Vincenzo Francisco Gennaro Di Fago (; November 28, 1914 – June 13, 2002),Vincent F. Fago at the United States
Social Security Death Index
The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) was a database of death records created from the United States Social Security Administration's Death Master File until 2014. Since 2014, public access to the updated Death Master File has been via the Limit ...
via FamilySearch.org. Retrieved on January 8, 2016. known professionally as Vince Fago, was an American
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 ...
artist and writer who served as interim editor of
Timely Comics
Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...
, the
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...
predecessor of
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
service.
Fago headed the Timely animator bullpen, which was largely separate from the superhero group that produced comics featuring the
Human Torch
The Human Torch (Jonathan "Johnny" Storm) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a founding member of the Fantastic Four. He is writer Stan Lee's and artist Jack Kirby's reinvention of a si ...
tie-in
A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prop ...
and original
talking animal
A talking animal or speaking animal is any non-human animal that can produce sounds or gestures resembling those of a human language. Several species or groups of animals have developed forms of communication which superficially resemble verbal ...
Mighty Mouse
Mighty Mouse is an American animated anthropomorphic superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox. The character was originally called Super Mouse, and made his debut in the 1942 short ''The Mouse of Tomorro ...
Chad Grothkopf
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic t ...
Jim Mooney
James Noel Mooney (August 13, 1919 – March 30, 2008) was an American comics artist best known for his long tenure at DC Comics and as the signature artist of Supergirl, as well as a Marvel Comics inker and Spider-Man artist, both during wha ...
,
Kin Platt
Kin Platt (December 8, 1911 – November 30, 2003) was an American writer, artist, painter, sculptor, caricaturist, and comics artist, best known for penning radio comedy and animated TV series, as well as children's mystery novels, one of whic ...
,
Mike Sekowsky
Michael Sekowsky (; November 19, 1923 – March 30, 1989) was an American comics artist known as the penciler for DC Comics' ''Justice League of America'' during most of the 1960s, and as the regular writer and artist on ''Wonder Woman'' during th ...
Al Jaffee
Allan Jaffee (born Abraham Jaffee; March 13, 1921) is an American cartoonist. He is notable for his work in the satirical magazine '' Mad'', including his trademark feature, the ''Mad'' Fold-in. Jaffee was a regular contributor to the magazine ...
.
Later in his career, Fago oversaw Pendulum Press' ''Now Age Books'' line of comic book adaptations of literary classics.
Biography
Early career
Fago was born in 1914 in
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as en ...
, of parents who had immigrated from
Naples, Italy
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
. He had two sisters and a 10-year-older brother,
Al Fago
AL, Al, Ål or al may stand for:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Al (''Aladdin'') or Aladdin, the main character in Disney's ''Aladdin'' media
* Al (''EastEnders''), a minor character in the British soap opera
* Al (''Fullmetal ...
. At 14, Vincent Fago sold his first cartoon to the ''
New York Sun
''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...
'', for $2. He attended
DeWitt Clinton High School
, motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished
, image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg
, seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG
, seal_size = 124px
, ...
in the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, graduating at age 20, he recalled in 2001, after encountering difficulties upon losing vision in one eye at age 16. By this time he had begun work as an animation tracer at Audio Productions in the old Edison studios in
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, and advanced to become an in-betweener after the company moved to the
Fox Movietone News
Movietone News is a newsreel that ran from 1928 to 1963 in the United States. Under the name British Movietone News, it also ran in the United Kingdom from 1929 to 1986, in France also produced by Fox-Europa, in Australia and New Zealand until 1970 ...
Building. He then worked four years at the Jam Handy Studio in Detroit, Michigan, contributing, he said, to "films for Chevrolet, and stop-motion pictures, and
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
films for the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
. From there, he spent four years in Florida as an animator at Fleischer Brothers Studios, where he worked as an assistant animator on Betty Boop,
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Supermantheatrical shorts and on the
animated feature
These lists of animated feature films compiles animated feature films from around the world and is organized alphabetically under the year of release (the year the completed film was first released to the public). Theatrical releases as well as ...
s ''
Mr. Bug Goes to Town
''Mr. Bug Goes to Town'' (also known as ''Hoppity Goes to Town'' and ''Bugville'') is a 1941 American animated Technicolor feature film produced by Fleischer Studios, previewed by Paramount Pictures on December 5, 1941, and released in California ...
'' and '' Gulliver's Travels''.
After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Fago, not wishing to work on the war-related projects the studio began doing, returned to New York City. Moving in with his mother in The Bronx, he found work as a freelance artist at
Timely Comics
Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...
