Henry Boltinoff (February 19, 1914 – April 26, 2001) 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 ...

who worked for both

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

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

s. He was a prolific cartoonist and drew many of the humor and filler strips that appeared in

National Periodical DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

comics from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Career

Comic books

Born in New York City, Boltinoff created numerous humor features for DC Comics, where his brother

Murray Boltinoff Murray Boltinoff (January 3, 1911 – May 6, 1994) was an American writer and editor of comic books who worked for DC Comics from the 1940s to the 1980s, in which role he edited over 50 different comic book series. Biography A graduate of Ne ...

was an editor. His most prominent creation for DC was "Dover & Clover" which debuted in ''

More Fun Comics ''More Fun Comics'', originally titled ''New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine'',''New Fun'' #v1#1 (Feb. 1935 ...

'' #94 (Nov. 1943). Boltinoff's other features include "Abdul the Fire Eater", "Bebe", "Billy", "Buck Skinner", "Cap's Hobby Center", "Casey the Cop", "Charlie Cannonball", "Chief Hot Foot", "Cora the Carhop", "Dexter", "Doctor Floogle", "Doctor Rocket", "Elvin", "Freddie the Frogman", "Hamid the Hypnotist", "Homer", "Honey in Hollywood", "Hy the Spy", "Hy Wire", "Jail Jests", "Jerry the Jitterbug", "King Kale", "Lefty Looie", "Lem 'n' Lime", "Lionel and His Lions", "Little Pete", "Little Pocahontas", "Lucky", "The Magic Genie", "Moolah the Mystic", "No-Chance Charley", "Ollie", "On the Set", "Peg", "Peter Puptent", "Prehistoric Fun", "Professor Eureka", "Sagebrush Sam", "Shorty", "Stan", "

Super-Turtle Super-Turtle (or Super Turtle) is a fictional character from DC Comics, created by Henry Boltinoff; he is depicted as a bipedal anthropomorphic turtle wearing a cape like Superman's. His emblem, which is on his cape, is a letter T in a shield. Pu ...

", "Tricksy the World's Greatest Stunt Man" and "Warden Willis". These were usually lettered by

Gaspar Saladino Gaspar Saladino (September 1, 1927 – August 4, 2016) was an American letterer and logo designer who worked for more than sixty years in the comic book industry, mostly for DC Comics. Eventually Saladino went by one name, "Gaspar," which he wrote ...

. Boltinoff's final creation for DC was "Cap's Hobby Hints". In 1969, he became the writer of the ''

Date with Debbi ''Date with Debbi'' is a DC Comics comic book series, which ran for 18 issues between 1969 and 1972. About Debbi's attempts to find happiness, often through dating, the series combined humor and romance elements. Similar in appearance and tone to A ...

'' and ''

Swing with Scooter ''Swing with Scooter'' is a DC Comics teen-humor American comic book published from 1966 to 1972. It starred a British teenage musician nicknamed Scooter who lived in the US. Publication history ''Swing with Scooter'' was published by DC Comics for ...

'' titles.

Magazine cartoons

Boltinoff started doing magazine cartoons in the early forties. He contributed to all of the mid range magazines, such as ''Look'', ''

Collier's } ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

'', ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

'', ''

True True most commonly refers to truth, the state of being in congruence with fact or reality. True may also refer to: Places * True, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States * True, Wisconsin, a town in the United States * ...

'', ''Liberty'', ''

The American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is an organization of U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises state, U.S. territory, and overseas departments, in turn made up of local posts. It was established ...

':, Sunday newspaper magazines such as ''

This Week This Week may refer to: * ''This Week'' (1956 TV programme), a 1956–1992 British current affairs television programme broadcast on ITV * ''This Week'' (2003 TV programme), a weekly British political discussion television programme that aired on ...

', ''Today'', ''

The American Weekly ''The American Weekly'' was a Sunday newspaper supplement published by the Hearst Corporation from November 1, 1896, until 1966. History During the 1890s, publications were inserted into Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'' and William Rando ...

'', ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

'' and almost every other general interest magazine, from ''

The Progressive Farmer ''Progressive Farmer'' is an agricultural magazine, published 14 times a year by DTN. The magazine is based in Birmingham, Alabama. History Founded in Winston, North Carolina, in 1886 by North Carolina native Leonidas Lafayette Polk (1837� ...

'' to ''The Ford Times''. He also sold a large number of cartoons to special cartoon magazines, such as ''1000 Jokes'' and ''Judge and Gags''.For ''

Judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

'' he did a monthly one page feature identifying character types between 1944 and 1947 and for

King Features King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...

