| Ted McCall | |
|---|---|
| Born | Edwin Reid McCall 1901 (1901) |
| Died | 1975 (aged 73–74) Toronto? |
| Area | Writer |
Notable works | Robin Hood and Company |
| Awards | 2008Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame |
Edwin Reid McCall (born 1901 inChatham, Ontario, died 1975) was a Canadian journalist, and acomic strip andcomic bookwriter.[1] He was best known for creating the first comic strip based on theRoyal Canadian Mounted Police,Men of the Mounted for theToronto Evening Telegram and the war heroFreelance forAnglo-American Publishing.
McCall was one of four children of Alexander McCall. He was married to Elise Donaldson (1899–1976) and had one son, Ted Jr.[2][3]
On February 13, 1933, The Toronto Evening Telegram began publishing McCall's comic stripMen of the Mounted, drawn byHarry Hall.[4] The strip starred Corporal Keene.[5]It was the first strip based on the RCMP as well as being Canada's first regular adventure strip.[6] Syndicated across Canada, it ran for two years untilKing of the Royal Mounted, an American strip, began to be published.[7] McCall had approachedKing Features about syndicating his strip in the United States but was rejected. WhenKing of the Royal Mounted was started, McCall felt they had plagiarized his idea.[5] The last strip was published on February 16, 1935,[1] the day beforeKing of the Royal Mounted started.[4] The strips were also adapted into aBig Little Book published byWhitman Publishing[8] and were featured in trading cards from Willard's Chocolates.[6]
A little over 7 months later, on September 23, 1935, McCall began another strip, this time based on theRobin Hood legends.Robin Hood and Company was illustrated byCharles Snelgrove and was also originally only published in the Telegram. Overall it was more successful and eventually was published internationally in more than 80 papers,[1] including some in the US and Europe.[6] Snelgrove died in late 1939 and, after a brief hiatus, the strip was continued bySyd Stein.[9] The last strip was published on February 16, 1939, after Stein joined the army.[6] The strip was popular and lasted a while because of "McCall's deft writing, inventive plots and earthy humor".[10] It did not follow the traditional plots of the Robin Hood mythos but did include secondary characters such asLittle John,Friar Tuck andWill Scarlett.[10]
On December 6, 1940, the War Exchange Conservation Act was passed by the Canadian government. Amongst the things it did was banning the importation of American comic books. McCall saw this as an opportunity and approached Harold Sinnott of Sinnott News. McCall owned both the copyright and the plates for publishingRobin Hood and Company and Sinnot had a press capable of printing comics.[5] In March 1941, the first issue ofRobin Hood and Company was published by Anglo-American Publishing, consisting of strip reprints in a tabloid sized format.[6] The comic existed with just reprints for about a year when it became necessary to start producing new material. McCall became the main writer at Anglo-American and brought with himEd Furness as the main artist.[6] While atAnglo-American Publishing, McCall created the war hero Freelance, "a daring guerrilla battling theAxis powers".[11] McCall's "well rounded scripts...were relatively sophisticated for the time and generally took a realistic approach to war".[11] McCall was also involved in creating the adventures of Red Rover andCommander Steel.[12]Freelance ran from 1941 to January 1947.[13]Robin Hood ran, under various titles, for the same time period.[14] After Anglo-American closed its doors in 1947, McCall never produced anything for comics again.
After the collapse of Anglo-American, McCall went on to become the Managing Editor of the Toronto Evening Telegram.[1]He died in 1975 of a heart attack.[1] In 2008 he was inducted into theCanadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame.[15]