Harry Lampert (November 3, 1916 – November 13, 2004) was an American cartoonist and

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

teacher and writer.

Biography

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, Lampert began cartooning when he was sixteen years old, and worked for the legendary

Max Fleischer Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 25, 1972) was an American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner. Born in Kraków, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became ...

, inking and helping produce '' Betty Boop'', ''

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Koko the Clown Koko the Clown is an animated character created by Max Fleischer. He first appeared as the main protagonist in '' Out of the Inkwell'' (1918-1929), a major animated series of the silent era. Throughout the series, he goes on many adventures with ...

'' cartoons. While stationed at Drew Field in Tampa, FL, he created ''Droopy the Drew Field Mosquito'' which ran in th
''Drew Field Echoes''
from 1942-1944. He began drawing comic books and he is best known in that field for being the artistic co-creator of the

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

superhero

The Flash The Flash (or simply Flash) is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (cover date ...

. Created in collaboration with writer

Gardner Fox Gardner Francis Cooper Fox (May 20, 1911 – December 24, 1986) was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. He is estimated to have written more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC ...

, the hero first appeared in ''

Flash Comics ''Flash Comics'' is a comics anthology published by All-American Publications and later by National Periodical Publications (DC Comics). The title had 104 issues published from January 1940 to February 1949. Despite the title, the anthology featu ...

'' #1 in 1940, but Lampert left ''The Flash'' after drawing only two stories, gravitating towards his preference for humorous work. (After he discovered his fame in the comics world 50 years later, Lampert observed that he did not own any " 'original' originals", not even a Flash comic book. "It was too expensive.") He also drew the comic book characters "The King", "Red, White and Blue" and "The Atom". Lampert later went on to draw gag cartoons for ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', '' Esquire'', and ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

''. He was also an instructor for the New York City

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

and founded the Lampert Agency, an advertising company which produced award-winning ads for clients such as

Olympic Airways Olympic Airlines ( el, Ολυμπιακές Αερογραμμές, ''Olympiakés Aerogrammés'' – OA), formerly named Olympic Airways for at least four decades, was the flag carrier airline of Greece. The airline's head office was located ...

Seagram The Seagram Company Ltd. (which traded as Seagram's) was a Canadian multinational conglomerate formerly headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Originally a distiller of Canadian whisky based in Waterloo, Ontario, it was once (in the 1990s) the ...

, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. After his retirement in 1976, Lampert went on to write many instructional books on

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions ...

. A Life Master and bridge teacher licensed by the

American Contract Bridge League The American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a governing body for contract bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda. It is the largest such organization in North America having the stated mission ''"to promote, grow and sustain th ...

,So stated on the front and back covers of his book ''The Fun Way to Advanced Bridge''. Lampert spent years giving classes and working the cruise ship circuit teaching bridge to players. In the mid-1990s, Lampert became active in the

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

convention circuit, selling new sketches and

autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Inter ...

s and speaking about his famous comic book creation. Lampert died on November 13, 2004 in Boca Raton, Florida of complications from prostate cancer; he was survived by wife Adele Lampert, daughter Karen Akavan and two grandsons.

Bridge publications

* Second edition 1980, ''The Fun Way to Serious Bridge''; reprinted 1986, Simon & Schuster Fireside Books. . * * * * * ;Pamphlets * "Introduction to Defensive Play" (Devyn, 1989), Future Champions no. 10.

References

External links

Appearance on San Diego Comicon panel, 2000
video)

at Lambiek Comiclopedia
''Droopy the Drew Field Mosquito''
(scroll down) with gallery at Comics Collection, University of Florida * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lampert, Harry 1916 births 2004 deaths American comics artists Contract bridge writers Deaths from prostate cancer Writers from New York City Deaths from cancer in Florida