Dick Hodgins Jr. (May 9, 1931 – April 3, 2016) was an American

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 ...

whose work included illustration,

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

s, and

political cartoon A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically co ...

Career

Born in

Binghamton, NY Binghamton ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conf ...

, the Hodgins family moved to

Queens, NY Queens is the largest by area of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn and by Nassau County to ...

. Dick, the son of

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region, in the United States. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by pare ...

cartoonist, Dick Hodgins Sr., was twelve years old when a sale to the now defunct

New York Mirror The ''New-York Mirror'' was a weekly newspaper published in New York City from ''1823 to 1842''. Founded by George Pope Morris and Samuel Woodworth, it was a prominent publication that focused on literature, the fine arts, and local news. It playe ...

for one dollar spurred him to a cartoon career. After attending the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

and Military Service (editing and drawing for a base newspaper in

Osaka, Japan is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third-most populous city in Japan, following the special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a populatio ...

and contributing to

Pacific Stars and Stripes ''Stars and Stripes'' is a daily American military newspaper reporting on matters concerning the members of the United States Armed Forces and their communities, with an emphasis on those serving outside the United States. It operates from insi ...

) Hodgins returned to the educational film industry. He then joined the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

illustrating feature news stories.

Hank Ketcham Henry King Ketcham (March 14, 1920 – June 1, 2001) was an American cartoonist who created the '' Dennis the Menace'' comic strip, writing and drawing it from 1951 to 1994, when he retired from drawing the daily cartoon and took up painting ...

, creator of Dennis the Menace, selected Hodgins to draw his second comic strip "

Half Hitch The half hitch is a simple List of hitch knots, hitch knot, where the Knot#Working end, working end of a line is brought over and under the Knot#Standing part, standing part. Insecure on its own, it is a valuable component of a wide variety of u ...

" 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 ...

. Hodgins also created editorial cartoons for the

New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

. After cancellation of "Half Hitch" he took on the production of King Features iconic comic strip "

Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

". Hodgins is named in the end-credits of the episode entitled "The Dead File" in Season 9 of

Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...

for the original comic strips featuring "Jessica Fox." This is also acknowledged on

imdb.com IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

. Hodgins drew cartoons for Pigmeat Markham's autobiography ''Here Comes the Judge''. Hodgins worked full-time preparing and renovating the end-product art of

Dik Browne Richard Arthur Allan Browne (August 11, 1917 – June 4, 1989) was an American cartoonist, best known for writing and drawing ''Hägar the Horrible'' and ''Hi and Lois''. Early life and education Dik Browne was born on August 11, 1917, in Manhat ...

's popular comic strip "

Hägar the Horrible ''Hägar the Horrible'' is the title and main character of an American comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It first appeared on February 4, 1973 (in Sunday papers) and the next day in daily ne ...

" and continued to create editorial cartoons for several Connecticut newspapers along with the occasional advertising assignment.

Family

A widower with two sons, Hodgins lived in Wilton, CT until his passing on April 3, 2016.

Awards

Hodgins won the

National Cartoonist 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 ...

Advertising and Illustration Award for 1964 and 1966, and their Editorial Cartoon Award for 1972 and 1976.

References

External links

NCS Awards
American editorial cartoonists American political artists American humorists American comics artists American comic strip cartoonists 1931 births 2016 deaths School of Visual Arts alumni {{US-cartoonist-stub