A Life in DAN Comic Art Written by John Coates SPIEGLE with Dan Spiegle All characters shown TM & © their respective owners. CONTENTS 4 Acknowledgements 5 Introduction 6 Foreword - Mark Evanier 10 Chapter One: The Early Years 16 Chapter Two: Hopalong Cassidy 1949-1955 24 Chapter Three: Western Publishing (a.k.a. Dell, Gold Key, and Whitman) 1956 - 1983 44 Chapter Four: DC, Eclipse, & Indy Publishers 1980s - 1990s 58 Chapter Five: 2000s to Present 64 Chapter Six: Watercolors 68 Chapter Seven: Process of Drawing 72 Chapter Eight: Growing up with a comic artist father 76 Chapter Nine: Partners in Art & Life - Dan and Marie’s write-ups of one another 80 Chapter Ten: Dan Gheno’s 1972 interview with Dan Spiegle 86 Comic Index 102 Afterword - Sergio Aragonés FOREWORD BY MARK EVANIER This is my Foreword for this reading and informed me—like it just seen his new movie. His reply splendid book about Dan Spiegle. was the most natural thing in the was along the lines of, “Who the So naturally, I’m going to start it world—“That’s one of my dad’s hell cares?” and “Leave me alone.” out by writing about Jerry Lewis. movies. My dad starred in that.” For some reason, this did not In July of 1959 when I was nine, I pointed to the photo of Jerry bother me or cause me to stop my parents took me to the Paradise Lewis on the cover and said, “Your going to Jerry Lewis movies. I guess Theater, which was located on dad is Jerry Lewis?” The kid said I just figured I had said the wrong Sepulveda Boulevard not far from yes. thing and that Mr. Lewis was where L.A. International Airport is grumpy because his kid was sick. now situated. There I saw the first Or something. movie that I remember seeing. It So what does this story have to wasn’t the first movie my parents do with Dan Spiegle? ever took me to. It was just the first Simple: Dan Spiegle drew the one where I was cognizant of what Dell version of Don’t Give Up The a movie was and that I was seeing Ship. That’s how long I’ve been a it. The film was Don’t Give Up The Dan Spiegle fan. Ship starring Jerry Lewis. It wasn’t Of course, I didn’t know it at bad if you were nine and had noth- the time. No credits. But as I avidly ing to compare it to. collected Dell—and later, Gold A day or three later, I had an Key—comics, I came to recognize appointment with my pediatrician That Guy’s style. It was on Maver- and I wound up sitting in his wait- ick comics. It was on other westerns ing room, waiting for my parents to and later on Space Family Robin- come pick me up. As I waited, I son...and I don’t remember when I read comic books from a pile I’d got a name to go with the style. But acquired on the way to Dr. Gross- somewhere, somehow I learned man’s. One was the Dell comic And I was just about to call him that artist I liked was named Dan book adaptation of Don’t Give Up a liar when Jerry Lewis walked into Spiegle. There was just something The Ship. the office. so organic about his work. The Also waiting was a kid around Thinking it would please him, I people had emotions and expres- my age. He saw the comic I was quickly told Mr. Lewis that I had sions and they posed like real 6 DAN SPIEGLE: A Life in Comic Art Chapter One THE EARLY YEARS JOHN COATES: Let’s start at the SPIEGLE: Not really, no. beginning: When and where were COATES: I read that your family you born, Dan? moved to Hawaii for a stint, before DAN SPIEGLE: I was born in Cos- moving to California. Was that an mopolis, Washington on December adventure for a young child? 12, 1920; my sister was two years SPIEGLE: In Cosmopolis, Washington, older, and my brother was six years where my father owned a drugstore, he younger. developed an ulcer and became very ill. COATES: Were your parents in The doctor suggested that my father some artistic or in a creative field? retire and move to a warmer climate. I SPIEGLE: Not really. My mother was four years old when my father sold was a nurse and my father was a the drugstore and we moved to San druggist. Diego, California; that’s where I started COATES: Were your parents sup- grammar school. In 1927, when I was portive of your interest in drawing? seven years old, Charles Lindberg flew SPIEGLE: My mother encouraged across the Atlantic Ocean and my father my art but my father wanted me to be a druggist, like he was. took me down to Ryan Airfield where COATES: Did your siblings share the Spirit of Saint Louis was built and