Comic book artist Tony Tallarico passed away on January 6th. He was 88. Tony was a friend and a member of our Long Island Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, the Berndt Toast Gang. In addition to being a longtime comic book artist, he was a children's book illustrator and author. For Dell Comics, he drew the comic book Lobo (1965), the first to star an African-American hero.
Via Paul Gravett:
"Among Tallarico's diverse credits (see a few examples below - he also produced over 1,000 children's books), his political satire comic 'The Great Society' from 1966 stands out, mashing up topical political caricature with Sixties superheroes. Naturally, I included it here in my 'Incredibly Strange Comics' survey, writing: 'Here's an entire pun-filled satirical comic about costumed versions of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, alias SuperLBJ, and his cabinet, who team up as G.R.E.A.T ("Group Resigned to End All Threats") against an array of supervillains, from France's Gaullefinger (DeGaulle) to Russia's Dr. Nyet (Khruschchev). leaping into action because "SuperLBJ is Missing!", the team including LBJ's wife, "Lady Bird" Johnson as Wonderbird, Barry Goldwater as Colonel America and Hubert Humphrey as Captain Marvelous fail to find him. So it's up to SuperLBJ to save himself and then the entire world. Plotting behind the scenes are Bobman and Teddy, or Robert and Ted Kennedy, who starred in a sequel of their own. Written by D.J. Arneson and published by Parallax Comic Books Inc, New York.'"
One of the projects that Tony did was a comic book adaptation of the film version of the 1776 musical. Here are some originals of his from the collection of Michael J. Vassallo:
Here is GRIN, a 3-issue MAD-type magazine from 1972-3, with Tallarico art for the cover for number three:
From 1971, a Christian comic for Logos International:
Tony was always working. I see his books -- his kids books, his how to draw books, etc. -- all the time.
Here's Adrian Sinnott, the chair of the Berndt Toast Gang:
"The wonderful Tony Tallarico passed away late last night. Tony had a long and prolific career working in comics and children’s books.
"A consummate professional, Tony was always in demand and worked up until recently. He was very proud to have illustrated the first comic book with an African-American hero 'Lobo.'"
"Such a kind and generous soul, the Berndt Toast Gang is privileged to have had Tony as an esteemed member."
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1 comment:
Not to speak ill, but back in the day, Tallarico's rep amongst the fanboys was pretty bad and yet...
The problem is the work he did at Warren under the name Tony Willamsune. Later it came out that the pen name came from getting work for his friend (drawing ablank on the name) who was as awful a penciller as the fanboys thought and legitimately could not get work. So a really cool move by Tallarico here but the published art was really bad. So, like, everyone was correct here, fanboys in their way and Tallarico as well.
Me, I consider him terrific at the storytelling thing but his rendering left me a little cold. Too, though, there's the work ethic. Respect. A great career.
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