Veteran comics editor and writer Sid Jacobson passed away. He was 92.
The New York Times:
Sid Jacobson, a veteran comic book writer and editor whose work took him from the opulent, fanciful world of Richie Rich to the real-life terrorist attacks of 9/11, died on July 23 in San Francisco. He was 92.
His death, in hospice, was caused by a stroke following a case of the coronavirus, his family said in a statement.
From 1952 to 1982, when the company went out of business, Mr. Jacobson was a writer and editor at Harvey Comics in New York, which published the adventures of Casper the Friendly Ghost, Richie Rich and Wendy the Good Little Witch, as well as crime, horror and romance comics.
At Harvey he met the artist Ernie Colón, who became a frequent collaborator. “Wherever I worked as an editor, I always hired him,” Mr. Jacobson said in an interview after Mr. Colón’s death in 2019. “We were very close. We were like brothers.”
The two teamed up to tell a graphic-novel version of the 9/11 Commission’s report, which examined the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The report, the result of a government study headed by Thomas H. Kean, the former governor of New Jersey, became a best seller, if a dense one, in 2004. So did “9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation,” published in 2006. Mr. Jacobson called the effort “graphic journalism.”
As a Harvey Comics editor from 1952 to 1982 Sid was part of the gradual transition from the adventure, horror, and comic strip books that was the company’s focus in the 1940s and 1950s to the Richie Rich, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Sad Sack output that defined the company in the 1960s and 1970s.
In the 1980s Sid became the executive editor of Marvel’s faux-Harvey brand Star Comics after Marvel Comics’ effort to buy Harvey properties fell through and Harvey shut down operations the first time. Sid hired many Harvey creators (Warren Kremer, Len Herman, Howie Post, +) for the Star comics.
A prolific freelancer, he was also a lyricist. His son wrote:
In the late 50's he began writing lyrics to songs. Seth once asked him how he started and he said, "I thought I could do it." And that was him. Not afraid to try and fail. He would see how it went. Well, he has about 100 published torch and love songs (circa late '50s and '60s ("The End", "Warm", "Don't Pity Me") and novelty songs ("Yogi", "The Yen Yet Song" and my personal favorite, "Dr. Poop"). He wrote comedy records performed by folks such as Sandy Baron (both for Sick Magazine -- "Why not Mad?" I once asked. "Mad didn't pay enough!" he told me). He wrote the lyrics to a collection of folk songs about New York City, "The Citizens Sing About a City of People". In the 50's he invested in Loraine Hansbury's original production of "Raisin in the Sun" ("she was a gem who died way too young," he once said). He even invented a board game "Chairman of the Board", but we have not yet located a copy.
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