your interest in drawing? he showed me around the old aircraft Opposite: Dan, his sister, & his mother Above: Dan & Father, 1937 hangers. That is probably why I changed in 1929 when the stock knew you wanted to be an artist? have loved to draw all types of market crashed and my parents lost SPIEGLE: No, that was earlier. I aircraft. most of their savings. We had just was about five years old. My father About that time my aunt and enough money to buy a chicken sold newspapers and magazines. uncle, who owned a couple of small ranch in Northern California and That is where the comic strip hotels in Honolulu, suggested that rode out the Depression “living off dream started, reading Doc Savage, we move to Hawaii. So my folks the land.” In 1934 my father G8 and the Battle Aces, and other leased a beach house just south of bought another small drug store in adventure stories. I really liked the Diamond Head. My sister and I en- the little town of Loleta, California magazine illustrators at the time. joyed swimming every day and and I started school in Fortuna. My influences were Alex Ray- going to school. That suddenly all COATES: Was this when you mond, Roy Crane, Fawcett, and 12 DAN SPIEGLE: A Life in Comic Art Chapter Two 1949-1955 HOPALONG CASSIDY JCOATES: So in 1946 you’re State- Worth newspaper comic strips) was a side. Did you begin your professional student and a good friend of mine. We art career immediately? remained friends. Chouinard was DC: No. Under the G.I. Bill I attended strictly a “fine art” school. I remember three years at Chouinard Art Institute that I decided to create a western news- (illustration course) from Fall 1946 to paper strip so I worked on it during my Fall 1949. This was in Los Angeles, “life” class. I had to make sure Mrs. California. I had some great instructors Chouinard didn’t catch me, so I would from the movie industry, quite a few start a quick sketch of the “life” figure, from Disney. Incidently, Bill Ziegler and then flip over the page where I (who later drew the Dragnet and Mary would have one of my western strip Opposite: Above: Commissioned Sculpting class Hopalong Cassidy, 2007 Left: Chouinard Art Insti- tute in Los Angeles, 1940s. Photo by Elizabeth A. Powell (courtesy of Lindy Narver) from www. chouinardfoundation.org pages that I had been working on. I would continue working on the strip unless Mrs. Chouinard would stop by. Then I would flip back to the model drawing! (Laughter) All the instructors knew what I was doing but were sympathetic. I also had to work after school so I didn’t have time to work on the strip at home. said, “Well, let me see what you COATES: Before we get to your have and I’ll decide.” When he saw connection with the Hopalong my strip he said his cousin or uncle Cassidy [Ed: a.k.a. “Hoppy”] char- was the office manager for William acter and William Boyd, can you Boyd and that Boyd’s office was just clear up the “Bozo the Clown” “down the block” and “Why don’t story? Did you draw a Bozo strip at you see if he might be interested in one point? doing a Hoppy strip?” The timing SPIEGLE: The Bozo the Clown was just right as Boyd also hap- story has been screwed up so many pened to be in the office at this times. (Laughter) Around Septem- time and liked the way I drew ber of 1949, I answered an adver- horses. He agreed a comic strip tisement for a “Comic strip writer” would just about cover the market at an address in Hollywood, Cali- as he already had Hoppy toys of all Hopalong Cassidy fornia. I took some samples of my kinds, clothes, games, and had his William Boyd played the western western strip and found it was the popular television show. hero “Hopalong Cassidy” from the offices of Capital Records and they COATES: Can you elaborate on 1930s-1950s, beginning with a wanted someone to write and draw that first encounter with Boyd? popular radio program, over sixty Bozo. I said I did not think I was SPIEGLE: I always say timing is movies, and finally a TV show. He the right person as my work was everything! (Laughter) When I was a show business marketing vi- more realistic. The man I talked to entered the Hoppy offices I had no sionary and not only licensed his character to just about every prod- uct imaginable, but also bought the license to his movies, then repack- aged those movies into one of the most popular western TV shows of the 1950s; he was an iconic figure in his time.