Bela P. Zaboly (4 May 1910 – 11 April 1985), a.k.a. Bill Zaboly, was a first-generation Hungarian-American cartoonist best known for his work as the sole illustrator for the daily and weekly strips of ''Thimble Theatre’s'' ''
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Ralph Stein). Zaboly's well-known and distinctively illustrated signature used the initials BZ with the "B" formed by the wings of a bumblebee.Potrzebie /ref> In headings for ''Thimble Theatre'', his typeset credit line often used his Americanized name, Bill, rather than his Hungarian given name, Bela.
Biography
Born in
Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
, Ohio to Hungarian immigrants, Zaboly drew for his school paper in high school. He was quoted by his school newspaper saying he “fully expects to become a professional artist one day.” He followed that dream — and after graduation, he was employed in the art department of the Cleveland-based syndicate,
Newspaper Enterprise Association
The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary new ...
, where he started as an office boy and eventually became a staff cartoonist. Meanwhile, he also studied at the world-renowned Cleveland Institute of Art.
Early strips
As an illustrator, printmaker (with works in Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian) and painter, he exhibited in Cleveland and Chicago during the early 1930s, also creating the
Sunday strip
The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in some Western newspapers. Compared to weekday comics, Sunday comics tend to be full pages and are in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, t ...
''Otto Honk'' about moon-faced, dim-bulb Otto, who was variously employed as a private eye, movie stunt man and football player. Zaboly discontinued this strip in 1936. He was an assistant to
Roy Crane
Royston Campbell Crane (November 22, 1901 – July 7, 1977), who signed his work Roy Crane, was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip characters Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy and Buz Sawyer. He pioneered the adventure comic strip, estab ...
on ''Wash Tubbs'', and from 1936 to 1938 he drew ''
Our Boarding House
''Our Boarding House'' is an American Panel (comics), single-panel cartoon and comic strip created by Gene Ahern on October 3, 1921 and syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association. Set in a boarding house run by the sensible Mrs. Hoople, it ...
'' after
Gene Ahern
Eugene Leslie Ahern (September 16, 1895 – March 6, 1960) was a cartoonist best known for his bombastic Major Hoople, a pompous character who appeared in the long-run syndicated gag panel '' Our Boarding House''. Many of Ahern's comic strips took ...
left NEA to do ''
Room and Board
Room and board describes an accommodation which, in exchange for money, labour or other recompense, a person is provided with a place to live in addition to meals. It commonly occurs as a fee at higher educational institutions, such as colleges ...
'' for
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product License, licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, columnist, newspape ...
.Zaboly entry Lambiek's ''Comiclopedia''. Accessed Dec. 13, 2018.Grandinetti, Fred M. ''Popeye: An Illustrated Cultural History'', McFarland, 2004. /ref> Zaboly, his wife Irene, son, and two daughters lived in various places throughout his storied career, spending most of their time in either Connecticut (to be close to the publishers in New York), a historic mansion on North Park Blvd. in Shaker Heights, Ohio, or the family farm in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
Popeye
After ''Popeye'' creator E. C. Segar died in 1938, ''Thimble Theatre'' was scripted by Tom Sims. Doc Winner (1884–1956), who worked in the King Features bullpen, illustrated the strip for a year until Zaboly was asked to begin illustrating the daily and Sunday strips in 1939. Zaboly and Sims produced the
daily strip
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays. They typically are smaller, 3–4 grids compared to the full page Sunday s ...
until 1954, and they worked on the Sunday strip until 1959. Ralph Stein began writing the daily in December 1954, alongside Zaboly as artist. Upon Zaboly’s retirement from Popeye,
Bud Sagendorf
Forrest Cowles Sagendorf (March 22, 1915 – September 22, 1994), better known as Bud Sagendorf, was an American cartoonist, notable for his work on King Features Syndicate's '' Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye'' comic strip.
Personal life
Born in ...
was given the opportunity to draw both the daily and Sunday strips in 1958. However, his work was not published until August (daily) and September (Sunday) of 1959, after Zaboly’s backlog of final strips ran. Zaboly also continued Segar's ''Sappo'' topper strip.
Zaboly made certain changes in the strip, including the addition of new characters. However, most notably he replaced Swee'pea's nightgown with a small sailor suit, by the request of King Features. This change allowed Swee'pea to walk during the years 1957 to 1959. This was considered controversial to many fans, yet exciting for many others. However, Sagendorf later returned the character to his original appearance.
Zaboly's art was featured in many licensed ''Popeye'' items from the late 1950s through 1964, including many coloring books during this period. These items included ''Popeye's Presto Paints'' (Kenner, 1961) and ''Popeye's Color and Re-Color Book'' (Jack Built-Toys, 1957), and many others, which used all of Zaboly's art.
The last ''Thimble Theatre'' daily by Zaboly was published August 8, 1959, with his Sunday strips continuing for a few months after that. With his ''Thimble Theater'' run ending, Zaboly returned to Chagrin Falls, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland), where he spent time working for NEA. As a hobby, he even sold art for the Alan Junkins Studio in Cleveland's Caxton building. He later attempted to launch his own syndicate, "New Features Syndicate", but was beginning to suffer from a series of mini-strokes, which forced him to retire altogether.
Death
Zaboly passed from heart disease in 1985 in Chagrin Falls, Ohio at the age of 75.
Reprints
Much of Zaboly's work was reprinted in ''Four Color'', ''Magic Comics'', "Dagwood" and ''King Comics''.