Robert G. Baldwin (1914–1977) was an American cartoonist. He used the signature Rupe, and was best known for his comic strip ''Freddy'', about a goofy kid.

Biography

Education and early career

Baldwin studied painting at Washington's

Corcoran School of Art The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...

. Instead of entering the field of fine art, however, he supported himself with government work and advertising art. His cartoon illustrations led him into minor

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 ...

artwork, contributing to ''

Prize Comics A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

'' and ''Spook Comics''.Lambiek
/ref>

''Freddy''

In the early 1950s, Baldwin and his wife, music teacher Helen L. Baldwin (1913–1998), were living in the Far East, where he worked for the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

, when they created the comic strip ''Freddy'' about a little boy named Freddy J. McReady. As he drew, she wrote gags for the strip, which was loosely based on their children. In 1955, he left the CIA and concentrated on the strip, using a loose brush ink style to draw his chubby child. Eventually published in 100 newspapers, it ran from 1955 to 1980, distributed by the George Matthew Adams Service and later The Washington Star Syndicate and

Field Enterprises Field Enterprises, Inc. was a private holding company that operated from the 1940s to the 1980s, founded by Marshall Field III and others, whose main assets were the ''Chicago Sun'' and ''Parade'' magazine. For various periods of time, Field Enter ...

. In 1964, Baldwin described his working methods: The appeal of Freddy and his friends was that they acted like real children, often hyperactive. In 1969, a curious attempt to make the character slightly older and less childlike backfired, as evident in an April 30, 1969 statement by Harry E. Elmlark of the Washington Star Syndicate: During the 1960s, Baldwin's assistant was Howard Rands, who drew his own strip, ''Twitch'', during the 1970s. Born in Geneva, New York, Rands studied at the Abbott Art School, was in the U. S. Merchant Marine and illustrated several

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

magazines. The Baldwins lived in Washington, D.C. Robert Baldwin died in 1977, and Helen Baldwin died March 14, 1998, from

Lou Gehrig's disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

Books

Ken Pierce Books did a 64-page book collection of the ''Freddy'' daily strips that ran from May to October in 1956.Ken Pierce Books
/ref> Dell's ''Freddy'' comic book, which ran for three issues in 1963-64, was not by Baldwin but was drawn by Bob Gustafson.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Robert 1977 deaths American comic strip cartoonists 1914 births