| Dan Spiegle | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1920-12-10)December 10, 1920 Cosmopolis, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | January 28, 2017(2017-01-28) (aged 96) |
| Area | Artist |
Notable works | Hopalong Cassidy Scooby-Doo Nemesis Blackhawk Crossfire Maverick |
| Awards | Inkpot Award, 1983 |
Dan Spiegle (December 10, 1920 – January 28, 2017) was an Americancomics artist andcartoonist best known for comics based on movie and television characters across a variety of companies, includingDell Comics,DC Comics, andMarvel Comics.
Dan Spiegle was born inCosmopolis, Washington, in 1920,[1] and raised there and inHonolulu, Hawaii, and northern California.[2] After high school, Spiegle "found myself in theNavy", where he worked on the base newspaper and on insignias for airplanes.[2] Following his discharge in 1946, Spiegle enrolled at theChouinard Art Institute of Los Angeles on theG.I. Bill.[2]
Spiegle began his professional cartoonist career in 1949 drawing thecomic stripHopalong Cassidy[3] for theMirror Enterprises Syndicate.[4] He continued to draw this strip after it was bought out byKing Features in 1951, until it was cancelled in 1955.[3]
His earliest confirmed work in comic books ispenciling andinking a one-page advertisement forWheaties breakfast cereal, "Preacher Roe Sparks in Pitching Duel", inWalt Disney's Comics and Stories #144 (cover-dated Sept. 1952).[5] His first story in the medium was the 16-pageAnnie OakleyWestern story "The Bushwacker", by an unknown writer, inDell Comics'Annie Oakley and Tagg #7 (June 1956).[5] Through the remainder of the decade he drew primarily Western stories for such Dell titles asFour Color,Rex Allen,Queen of the WestDale Evans, and others, as well as that publisher'sFour Color feature "Spin and Marty", based on the segment from theWalt Disney TV programThe Mickey Mouse Club. In 1959, he started drawingFour Color stories for suchlicensed TV series featuresColt .45,Maverick,The Rifleman,Rawhide, andLawman, later adding theMaverick andLawman spinoff comic books, among others. He soon expanded to drawingFour Color features of TV series ranging fromThe Untouchables toSea Hunt.[5]
Spiegle began work onMaverick comics before any publicity photographs of series starJames 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 wasMaverick, 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]
Spiegle continued on these titles as licensorWestern Publishing Company moved away from its business partner Dell to publish comics itself under itsGold Key Comics imprint. Through the 1960s, Spiegle worked onSpace Family Robinson, which made its debut three years before TV'sLost in Space,The Green Hornet, andThe Invaders, as well as such titles asKorak, Son of Tarzan,Brothers of the Spear, and many of Gold Key's mystery/occult titles.[5] In 1966, at the height of popularity of theJames Bond film series, Spiegle provided naturalistic backgrounds and human characters whilecartoon animal artistPaul Murry drewMickey Mouse andGoofy for the short-livedMickey Mouse Super Secret Agent. As comic-book historianScott 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!"[6] Spiegle and writerDonald F. Glut co-created theDoctor Spektor character inMystery Comics Digest #5 (July 1972).[7] Spiegle drew the comic book adaptation of the 1979Walt Disney Pictures feature filmThe Black Hole.[8]
In addition to his naturalistic work adapting live-action television, Spiegle also handled more cartoony material such as Gold Key'sSaturday-morning TV animation title,Hanna-Barbera Scooby-Doo... Where Are You!, starting with issue #16 (Feb. 1973). Five issues later marked his first teaming with writerMark Evanier, with whom he continued to the final Gold Key issue, #30 (Feb. 1975).[5] The two worked on the character again from 1977 to 1979 whenMarvel Comics licensed the property, doing all nine issues ofScooby-Doo, and reprised their team-up in 1996 whenArchie Comics acquired the Scooby-Doo license.[5]
Spiegle later moved to DC Comics, and worked on many of their features, such asUnknown Soldier,Tomahawk,Jonah Hex, andTeen Titans Spotlight until the early 1990s. His most notable work was the "Nemesis" backup series inThe Brave and the Bold with writerCary Burkett,[9] and onBlackhawk with Mark Evanier. He and writerBob Rozakis created the characterMister E inSecrets of Haunted House #31 (Dec. 1980).[10]
Although the characterCrossfire was created byMark Evanier andWill Meugniot inDNAgents published byEclipse Comics, Spiegle penciled and inked every issue of the comic bookCrossfire, as well asCrossfire and Rainbow, andWhodunnit?, which featured Crossfire. Evanier and Spiegle also did all five issues ofHollywood Superstars for Marvel'sEpic Comics imprint.
Spiegle provided the art forIndiana Jones: Thunder in the Orient (1993–1994) andIndiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny (1995), published byDark Horse Comics.[5] He drewNintendo Power magazine's "Nester's Adventures" feature (formerly "Howard & Nester") in its later stages until it was discontinued in 1993.[11] In the mid-1990s, he drew the short-lived revival ofTerry and the Pirates[3] afterTim and Greg Hildebrandt left. Spiegle worked with theBank Street College of Education as an illustrator of a number of "Bank Street Classic Tales" published inBoys' Life magazine, Bible stories for theAmerican Bible Society,[12] and in 2008, he teamed up with Evanier again for a newCrossfire story, drawing the character's portion of the cover of, and the eight-page story "Too Rich to Be Guilty" in About Comics' fancifully numberedMany Happy Returns #2008.[13] With no cover date on it or on another work that year — pages 3 to 20 of "Ragin' Abe Simpson and the Flying Hellfish in: War is Smelly" inBongo Comics Group's licensed TV titleSimpsons Comics #144[5] — it is difficult to ascertain which was his last published comics work but it is likely theGraphic Classics adaptation ofClarence E. Mulford's "Hold Up", penned by Tim Lasiuta, published in March 2011.
Spiegle died on January 28, 2017, at the age of 96.[14][15]
Spiegle received anInkpot Award in 1983.[16]
Dr. Adam Spektor, a researcher of the supernatural, was introduced inMystery Comics Digest #5 (July 1972)...The story was written by Don Glut...and drawn by Dan Spiegle.
In the last feature of its 31st issue, a story by writer Bob Rozakis and artist Dan Spiegle, a new monster hunter named Mister E was introduced.
Nintendo showed off just how well-connected it was by having Inkpot Award-winning Dan Spiegle (with a long list of distinguished credits) draw NP's beloved mascot.
| Preceded by | Korak, Son of Tarzan artist 1968–1972 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Ric Estrada (in 1976) | Blackhawk artist 1982–1984 | Succeeded by n/a |
