American cartoonist
Fred Kida
|
---|
Fred Kida, late in life
|
Born
| (
1920-12-12
)
December 12, 1920
Brooklyn
,
New York City
|
---|
Died
| April 3, 2014
(2014-04-03)
(aged 93)
|
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Area(s)
| Penciller
,
Inker
|
---|
Pseudonym(s)
| Kid, KID
|
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Notable works
| Airboy
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Fred Kida
(December 12, 1920 ? April 3, 2014) was a
Japanese-American
[1]
comic book
and
comic strip
artist
best known for the 1940s aviator hero
Airboy
and his antagonist and sometime ally Valkyrie during the period fans and historians call the
Golden Age of Comic Books
. He went on to draw for
Marvel Comics
' 1950s iteration,
Atlas Comics
, in a variety of genres and styles, and then again for Marvel
superhero
titles in the 1970s. He drew the company's
The Amazing Spider-Man
newspaper comic strip during the early to mid-1980s. Kida also assisted artist
Dan Barry
on the long-running strip
Flash Gordon
from 1958 to 1961 and then again from 1968 to 1971.
Biography
[
edit
]
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Born on December 12, 1920,
[2]
in
Brooklyn
[3]
and raised in
Manhattan
,
New York City
, Kida attended the city's
American School of Design
, where
Bill Fraccio
and
Bob Fujitani
were classmates.
[4]
Like many young artists in the 1930s to 1940s
Golden Age of Comic Books
, he then broke into the field at the
Jerry Iger Studio
,
[2]
formerly
Eisner & Iger
, one of the earliest "packagers" that produced outsourced comic book content for
publishers
entering the new
medium
. Starting as an
inker
and background artist in 1941, Kida moved on to a staff position at Iger client
Quality Comics
.
[
citation needed
]
There he both
penciled
and inked his first known credited work, the feature "Phantom Clipper" in
Military Comics
#9 (April 1942).
[5]
Airboy and afterward
[
edit
]
In 1942, he joined
Hillman Periodicals
, where he drew such features as "Iron Ace" (from its premiere in
Air Fighters Comics
#2, Nov. 1942),
[6]
"Boy King" and "Gunmaster", and the following year began work on his most prominent Golden Age character,
Airboy
. That aviation hero, created by writer
Charles Biro
with scripter
Dick Wood
and artist
Al Camy
, appeared initially in
Air Fighters Comics
, later renamed
Airboy Comics
.
[5]
Aside from Airboy himself, the feature was known for the sexy antagonist Valkyrie, a cleavage-baring
Axis
aviatrix who soon defected and became his ally.
[7]
Kida remained on the feature through 1948, afterward working with writer Biro on such Hillman
crime comics
as the seminal
Crime Does Not Pay
.
[5]
From 1949 to 1951, he drew
Western
, crime and
romance comics
for
Lev Gleason Publications
, signing some stories
Kid
or
KID
.
[5]
In 1952, he left to freelance for
Atlas Comics
, the 1950s forerunner of
Marvel Comics
. There he worked on characters including the
Western
gunslingers the
Ringo Kid
and the
Two-Gun Kid
and the medieval hero the
Black Knight
, plus humor,
horror
,
war
and
Bible stories
.
[5]
Kida returned to Marvel in the 1970s, primarily as an inker, working on such characters as
Iron Man
,
Godzilla
,
Ka-Zar
,
Luke Cage
and
Man-Wolf
, plus
Captain Britain
for
Marvel UK
. His final known full comic-book credit is the superhero-team title
The Defenders
#72 (June 1979) — featuring Marvel's unrelated character
Valkyrie
. His last known published comic-book work was artwork for the two-page text feature "Re-Educating Valkyrie" in
Eclipse Comics
's
Valkyrie!
#1 (May 1987), one of that publisher's revamped Airboy comics, and penciling the character entry for the
Grand Director
in Marvel's
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe
#17 (Aug. 1987).
[5]
Comic strips
[
edit
]
In addition to his comic-book work, Kida in 1941 was one of writer-artist
Will Eisner
's assistants on the
newspaper
Sunday-supplement comic-book
The Spirit
;
[8]
and from 1946-47 assisted Fujitani (also known as "Bob Wells") on the comic strip
Judge Wright
.
[9]
He also briefly assisted
Milton Caniff
on the strip
Steve Canyon
.
[8]
Most prominently, Kida assisted
artist
Dan Barry
on the long-running strip
Flash Gordon
from 1958 to 1961 and then again from 1968 to 1971,
[5]
and under his own byline drew the comic strip
The Amazing Spider-Man
from August 1981 to July 1986,
[10]
returning to do the Sunday editions from September 1996 to July 1997.
[11]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Kida married Elly Ahnert on October 5, 1946, and they had two children, Paul and Peter.
[3]
An elder in the Port Chester Congregation of
Jehovah's Witnesses
, he died on April 3, 2014.
[3]
Reprints include
[
edit
]
- Fred Kida's Valkyrie!
(Ken Pierce, Inc., 1982)
- Black-and-white reprints of selected stories from
Air Fighters Comics
vol. 2, #2 & 7; and
Airboy Comics
vol. 2, #12, and vol. 3, #6 & 12. Introduction by
Alex Toth
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Gravett, Paul
(2004).
Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics
.
Harper Design
. p.
154
.
ISBN
978-1856693912
.
Signing himself 'Fuje', [artist Bob Fujitani] and his Japanese-American buddy Fred Kida contributed to the war effort by illustrating a flood of comic-book heroes beating up the Nazis and Japanese.
- ^
a
b
Fred Kida
at the
Lambiek Comiclopedia
.
Archived
from the original on September 11, 2015.
- ^
a
b
c
"Fred Kida Obituary"
.
Greenwich Time
. April 9, 2014.
Archived
from the original on April 13, 2014
. Retrieved
2014-04-09
.
- ^
Bob Fujitani interview in
Amash, Jim (April 2003). "Fuje For Thought".
Alter Ego
. Vol. 3, no. 23.
Raleigh, North Carolina
:
TwoMorrows Publishing
. p. 4.
(flipside "All the Way with MLJ!" section)
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Fred Kida
at the
Grand Comics Database
- ^
The Iron Ace
at
Don Markstein's Toonopedia
.
Archived
from the original on October 25, 2011.
- ^
Airboy
at
Don Markstein's Toonopedia
.
Archived
from the original on October 25, 2011.
- ^
a
b
Leiffer, Paul; Ware, Hames, eds. (1999).
"Comic Strip Credits S-Z"
. The Comic Strip Project. Archived from
the original
on September 23, 2015
. Retrieved
May 8,
2013
.
CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
Main page from the original on July 4, 2012.
- ^
Leiffer, Ware,
"Comic Strip Credits E-K"
.
Archived
March 3, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine
.
- ^
Cassell, Dewey (October 2010). "One Day at a Time: The Amazing Spider-Man Newspaper Strips".
Back Issue!
(44).
TwoMorrows Publishing
: 65.
- ^
Sinnott, Mark; Markus Muller.
"Spider-Man Newspaper Strips"
. Joe Sinnott Comics Book Index 1950 - 2005.
Archived
from the original on June 4, 2011.
External links
[
edit
]
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International
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National
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Other
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