, the 1940s antecedent of
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
, doing such humor and talking-animal features as "Dinky" and "Frenchy Rabbit" in ''Terrytoons Comics''; "Floop and Skilly Boo" in ''Comedy Comics''; "Posty the Pelican Postman" in ''Krazy Komics'' and other titles; "Krazy Krow" in that character's eponymous comic; and, following other writers/artists, the features "Tubby an' Tack" and "Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal". He quickly became head of the "animator" bullpen producing those non-superhero comics, and during editor Stan Lee's
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
service from 1942 to 1945, Fago assumed the interim title of Timely's Editorial and Art Director, beginning on comics cover-dated March 1943. Sometime after Lee's return, Fago left to work in independent comic-book production; he and his brother Al self-published the one-shot ''Kiddie Kapers'' (under the company name Kiddie Kapers Company). He also worked as a children's-book illustrator for Golden Press.
In 1948, he took over the syndicated Sunday comic strip ''Peter Rabbit'' (based not on the
Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter (, 28 July 186622 December 1943) was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as '' The Tale of Peter Rabbit'', which was ...
books but on a character from the Thornton Burgess series that began with ''The Adventures of Peter Cottontail''), continuing with that strip until it was cancelled in 1957.
Later career
For the entire decade of the 1970s, Fago worked under a ten-year contract for
West Haven, Connecticut
West Haven is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. It is located on the coast of Long Island Sound. At the 2020 census, the population of the city was 55,584.
History
Settled in 1648, West Haven (then known as West Farms) ...
-based Pendulum Press. Based in his Bethel studio, Fago adapted, edited, and handled production for Pendulum's extensive line of ''Now Age Books'' comic book adaptation of literary classics. Specifically designed for classroom use, the Pendulum classics used typeset instead of hand lettering, vocabulary appropriate for grade levels, and included word lists and questions at the back.Inge, M. Thomas. "Comics," ''The Mark Twain Encyclopedia''. Ed. J. R. LeMaster and James D. Wilson. (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 168–171. After having difficulty finding American artists to illustrate the comics, Fago turned to
Filipino
Filipino may refer to:
* Something from or related to the Philippines
** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines.
** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
Filipino comics artists.Fago, Vincent. "Nestor Redondo and the Pendulum Classics," in ''Arthur Conan Doyle: Rosebud Graphic Classics'' (Eureka Productions, 2002), pp. 4–6. In 1970, Fago and his wife traveled to the Philippines and, with Redondo as their guide, found many artists who would illustrate most of the hundred or more titles Pendulum eventually produced.
During this period, Fago also collaborated with Vermont-based musician Julie Albright on ''The Rabbit Man Music Books'', a series designed to teach children music theory.
Other books include ''Zhin or Zhen'' (Charles Tuttle Publishing, 1972).
Personal life and family
For most of his adult life Fago and his wife, D'Ann Calhoun, whom he married in 1941, lived in a rural section of
Rockland County, New York
Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...
. They moved to
Bethel, Vermont
Bethel is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,942 at the 2020 census. The town includes the locations of Bethel village, Bethel-Gilead, East Bethel, Lilliesville, Lympus (formerly Olympus), and West Bethel. ...
, in 1968, following D'ann's appointment as director of Vermont's Arts and Crafts Service (a division of the
Vermont Department of Education
The Vermont Agency of Education is the state education agency of Vermont. It is headquartered in the National Life building in Montpelier.
In 2018, Daniel M. French, Ed.D, was named Secretary of Education and he continues to lead in that capac ...
). They had two children, son John and daughter, Celie. Fago spent his final years in BethelArndt, Richard J. A 2005 Interview with Steve Bissette about Bizarre Adventures! Enjolrasworld.com: Marvel’s Black & White Horror Magazines Checklist. Accessed May 8, 2013. with his wife before dying of cancer at age 87.
Fago's brother
Al Fago
AL, Al, Ål or al may stand for:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Al (''Aladdin'') or Aladdin, the main character in Disney's ''Aladdin'' media
* Al (''EastEnders''), a minor character in the British soap opera
* Al (''Fullmetal ...
was also a cartoonist who created the
Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1945 to 1986, having begun under a different name: T.W.O. Charles Company, in 1940. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line was a division of Charlton ...
Social Security Death Index
The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) was a database of death records created from the United States Social Security Administration's Death Master File until 2014. Since 2014, public access to the updated Death Master File has been via the Limit ...
via FamilySearch.org. Retrieved on August 7, 2015.
Vincent Fago an Vince Fago penciler credits at the
Grand Comics Database
The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information useful ...