Henry Boltinoff (February 19, 1914 – April 26, 2001) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

cartoonist who worked for both comic strips and

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 ...

s. He was a prolific cartoonist and drew many of the humor and filler strips that appeared in National Periodical comics from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Biography

Comic books

Born in New York City, Boltinoff created numerous humor features for DC Comics, where his brother

Murray Boltinoff Murray Boltinoff (January 3, 1911 – May 6, 1994 in Pompano Beach, Florida) was a writer and editor of comic books, who worked for DC Comics from the 1940s to the 1980s, in which role he edited over 50 different comic book series. Biograph ...

was an editor. His most prominent creation for DC was "Dover & Clover" which debuted in ''

More Fun Comics ''More Fun Comics'', originally titled ''New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine'' a.k.a. ''New Fun Comics'',''N ...

'' #94 (Nov. 1943). Boltinoff's other features include "Abdul the Fire Eater", "Bebe", "Billy", "Buck Skinner", "Cap's Hobby Center", "Casey the Cop", "Charlie Cannonball", "Chief Hot Foot", "Cora the Carhop", "Dexter", "Doctor Floogle", "Doctor Rocket", "Elvin", "Freddie the Frogman", "Hamid the Hypnotist", "Homer", "Honey in Hollywood", "Hy the Spy", "Hy Wire", "Jail Jests", "Jerry the Jitterbug", "King Kale", "Lefty Looie", "Lem 'n' Lime", "Lionel and His Lions", "Little Pete", "Little Pocahontas", "Lucky", "The Magic Genie", "Moolah the Mystic", "No-Chance Charley", "Ollie", "On the Set", "Peg", "Peter Puptent", "Prehistoric Fun", "Professor Eureka", "Sagebrush Sam", "Shorty", "Stan", " Super-Turtle", "Tricksy the World's Greatest Stunt Man" and "Warden Willis". These were usually

lettered Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

Gaspar Saladino Gaspar Saladino (September 1, 1927 – August 4, 2016) was an American letterer and logo designer who worked for more than sixty years in the comic book industry, mostly for DC Comics. Eventually Saladino went by one name, "Gaspar," which he wrote ...

. Boltinoff's final creation for DC was "Cap's Hobby Hints". In 1969, he became the writer of the '' Date with Debbi'' and ''

Swing with Scooter ''Swing with Scooter'' is a DC Comics teen-humor American comic book published from 1966 to 1972. It starred a British teenage musician nicknamed Scooter who lived in the US. Publication history ''Swing with Scooter'' was published by DC Comics for ...

'' titles. Magazine Cartoons Boltinoff started doing magazine cartoons in the early forties. He contributed to all of the mid range magazines, such as Look, Collier's,

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 ...

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, Liberty,

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, Sunday newspaper magazines such as This Week, Today,

The American Weekly ''The American Weekly'' was a Sunday newspaper supplement published by the Hearst Corporation from November 1, 1896, until 1966. History During the 1890s, publications were inserted into Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'' and William Randolp ...

, Parade and almost every other general interest magazine, from

The Progressive Farmer ''Progressive Farmer'' is an agricultural magazine, published 14 times a year by DTN. The magazine is based in Birmingham, Alabama. History Founded in Winston, North Carolina, in 1886 by North Carolina native Leonidas Lafayette Polk (1837–1 ...

to The Ford Times. He also sold a lot of cartoons to special cartoon magazines, such as 1000 Jokes, Judge and Gags.For Judge he did a monthly one page feature identifying character types between 1944 and 1947 and for

King Features King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial ...

Pictorial Review The ''Pictorial Review'' was an American women's magazine published from 1899 to 1939. Based in New York, the ''Pictorial Review'' was first published in September 1899. The magazine was originally designed to showcase dress patterns of German i ...

he had a regular page of gags under the title "Gags and Gals". All in all he was one of the best selling cartoonists in the forties and into the fifties. Even while doing his filler strips for DC, his cartoons kept appearing in magazines such as Boy's Life and many of the low rent Humorama titles.

Comic strips and panels

Boltinoff was a regular contributor to ''This and That'' (a daily cartoon panel from the George Matthew Adams syndicate), ''Nubbin'' (1970 - 1986), '' This Funny World'' (a daily cartoon panel from the McNaught syndicate) and ''

Laff-A-Day ''Laff-a-Day'' is a daily gag cartoon panel distributed to newspapers by King Features Syndicate from 1936 to 1998. The cartoonists included Frank Beaven, Henry Boltinoff, Dave Breger, Bo Brown, Orlando Busino, George Gately, Martin Giuffre, Al ...

'' (a daily cartoon panel from

). He also had his own panels: ''Woody Forrest'' (1960), '' Stoker the Broker'' (1960), and ''Hocus-Focus'' through 2001. He received the National Cartoonists Society's Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award in 1981 and also received their Humor Comic Book Award for 1970. ''Hocus-Focus'' may have been Boltinoff's best-known work. The King Features Syndicate feature, which was started c. 1965 by Harold Kaufmann, includes two similar panels with six differences between them. It continues to run in over 300 newspapers.

Bibliography

DC Comics

* ''All Funny Comics'' #1–23 (Dover and Clover) (1943–1948) * ''

The Best of DC ''The Best of DC'' is a digest size comics anthology published by DC Comics from September–October 1979 to April 1986. The series ran for 71 issues and while it primarily featured reprints of older comic books, it occasionally published new s ...

'' #45 (1984) * '' Binky'' #77 (1971) * ''Binky's Buddies'' #11–12 (1970) * '' Date with Debbi'' #3–5, 14 (1969–1971) * '' Detective Comics'' #158, 163, 165, 171 (Dover and Clover) (1950–1951) * ''

More Fun Comics ''More Fun Comics'', originally titled ''New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine'' a.k.a. ''New Fun Comics'',''N ...

'' #94–100, 102–127 (Dover and Clover) (1943–1947) * ''

Star Spangled Comics ''Star Spangled Comics'' was a comics anthology published by DC Comics which ran for 130 issues from October 1941 to July 1952. It was then retitled ''Star Spangled War Stories'' and lasted until issue #204 (February–March 1977). Publication his ...

'' #23, 24, 96 (1943–1949) * ''

'' #17–18, 29, 31 (1969–1970) * ''World's Best Comics'' #1 (1941) * ''

World's Finest Comics ''World's Finest Comics'' was an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1941 to 1986. The series was initially titled ''World's Best Comics'' for its first issue; issue #2 (Summer 1941) switched to the more familiar name. Michael ...

'' #2–4, 12, 67 (1941–1953)

References

External links

*
Hocus Focus
at King Features
Henry Boltinoff
an
The Henry Boltinoff Hall of Fame Gallery
at Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics *
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Art Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boltinoff, Henry 1914 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American artists 21st-century American artists American comic strip cartoonists American comics writers Artists from New York City DC Comics people Golden Age comics creators Inkpot Award winners Silver Age comics creators