Ogden Whitney

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Ogden Whitney
Bronx, New York, U.S.
Area(s)Writer, penciller
Notable works
  • Waku, Prince of the Bantu

    • John Ogden Whitney (May 1, 1919 – August 13, 1975) was an American

    Fat Fury. Whitney as well had long runs on characters as diverse as the Western masked crime-fighter the Two-Gun Kid, and the career-girl character Millie the Model
    .

    In 2007, Whitney was one of two comics creators inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, as a "Judges Choice".[2]

    Biography

    Skyman No. 3 (1947, no month listed). Cover art by Whitney

    Early life and career

    Ogden Whitney was born in

    Sandman with issue No. 46 (Jan. 1940).[4]

    He continued on both features for two more issues before working primarily for

    World War II Axis-fighter the Face (all the stories for which the duo provided in issue No. 2 of his two-issue spin-off series). They also launched the solo title Skyman in 1941; four issues were published from then through 1948.[4]

    Whitney was inducted into the

    Camp Lee in Virginia. He drew no comics while on furlough, but did some comics work "after hours" in the camp office.[7] He served in the Philippines during World War II, in a unit with fellow comic artist Fred Guardineer.[8]

    The Fox-Whitney team continued on Big Shot Comics confirmably through No. 44 (March 1944) and almost certainly beyond; Big Shot No. 97 (Jan. 1949), for example, contains a Whitney written-and-drawn Skyman story. Big Shot itself ran through issue No. 104 (Aug. 1949).[4] The cover of Big Shot No. 67 (July 1946) welcomes home "Ex-Sgt. Ogden Whitney", who draws Skyman again "starting this issue", and the first page of its six-page Skyman story is headlined, "Welcome home, Ogden Whitney!" and calls it his first one since his return from WWII service.[9]

    By this time Whitney had begun drawing

    F.B.I." and "Undercover Girl" in Manhunt from 1947 to 1948. He also drew the company's official adaptation of the 1948 movie Joan of Arc, starring Ingrid Bergman, published the same year in the umbrella title A-1 as Joan of Arc (A-1 #21). Whitney is tentatively credited as artist for the similar adaptation of Destination Moon in Fawcett Comics' of that title, also known as Fawcett Movie Comic No. 3 (1950).[4]

    1950s to 1960s

    Through the following decade, Whitney drew

    Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures and Skypilot, and did his earliest known work for the future Marvel Comics, then called Atlas Comics, with a four-page story in Apache Kid No. 8 (Sept. 1951).[4]

    He soon began contributing work as well to the Atlas

    Marvel Tales and Adventures into Terror. With writer Don Rico, he co-created the feature "Waku, Prince of the Bantu" — a rare feature in that it starred an African chieftain in Africa, with no regularly featured Caucasian characters – in the Atlas anthology Jungle Tales.[4]

    But it was ACG that remained his primary client. Whitney drew countless stories and covers for, primarily, Adventures into the Unknown and Forbidden Worlds from 1950 to 1965.

    Herbie No. 3 (Aug. 1964), with Herbie's catchphrase. Cover art by Whitney

    Herbie

    By then he had co-created (with ACG editor

    Fat Fury. Whitney drew all the stories and almost all the covers[4] for what became a cult-hit comic.[10]

    Later life and career

    As ACG wound down and ceased publication in 1967, Whitney found work at

    penciled a nine-page backup story, "Invitation to a Gunfight", by writer Marv Wolfman, in the following issue (May 1972), marking his last known comics work.[4]

    Also in the mid-1960s for Marvel, Whitney drew issues of what was then the romantic-drama series Millie the Model and its sister title, Modeling with Millie. He additionally penciled and inked a 12-page "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." story, over Jack Kirby layouts, in Strange Tales No. 149 (Oct. 1966).[4]

    Mad magazine editor Jerry DeFuccio wrote that circa 1965, Whitney lived in Manhattan at

    ... 40

    Park Avenue South at the time. ... Naturally, I gushed about Whitney's Golden Age work when I visited his apartment. His wife, Anne, was quite lovely and refined but Whitney wasn't anything like the svelte characters he used to draw. Fat and obviously addicted to liquor. ... Anne seemed troubled by her husband's state. She supported the family with her private secretary job in the area of the Empire State Building. Richard E. Hughes, editor at American Comics Group, was especially helpful to 'old-timers' [and] gave Whitney work, though Ogden seemed absorbed in trying storyboard continuity samples to crack the advertising field. I saw him working on the special pads imprinted with rows of blank TV screen. He couldn't qualify. ... I passed Whitney's apartment house [circa 1972–1973] and asked the doorman: 'Does Ogden Whitney still live here?' The doorman spoke in a hush, 'No! His wife died and his condition became extremely irrational. He was finally evicted — carried bodily — from his apartment.'[8]

    Honors

    In 2007, Whitney was one of two comics creators inducted into the comic-book industry's Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, as a "Judges Choice" along with Robert Kanigher.

    Critical assessment

    Dan Nadel, author, Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900–1969 (

    ISBN 978-0-8109-5838-8
    ):

    Whitney is a master of psychological distress. He had these super-bland faces; nobody looks distinctive. But then he'll throw in these crazy close-ups, or very oddball compositions, where things are static in space. I find them really compelling, almost terrifying. If you read his

    phone book art – it's so generic it's unique.[11]

    References

    1. ^ Saunders, David. "Ogden Whitney (1919-1975)". Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists.
    2. ^ 2007 Eisner Award winners Archived October 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, Comic-Con.org. Archived from the original on November 14, 2010.
    3. ^ Department of Public Health, Registry of Vital Records and Statistics. Massachusetts Vital Records Index to Births [1916–1970]. Volumes 92–160, 162, 168, 175, 212– 213. Facsimile edition. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
    4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ogden Whitney at the Grand Comics Database.
    5. ^ Skyman at the Grand Comics Database
    6. ISBN 0-313-29678-2
      .
    7. ^ Army information per letter from Whitney to Glen Johnson, dated December 1, 1963, published in Frantz via Companion, p. 104
    8. ^ a b Jerry DeFuccio letter to Ron Frantz, published in Frantz via Companion, pp. 106–107
    9. ^ Big Shot #67 at the Grand Comics Database.
    10. ^ a b Herbie at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived February 1, 2012, at WebCite from the original on January 31, 2012.
    11. TheComicsReporter.com. May 20, 2006. Archived
      from the original on May 27, 2011.

    Further reading
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