Bobby London

Robert "Bobby" London (born June 29, 1950) is an American underground comix and mainstream comics artist. His style evokes the work of early American cartoonists like George Herriman and Elzie Crisler Segar.

Biography

As a child, London was "pen pals" with comedian Stan Laurel, who provided critiques on London's youthful cartoons.Donahue, Don and Susan Goodrick, editors. ''The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics'' (Links Books/Quick Fox, 1974), p. 153. His first professional cartooning was for the left-wing ''National Guardian'' in the late 1960s. He created his underground newspaper comic strip ''Merton'', in New York in 1969. He also drew cartoons for ''Rat Subterranean News'' before moving to the West Coast.

The nucleus of the Air Pirates collective began to form in c. 1970 when London met Ted Richards at the office of the ''Berkeley Tribe'', an underground newspaper where both were staff cartoonists. (London later drew a highly fictionalized account of their experiences at the ''Tribe'' in his story "Why Bobby Seale is Not Black" in ''Merton of the Movement'' ast Gasp's "Cocoanut Comix" imprint, Oct. 1972. In 1970, London and Richards attended the Sky River Rock Festival at Washougal, Washington, and met Shary Flenniken and Dan O'Neill at the media booth,RINGGENBERG, S.C
"Bobby London and the Air Pirates Follies,"
Comix Art & Graffix Gallery (May 12, 1998). where Flenniken was producing a daily Sky River newsletter on a mimeograph machine. Before the festival was over the four of them produced a four-page tabloid comic, ''Sky River Funnies'', mostly drawn by London.

In early 1971, O'Neill invited Flenniken and Richards, along with London and Gary Hallgren, a Seattle cartoonist they had met at the festival, to San Francisco to form the Air Pirates collective. The Air Pirates lived together in a warehouse on Harrison Street in San Francisco, where London and Flenniken began a relationship that turned into a short-lived marriage.

London developed the raunchy '' Dirty Duck'' strip in 1971. ''Dirty Duck'' had been originally published by the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' and subsequently in books like ''Air Pirates Funnies'' and ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers''. His non-duck work also appeared in underground titles such as ''Merton of the Movement'', ''Left Field Funnies'', ''Douglas Comics'', ''Facts O' Life Funnies'' and ''El Perfecto Comics''. In 1972, London moved ''Dirty Duck'' to the original '' National Lampoon'' where it was a regular monthly feature until 1976; it continued to run in ''Playboy'' for over 25 years.

In 1978, London won the Jury for Best Artist-Writer, presented at Lucca Comics & Games. He contributed illustrations to ''The New York Times'' Op-Ed page from 1976 to 1981, and wrote and drew the ''Popeye from 1986 to 1992, at which point he was fired for doing an allegory about abortion.

In the summer of 2000, London unveiled a family-oriented comic feature for ''Nickelodeon Magazine'' entitled ''Cody''. He wrote and storyboarded episodes of ''Dexter's Laboratory''Bobby London
at LinkedIn. and ''The Powerpuff Girls'' for Cartoon Network in 2003 and 2004, and contributed character designs for King Neptune and Mindy of ''The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie''. In 2018, London contributed to the design of Mike Quinn's character Agnes Packard for the ''Mighty Magiswords'' second season episode, "Pachydermus Packard and the Camp of Fantasy".https://www.facebook.com/Ratfink/posts/10217976087739330?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22O%22%7D

London returned to comic books for the first time in 30 years with contributions to the Grammy-nominated box set from Rhino Records, ''Weird Tales of The Ramones'', in 2005.

References

External links

* Ringgenberg, S. C
"Bobby London and the Air Pirates Follies,"
Comic Art and Graffix Gallery (5-12-98)

at Lambiek's Comiclopedia

{{DEFAULTSORT:London, Bobby
1950 births
American comic strip cartoonists
American comics artists
Living people
Underground cartoonists
Playboy cartoonists
Popeye