Robert William Montana (October 23, 1920 – January 4, 1975) was an American
comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
artist who created the original likenesses for characters published by
Archie Comics
Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York.Archie
Archie is a masculine given name, a diminutive of Archibald. It may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Archie Alexander (1888–1958), African-American mathematician, engineer and governor of the US Virgin Islands
* Archie Blake (mathemati ...
''.
Early life
He was born in Stockton, California, to Roberta Pandolfini Montana and Ray Montana. Both were in
show business
Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945), is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989) From the business side (including managers, agents, produce ...
: Roberta had been a
Ziegfeld girl
Ziegfeld Girls were the chorus girls and showgirls from Florenz Ziegfeld's theatrical Broadway revue spectaculars known as the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), in New York City, which were based on the Folies Bergère of Paris.
Descripti ...
, and Ray performed banjo on the
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
circuit. As a result, Bob Montana traveled extensively as a child. He attended
Haverhill High School
Haverhill High School (HHS) is a public high school in Haverhill, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Haverhill Public Schools district and is open enrollment.
History
At least three buildings have served as Haverhill High School ...
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...
. and graduated from Manchester High School Central in Manchester, New Hampshire.
According to Jane (Donahue) Murphy, a high school classmate of Montana's, Archie and his friends were based on people from their hometown and high school. She said Archie Andrews was based on Donahue's cousin, Richard Heffernan;
Veronica Lodge
Veronica Cecilia Lodge is one of the main characters in the Archie Comics franchise, and is the keyboardist and one of the three vocalists of rock band The Archies.
She is from New York but currently resides in the town of Riverdale, with her ...
on Agatha Popoff, the daughter of the local football team's doctor;
Jughead Jones
Forsythe Pendleton "Jughead" Jones III is one of the fictional characters created by Bob Montana and John L. Goldwater in Archie Comics who first appeared in the first Archie story, from '' Pep Comics'' #22 (December 1941). He is the drummer of ...
on a mischievous teen named "Skinny" Linnehan; while
Miss Grundy
Miss Geraldine Grundy is a fictional character of the Archie Comics series. A younger version of Miss Grundy was portrayed by Sarah Habel in '' Riverdale''.
Fictional history and character
An early version of Miss Grundy appears in ''Jackpot Co ...
may have been based on a high school typing and
shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''s ...
teacher named Lundstrom; however, Haverhill's school librarian is also believed to be the model for Grundy.
Fox Comics
Fox Feature Syndicate (also known as Fox Comics, Fox Publications, and Bruns Publications, Inc.) was a comic book publisher from early in the period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic Books. Founded by entrepreneur Victor S. ...
, Montana created an adventure strip about four teenage boys and tried to sell it without success.
Archie Comics
Montana started working for
MLJ Comics
Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York.Archie Andrews.
The success of the Archie and friends story in MLJ Comics' '' Pep Comics'' (Dec. 1941) led MLJ to assign Montana to draw the first issue of ''
Archie
Archie is a masculine given name, a diminutive of Archibald. It may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Archie Alexander (1888–1958), African-American mathematician, engineer and governor of the US Virgin Islands
* Archie Blake (mathemati ...
Sunday strip
The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies.
The first US newspap ...
, which over the next 35 years ran in over 750 newspapers.
Personal life
Montana served 3½ years in WWII and was a sergeant at war's end; during this time, he met and married Peggy Bertholet. They had four children: Paige, Lynn, Ray and Don.
He died at age 54 of an apparent
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may ...
while
cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreatio ...
near his
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. ...