Tex Blaisdell
Encyclopedia
- For the fictional character named Tex Blaisdell, see Bob and Ray.
Philip Eustice Blaisdell (March 30, 1920 - March 14, 1999), better known as Tex Blaisdell, was an American
People of the United States
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
artist and comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
editor. He worked on 22 syndicated features, including Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and made its debut on August 5, 1924 in the New York Daily News...
, which he drew for five years.
Biography
Born in Houston, TexasHouston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, Tex Blaisell studied at New York's Art Students League
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
.
Comic strips
After four years in the Air Force, Blaisdell worked for 13 years on strips by Al CappAl Capp
Alfred Gerald Caplin , better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an' Slats and Long Sam...
, Stan Drake
Stan Drake
Stanley Albert Drake was an American cartoonist best known as the founding artist of the comic strip The Heart of Juliet Jones....
, Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
, Irwin Hasen
Irwin Hasen
Irwin Hasen is an American cartoonist, best known as the co-creator of the Dondi comic strip.-Early life:...
, John Cullen Murphy
John Cullen Murphy
John Cullen Murphy was an American illustrator best known for his three decades of work on the Prince Valiant comic strip....
, Bud Sagendorf
Bud Sagendorf
Forrest Cowles Sagendorf , better known as Bud Sagendorf, was an American cartoonist, notable for his work on King Features Syndicate's Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye comic strip....
, Dick Wingert and others. In the early 1960s, he helped Hal Foster on Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, or simply Prince Valiant, is a long-run comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 3700 Sunday strips...
, originally doing backgrounds but eventually his contribution escalated to finishing everything but the faces while his assistant Lee Marrs
Lee Marrs
Lee Marrs is an American comic book writer, animator, and one of the first women underground comix creators. She is best known for her comic book series, The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp, which lasted from 1973 to 1978.-Underground comics:Marrs was a frequent contributor to...
inked the backgrounds.
After Harold Gray's death in 1968, Blaisdell stepped in as the artist on Little Orphan Annie, which he continued until 1973, with assists from Paul Kirchner
Paul Kirchner
Paul Kirchner is an American writer and illustrator who has worked in diverse areas, from comic strips and toy design to advertising and editorial art....
. For Leonard Starr
Leonard Starr
Leonard Starr is a Golden Age comic book artist, an advertising artist and award-winning cartoonist, notable for creating the newspaper strip On Stage and reviving Little Orphan Annie.-Early life:...
, he handled the backgrounds for Mary Perkins, On Stage
Mary Perkins, On Stage
Mary Perkins, On Stage is an American newspaper comic strip by Leonard Starr for the Chicago-Tribune-New York News Syndicate. It ran from February, 1957 to September 9, 1979, with the switch to the longer title in 1961...
. At this point in time Blaisdell worked at a studio on the fourth floor at
144 West 57th Street, overlooking dance studios and the rear of Carnegie Hall, a studio space he shared with artists Tom Sawyer and Carl Anderson
Carl Thomas Anderson
Carl Thomas Anderson was an American cartoonist best remembered for his comic strip Henry. Readers followed the pantomime adventures of the mute, bald-headed Henry in strips which he signed with his familiar signature displaying an enlarged "S": Carl AnderSon.-Background:Carl Thomas Anderson was...
, letterer Ben Oda
Ben Oda
Ben Oda was a Japanese-American comic strip and comic book letterer. He fought in World War II as a paratrooper and later provided lettering for many leading comic strips, including Apartment 3-G, Big Ben Bolt, Dondi, The Dropouts, Flash Gordon, Little Orphan Annie, Mary Perkins, On Stage, The...
and scriptwriter John Augustin.
Comic books
Blaisdell also inked numerous DC Comics, including Green LanternGreen Lantern (comic book)
Green Lantern is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics heroes of the same name. The character's first incarnation, Alan Scott, appeared in All-American Comics #16, and was later spun off into the first volume of Green Lantern in 1941. That series was canceled in 1949 after 39 issues...
, Adam Strange
Adam Strange
Adam Strange is a fictional superhero published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky, he first appeared in Showcase #17 .In May 2011, Adam Strange placed 97th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time....
, Superman
Superman (comic book)
Superman is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character Superman began as one of several anthology features in the National Periodical Publications comic book Action Comics #1 in June 1938...
, The Flash
The Flash (comic book)
The Flash is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics superhero of the same name. The character's first incarnation, Jay Garrick, first appeared in Flash Comics #1...
and Batman
Batman (comic book)
Batman is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27, published in May 1939. Batman proved to be so popular that a self-titled ongoing comic book series began publication in the spring of 1940...
.
Blaisdell taught for years at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art
Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art
The Kubert School, formerly the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art or Joe Kubert School, located in Dover, New Jersey, is a three-year technical school that teaches the principles of sequential art and the particular craft of the comics industry as well as commercial illustration...
.
Personal life
Blaisdell married Elaine French, and the couple lived in Flushing, New York, where he died in 1999. They had two children, Barbara F. and Bruce F. Blaisdell. Elaine Blaisdell died September 7, 2002, at the age of 81.Awards
Blaisdell won the National Cartoonists SocietyNational Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
Comic Book Award in 1976.