Bob Oksner, one of the true pillars of comics, died of pneumonia at age 90 yesterday. Mark Evanier has a full obit. Oksner created the comic strip MISS CAIRO JONES, but went on to a long career in comics drawing what could truly be called “funny books”: BOB HOPE, JERRY LEWIS, LEAVE IT TO BINKY, STANLEY AND HIS MONSTER and many many more. He also created ANGEL AND THE APE.
Sheldon Mayer, an editor at DC, had been a fan of Miss Cairo Jones and he invited Oksner to work for DC…an association that kept Bob occupied for the rest of his career. He started on The Black Canary and other strips featuring pretty ladies and soon segued to humor features, especially ones based on licensed properties. Oksner drew The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis until that team split up, whereupon his assignment became The Adventures of Jerry Lewis. He also drew Sgt. Bilko, Doberman, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Pat Boone, The Adventures of Bob Hope and non-licensed humor titles like Leave it to Binky, Miss Beverly Hills, A Date With Judy and Stanley and His Monster. One of his more memorable stints was as artist/co-creator of the short-lived The Angel and the Ape in the late sixties. He received the National Cartoonists Society Award in its Comic Book Division for 1960 and 1961 won the Shazam Award in 1970 for Best Pencil Artist (Humor Division).
In my opinion, Bob Oksner was one of the really underrated comic artists. He had so much humanity in his drawing, and the subtle gestures there were anything but forced.
I’m partial to his Mary Marvel stories.
Hey pallie Heidi, like thanks for the Dinomention. Would love to get my hands on some of those Dino and Jer comics. Never was, never will be anyone as cool as the King of Cool. To bad Oksner didn’t focus on Dino for some comics…that would have been way cool. Oh, to return to the days when Dino walked the earth.
Nobody draw women like Bob Oksner did. I have always been in love with Supergirl drawn by him. He will be missed.