Thursday, September 3, 2009

Dan Spiegle (b.1920-)


Dan Spiegle had a long career in comics but is probably best remembered by my generation for his work on Dell westerns and the Hopalong newspaper strip. He was born in Cosmopolis, Washington on 12 October 1920 and attended high school in the Redwood country of Northern California.Spiegle drew the Hopalong Cassidy strip from 1949 until its demise in 1955. Scripts were by Royal Cole.


The strip below caught my attention because the face of the villain in black is so familiar from B Western movies. I can't place the name but I'll never forget that face. Hoppy was one of the great western strips and the dailies were notable for their use of Craftint, a rarity in cowboy strips.


The Hopalong cassidy strip below is from the December 4 1937 issue of The Popular, a British story paper published by the Amalgamated Press. The Popular featured Rio Kid stories by Billy Bunter creator Frank Richards. William Boyd must have been born with white hair. An excellent two part interview with Dan Spiegle from 1972 can be found HERE.



1 comment:

  1. Dan Spiegle is definitely one of the greats. He never got the recognition he deserved...the fate of many artists who spent much of their careers at Dell.

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