Pictorial Review The ''Pictorial Review'' was an American women's magazine published from 1899 to 1939. Based in New York, the ''Pictorial Review'' was first published in September 1899. The magazine was originally designed to showcase dress patterns of German ...

he had a regular page of gags under the title "Gags and Gals". All in all he was one of the best selling cartoonists in the 1940s and into the 1950s. Even while doing his filler strips for DC, his cartoons kept appearing in magazines such as '' Boy's Life'' and many of the low rent

Humorama Humorama, a division of Martin Goodman (publisher), Martin Goodman's publishing firm, was a line of digest-sized magazines featuring girlie cartoons by Bill Ward (cartoonist), Bill Ward, Bill Wenzel, Dan DeCarlo, Jack Cole (artist), Jack Cole and ...

titles.

Comic strips and panels

Boltinoff was a regular contributor to ''This and That'' (a daily cartoon panel from the George Matthew Adams syndicate), ''Nubbin'' (1970 - 1986), ''

This Funny World ''This Funny World'' was a gag cartoon panel syndicated to newspapers by the McNaught Syndicate from March 6, 1944, to 1985. In addition to original cartoons, the series featured numerous reprints of cartoons previously published in leading maga ...

'' (a daily cartoon panel from the

McNaught syndicate The McNaught Syndicate was an American newspaper syndicate founded in 1922. It was established by Virgil Venice McNitt (who gave it his name) and Charles V. McAdam. Its best known contents were the columns by Will Rogers and O. O. McIntyre, the ...

) and ''

Laff-A-Day ''Laff-a-Day'' is a daily gag cartoon panel distributed to newspapers by King Features Syndicate from 1936 to 1998. The cartoonists included Frank Beaven, Henry Boltinoff, Dave Breger, Bo Brown, Orlando Busino, George Gately, Martin Giuffre, Al ...

'' (a daily cartoon panel from

). He also had his own panels: ''Woody Forrest'' (1960), ''

Stoker the Broker ''Stoker the Broker'' is a cartoon gag panel by Henry Boltinoff which was distributed to newspapers from September 7, 1959, to 1985 by Columbia Features and the Washington Star Syndicate. Characters and stories Working in a style somewhat simila ...

'' (1960), and ''Hocus-Focus'' through 2001. He 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 ...

's Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award in 1981 and also received their Humor Comic Book Award for 1970. ''Hocus-Focus'' may have been Boltinoff's best-known work. The

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 ...

feature, which was started c. 1965 by Harold Kaufmann, includes two similar panels with six differences between them. It continues to run in over 300 newspapers.

Bibliography

DC Comics

* ''All Funny Comics'' #1–23 (Dover and Clover) (1943–1948) * ''

The Best of DC ''The Best of DC'' is a digest size comics anthology published by DC Comics from September–October 1979 to April 1986. The series ran for 71 issues and while it primarily featured reprints of older comic books, it occasionally published new st ...

'' #45 (1984) * '' Binky'' #77 (1971) * ''Binky's Buddies'' #11–12 (1970) * ''

'' #3–5, 14 (1969–1971) * ''

Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' (later retitled as ''Batman Detective Comics'') is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is ...

'' #158, 163, 165, 171 (Dover and Clover) (1950–1951) * ''

More Fun Comics ''More Fun Comics'', originally titled ''New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine'',''New Fun'' #v1#1 (Feb. 1935 ...

'' #94–100, 102–127 (Dover and Clover) (1943–1947) * ''

Star Spangled Comics ''Star Spangled Comics'' is a comics anthology published by DC Comics which ran for 130 issues from October 1941 to July 1952. It was then retitled ''Star Spangled War Stories'' and lasted until issue #204 (February–March 1977). Publication hi ...

'' #23, 24, 96 (1943–1949) * ''

Superboy Superboy is an identity used by several fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. These characters have been featured in several eponymous comic series, in addition to ''Adventure Comics'' and other series ...

'' #83 (1960) * ''

'' #17–18, 29, 31 (1969–1970) * ''World's Best Comics'' #1 (1941) * ''

World's Finest Comics ''World's Finest Comics'' is an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1941 to 1986. The series was initially titled ''World's Best Comics'' for its first issue; issue #2 (Summer 1941) switched to the more familiar name. Michael ...

'' #2–4, 12, 67 (1941–1953)

References

External links

*
Hocus Focus
at King Features
Henry Boltinoff
an
The Henry Boltinoff Hall of Fame Gallery
at Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics *
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Art Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boltinoff, Henry 1914 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American artists 21st-century American artists American comic strip cartoonists American comics writers Artists from New York City DC Comics people Golden Age comics creators Inkpot Award winners Silver Age comics creators