a new hairdo, Dan DeCarlo incorporated it into the Josie character as well, "Thehairdo came after... One day, I came in with a new hairdo with a little bow in my hair, and he said, 'That's it!'"[24] Dan DeCarlo drew his wife with the cat costume as Josie McCoy and naming the starring character Josie.[24] Josie first appeared in Archie Comics in 1962.[26] The character was voiced by actressJanet Waldo in thetelevision series.[25]
After her husband's death in 2001, Josie DeCarlo remained active in the comics and animation industries, promoting his work.[24]
Josie DeCarlo died in her sleep on March 14, 2012, aged 88. Her funeral was held inScarsdale, New York.[24]
DeCarlo won theNational Cartoonists Society Award for Best Comic Book in 2000 forBetty & Veronica.[28] He was nominated for theAcademy of Comic Book Arts'Shazam Award for Best Penciller (Humor Division) in 1974.[29]
Love and Rockets co-creatorsJaime Hernandez andGilbert Hernandez cite DeCarlo as an artistic influence.[30]
Artist/animatorBruce Timm, best known for his contributions to theDC Animated Universe, has cited Dan DeCarlo as one of his influences.[31]
