Victor Estenio Pazmiño (June 24, 1899June 6, 1970) was a

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 comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

who was one of the earliest American

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

artists. He drew most of the covers for the seminal comics publication ''

The Funnies ''The Funnies'' is the name of two American publications from Dell Publishing (Dell Comics), the first of these a seminal 1920s precursor of comic books, and the second a standard 1930s comic book. ''The Funnies'' (1929–1930) In 1929, Georg ...

'' (

Dell Publishing Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and ...

), and followed that some years later by doing the same thing for early issues of the pioneering true comic book series ''

Famous Funnies ''Famous Funnies'' is an American comic strip anthology series published from 1934 to 1955 with two precursor One-shot (comics), one-shots appearing in 1933–1934. Published by Eastern Color Printing, ''Famous Funnies'' is considered by popular ...

'' (

Eastern Color Printing The Eastern Color Printing Company was a company that published comic books, beginning in 1933. At first, it was only newspaper comic strip reprints, but later on, original material was published. Eastern Color Printing was incorporated in 1928 ...

Biography

Born in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, Pazmiño was brought to America as an infant and educated in Brooklyn at

Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush, Brooklyn, Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brookly ...

, where he was art editor of ''The Erasmian'', and at

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

. By the mid-1920s he was producing syndicated newspaper strips including ''Frolicky Fables'' (with

Wesley Morse Wesley Morse was an American comic artist and advertising illustrator. History Born Wesley Cherry Morse in Chicago in 1897, the son of Charles and Fanny Cherry (1870–1946), Wesley Morse eventually settled in New York City. In 1918, Morse joi ...

) (the Premier Syndicate) and ''The Figgers Family''"The Figgers Family"
Retrieved 2013-04-04. (

Central Press Association The Central Press Association was American print syndication, newspaper syndication company based in Cleveland, Ohio. It was in business from 1910 to 1971. Originally independent, it was a subsidiary of King Features Syndicate from 1930 onwards. ...

). Starting in the late 1920s his work appeared regularly in American comic books, including ''

'', ''

'', ''Keen Detective Funnies'', '' Daredevil Comics'', ''

Black Terror The Black Terror is a fictional comic book superhero debuting in ''Exciting Comics'' #9, published by Nedor Comics in January 1941. The character was popular and, on the strength of the Black Terror's sales, Nedor made ''Exciting Comics'' a month ...

'', ''

Fighting Yank The Fighting Yank is the name of several superheroes, first appearing in ''Startling Comics'' #10 (Sept 1941). Fall 1941 was a boom period for patriotic superheroes as the country prepared to enter World War II; during this period, comic book pu ...

'', ''Barnyard Comics'', and ''

Whiz Comics ''Whiz Comics'' is an anthology comic book series that was published by former American comic book publishing company, Fawcett Publications between February 1940 until June 1953. It is widely known for being the comic run in which hugely popular ...

'', usually signed with his initials, VEP."A Cartoonist in the Family,"
''Inspired Frontiers'' (July 9, 2009). Retrieved 2013-04-04. He also contributed

gag cartoon A gag cartoon (also panel cartoon, single-panel cartoon, or gag panel) is most often a single-Panel (comics), panel cartoon, usually including a caption beneath the drawing. In some cases, dialogue may appear in speech balloons, following the com ...

s to ''

Ballyhoo The ballyhoo halfbeak, ballyhoo, balahu, redtailed balao or yellowtail ballyhoo (''Hemiramphus brasiliensis'') is a baitfish of the halfbeak family (Hemiramphidae). It is similar to the Balao halfbeak (''H. balao'') in most features. Some are us ...

''. Pazmiño never married or had any children. He died in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York, in 1970, at age 70.

References

External links

Victor E. Pazmino
on

Lambiek Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the prov ...

1899 births 1970 deaths American comics artists American comic strip cartoonists Artists from Brooklyn Erasmus Hall High School alumni Ecuadorian emigrants to the United States Golden Age comics creators {{comic-strip-creator-stub