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 A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

who worked for both

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 ...

s and comic books. He was a prolific cartoonist and drew many of the humor and filler strips that appeared in

National Periodical 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 their f ...

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 was an editor. His most prominent creation for DC was "Dover & Clover" which debuted in '' More Fun Comics'' #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 Super-Turtle (or Super Turtle) is a fictional character from DC Comics, created by Henry Boltinoff; he is depicted as a bipedal anthropomorphic turtle wearing a cape like Superman's. His emblem, which is on his cape, is a letter T in a shield. Pu ...

", "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 ...

by Gaspar Saladino. Boltinoff's final creation for DC was "Cap's Hobby Hints". In 1969, he became the writer of the ''

Date with Debbi ''Date with Debbi'' is a DC Comics comic book series, which ran for 18 issues between 1969 and 1972. About Debbi's attempts to find happiness, often through dating, the series combined humor and romance elements. Similar in appearance and tone to A ...

'' and '' Swing with Scooter'' 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 ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...

, The Saturday Evening Post, True, Liberty, The American Legion, Sunday newspaper magazines such as This Week, Today, The American Weekly,

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

and almost every other general interest magazine, from

The Progressive Farmer ''Progressive Farmer'' is an agricultural magazine, published 14 times a year by Data Transmission Network, DTN. The magazine is based in Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama. History Founded in Winston, North Carolina, in 1886 by North Car ...

The Ford Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. He also sold a lot of cartoons to special cartoon magazines, such as 1000 Jokes, Judge and Gags.For

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

he did a monthly one page feature identifying character types between 1944 and 1947 and for King Features' Pictorial Review 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 Humorama, a division of Martin Goodman (publisher), Martin Goodman's publishing firm, was a line of digest-sized magazines featuring girlie cartoons by Bill Ward (cartoonist), Bill Ward, Bill Wenzel, Dan DeCarlo, Jack Cole (artist), Jack Cole and m ...

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 ''This Funny World'' was a gag cartoon panel syndicated to newspapers by the McNaught Syndicate from March 6, 1944, to 1985. In addition to original cartoons, the series featured numerous reprints of cartoons previously published in leading mag ...

'' (a daily cartoon panel from the

McNaught syndicate The McNaught Syndicate was an American newspaper syndicate founded in 1922. It was established by Virgil Venice McNitt (who gave it his name) and Charles V. McAdam. Its best known contents were the columns by Will Rogers and O. O. McIntyre, the ' ...

) 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 King Features). He also had his own panels: ''Woody Forrest'' (1960), ''

Stoker the Broker ''Stoker the Broker'' is a cartoon gag panel by Henry Boltinoff which was distributed to newspapers from September 7, 1959, to 1985 by Columbia Features and the Washington Star Syndicate. Characters and stories Working in a style somewhat similar ...

'' (1960), and ''Hocus-Focus'' through 2001. He received the

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) 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 ...

'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 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, editoria ...

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'' #45 (1984) * '' Binky'' #77 (1971) * ''Binky's Buddies'' #11–12 (1970) * ''

'' #3–5, 14 (1969–1971) * ''

Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is best known for introducing the superhero Batman i ...

'' #158, 163, 165, 171 (Dover and Clover) (1950–1951) * '' More Fun Comics'' #94–100, 102–127 (Dover and Clover) (1943–1947) * '' Star Spangled Comics'' #23, 24, 96 (1943–1949) * '' Swing with Scooter'' #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