Alex Kotzky (September 11, 1923 – September 26, 1996) was a cartoonist best known for his three decades of work on the comic strip ''

Apartment 3-G ''Apartment 3-G'' is an American newspaper soap opera comic strip about a trio of career women who share an apartment in Manhattan. Created by Nicholas P. Dallis with art by Alex Kotzky, the strip began May 8, 1961, initially distributed by t ...

'', originally distributed by

Publishers Syndicate Publishers Newspaper Syndicate (later Publishers Syndicate) was a syndication service based in Chicago that operated from 1925 to 1967, when it merged with the Hall Syndicate. Publishers syndicated such long-lived comic strips as '' Big Chief Wa ...

Biography

Early life and education

Born in New York City, Kotzky studied 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 ...

and attended the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

on a 1941 scholarship. While still a student, he answered a newspaper ad for a comic book artist and worked in 1940 with Chad Grothkopf on features for National/DC Comics, including such characters as

Johnny Quick Johnny Quick may refer to: * Johnny Quick (Crime Syndicate) * Johnny Quick (Johnny Chambers) See also * Jonathan Quick, hockey player {{dab ...

Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character originating in Germanic and Scandinavian folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The San ...

, Three Aces and Detective Chimp.Alex Kotzky
at the

Lambiek Comiclopedia Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ). His son Boris Kousemaker has been the owner since 2007. From 1968 to 2015, it was located in the Ke ...

Comics

While working on '' Blackhawk'' and ''Espionage'', he drew backgrounds for

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner ( ; March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series '' The Spirit'' (1940–1952) wa ...

's '' The Spirit''. He worked on ''

Plastic Man Plastic Man (Patrick "Eel" O'Brian) is a superhero featured in American comic books first appearing in ''Police Comics'' #1, originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Created by cartoonist Jack Cole (artist), Jack Co ...

'', '' Doll Man'', '' Kid Eternity'' and '' Manhunter'' for

Quality Comics Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, ...

from 1946 to 1951. He drew horror,

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

, and war comics for Ziff-Davis Comics. Freelancing in 1954, he did illustrations for medical magazines and the Johnstone and Cushing ad agency. He also did at least two booklets for Will Eisner's American Visuals, the General Motors Informational Rack Booklet GM-IR-56-35: "The Story of the Olympics," and American Trucking Association's "Heroes of the Highways." With

Allen Saunders Allen Saunders (April 24, 1899 – January 28, 1986) was an American writer, journalist and cartoonist who wrote the comic strips ''Steve Roper and Mike Nomad'', ''Mary Worth'' and ''Kerry Drake''. He is credited with being the originator of the ...

, he did a Philip Morris comic strip advertisement series, ''"Duke" Handy'' (which launched March 30, 1958, and ran until September 14 of that year) while also ghosting for newspaper strips (''

Steve Canyon ''Steve Canyon'' is an American Action-adventure comics, action-adventure comic strip by cartoonist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, ''Terry and the Pirates (comic strip), Terry and the Pirates'', ''S ...

'', '' The Heart of Juliet Jones'', '' Big Ben Bolt''). In 1955/56 he did interior illustrations for the Ziff-Davis science fiction magazines '' If'' and ''

Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearance ...

''. Kotzky and writer Nicholas P. Dallis launched ''Apartment 3-G'' in 1961. Kotzky, who drew and inked in a tight and crisp realistic style, was the artist of ''Apartment 3-G'' for more than 30 years. When Dallis died in 1991, Kotzky began writing the strip. After a struggle with kidney disease, Kotzky died in 1996. The strip was continued by Kotzky's son, Brian, with writer Lisa Trusiani.

Awards

Kotzky 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 ...

Story Comic Strip Award for 1968 for his work on ''Apartment 3-G''.

References

External links

NCS Awards

* * * American comics artists American comics writers American comic strip cartoonists 1923 births 1996 deaths {{US-cartoonist-stub