| Henry Boltinoff | |
|---|---|
 Self-portrait | |
| Born | (1914-02-19)February 19, 1914 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | April 26, 2001(2001-04-26) (aged 87) Lake Worth, Florida, U.S. |
| Area | Artist |
Notable works | Hocus-Focus Stoker the Broker National Periodicals humor features |
| Awards | National Cartoonists Society's Humor Comic Book Award, 1970 NCS Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award, 1981 Inkpot Award, 2001 |
Henry Boltinoff (February 19, 1914 – April 26, 2001)[1][2] was an Americancartoonist who worked for bothcomic strips andcomic books. He was a prolific cartoonist and drew many of the humor and filler strips that appeared inNational Periodical comics from the 1940s through the 1960s.
Born in New York City, Boltinoff created numerous humor features for DC Comics, where his brotherMurray Boltinoff was an editor.[3] His most prominent creation for DC was "Dover & Clover" which debuted inMore Fun Comics #94 (Nov. 1943).[4][5] Boltinoff's other features include "Abdul the Fire Eater", "Bebe", "Billy", "Buck Skinner", "Cap's Hobby Center", "Casey the Cop", "Charlie Cannonball", "Chief Hot Foot", "Cora the Carhop", "Dexter", "Doctor Floogle", "Doctor Rocket", "Elvin", "Freddie the Frogman", "Hamid the Hypnotist", "Homer", "Honey in Hollywood", "Hy the Spy", "Hy Wire", "Jail Jests", "Jerry the Jitterbug", "King Kale", "Lefty Looie", "Lem 'n' Lime", "Lionel and His Lions", "Little Pete", "Little Pocahontas", "Lucky", "The Magic Genie", "Moolah the Mystic", "No-Chance Charley", "Ollie", "On the Set", "Peg", "Peter Puptent", "Prehistoric Fun", "Professor Eureka", "Sagebrush Sam", "Shorty", "Stan", "Super-Turtle",[6] "Tricksy the World's Greatest Stunt Man" and "Warden Willis". These were usuallylettered byGaspar Saladino. Boltinoff's final creation for DC was "Cap's Hobby Hints".[2] In 1969, he became the writer of theDate with Debbi andSwing with Scooter titles.[5]
Boltinoff started doing magazine cartoons in the early forties. He contributed to all of the mid range magazines, such asLook,Collier's,The Saturday Evening Post,True,Liberty,The American Legion':, Sunday newspaper magazines such asThis Week',Today,The American Weekly,Parade[7] and almost every other general interest magazine, fromThe Progressive Farmer toThe Ford Times.[7] He also sold a large number of cartoons to special cartoon magazines, such as1000 Jokes andJudge and Gags.[7]ForJudge he did a monthly one page feature identifying character types between 1944 and 1947[8] and forKing Features'Pictorial Review[9] he had a regular page of gags under the title "Gags and Gals". All in all he was one of the best selling cartoonists in the 1940s and into the 1950s. Even while doing his filler strips for DC, his cartoons kept appearing in magazines such asBoy's Life and many of the low rentHumorama titles.
Boltinoff was a regular contributor toThis and That (a daily cartoon panel from theGeorge Matthew Adams syndicate),Nubbin (1970 - 1986),This Funny World (a daily cartoon panel from theMcNaught syndicate) andLaff-A-Day (a daily cartoon panel fromKing Features). He also had his own panels:Woody Forrest (1960),Stoker the Broker (1960), andHocus-Focus through 2001.[10]
Hocus-Focus may have been Boltinoff's best-known work. TheKing Features Syndicate feature, which was started c. 1965 by Harold Kaufmann,[11] includes two similar panels with six differences between them. It continues to run in over 300 newspapers.
Henry Boltinoff received theNational Cartoonists Society's Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award in 1981 and also received theirHumor Comic Book Award for 1970.[12][13] He received theInkpot Award in 2001.[14]
Dover & Clover are pretty obscure, but they still ranked as the most prominent characters cartoonist Henry Boltinoff ever created for DC Comics...They made their debut in DC'sMore Fun Comics #94 (November 1943).
When he died (April 26, 2001), he left behind more than a year's worth of unpublished Hocus Focus cartoons.
| Preceded by Doug Crane | Swing with Scooter writer 1969–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by n/a | Date with Debbi writer 1969–1971 | Succeeded by John Albano |
| Preceded by | National Cartoonists Society Division Awards Newspaper Panel Award recipient 1981 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
