Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Ron Ferdinand Interview 2





b) Who were all his ghosts?

The names I recall are Fitzgerald, Al Wiseman, Lee Holley, Bob Bugg and later Frank Hill….there were a few more that escape me at the moment. (Marcus Hamilton - jk)
http://www.dennisthemenace.com/marcushamilton.html

When did Ketcham start using assistants?
I think he did the whole enchilada for the first year or two.

Who did the Sunday pages in the 50s and sixties?

Y’know , here, I’m really not sure.
I know Fitzgerald was doing Sundays but there are some names I’m not sure of.
I think Lee Holley did Sundays for a while as well as the Golden Books.
And there was all the product stuff, too.

When did the comic books start up and was that a completely different team of people?

I think it was pretty much the same artists doing everything. Of course the dailies were always Hank’s baby.

You know I am a fan not only of Ketcham, but of Owen Fitzgerald too. I find it fascinating to see 2 of my favorite cartoonists working together.

Do you now anything about their working relationship?

Not really. Hank and Fred Toole always spoke very highly of him.

How they met?

Not sure.
Fred Toole said Owen developed some kind of nervous condition that caused his drawings to get looser and looser until they were no longer usable. He moved to LA and got treatment and went on to work in animation

How were the stories crafted? Was Ketcham involved?

Don’t think he was very involved with the comic book writing until we were doing the Marvel comic.
Fred Toole was the main writer for the earlier Fawcett comics.

I read his book and remember that he said he worked with a team of gag writers for the dailies.
Did you work with the same people? Were they the same writers for the comic book?

Nope. Different guys.

http://greatestape.blogspot.com/2006/03/how-to-be-cartoonist.html