Sunday, February 18, 2007



RIP BOB OKSNER, who has died earlier this evening. As always, Mark Evanier has the information.

Of course, among the multitudes of characters Oksner drew for DC in the Sixties was Super-Hip!, the official JBS mascot, so there was no way I was going to let his passing go unremarked upon. As a kid growing up, I certainly picked up my share of DC humor comics, and it seemed like Oksner drew 75% of them- his angular, manic humor style really made a deep impression on young, impressionable me, not only in the Adventures of Bob Hopes I read with Tad Jutefruice's alter ego in them, but on the Stanley and His Monster and Angel and the Ape features as well, and there were so many others. As the years went by, though, I soon became interested in other artists' work, and DC stopped doing the kinds of books Oksner drew best, so I kinda forgot about him for a long time- in fact, until 2002 and the beginnings of this blog, when I had found an old beat-up copy of Bob Hope #105 and renewed acquaintances. As a theoretical grownup, I found him to be a much better illustrator than I had remembered, and boy, could Mr. Oksner draw the ladies. According to Evanier, he didn't draw much in the latter years of his life after he retired in 1986, and that's a shame. Anyway, I'm sure he'll soon be setting up to sketch Angel O'Days for a long time now.

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