August 31, 2014

Well, it's time for the final Throwback Thursday in August...and I'm sure that we all know one historical event that took place on this date...a rather sad one at that.  But since I already did an entry on this last year, I have chosen another topic instead - one that I actually know quite a bit about.

With that, let's have a look at some of the other historical events that took place on the final day of August.

1422 - Henry VI becomes King of England at just nine months old following the death of his father, Henry V

1864 - Atlanta, Georgia is the subject of an attack launched by William T. Sherman during the American Civil War

1886 - Sixty are killed in Charleston, South Carolina when an earthquake strikes

1888 - Mary Ann Nichols is murdered; she would later be named the first of the victims of Jack the Ripper

1897 - The kinetoscope is patented by Thomas Edison

1920 - The first radio news program is broadcast from Detroit, Michigan

1928 - Actor James Coburn (d. 2002) is born in Laurel, Nebraska

1931 - Actor Noble Willingham (d. 2004) is born in Mineola, Texas

1935 - The first of the Neutrality Acts is passed by the United States

1937 - Singer/songwriter Bobby Parker (d. 2013) is born in Lafayette, Louisiana

1939 - Nazi Germany mounts a false flag attack on the Gleiwitz radio station which creates the excuse to attack Poland on September 1 - the official start of World War II

1945 - Singer/songwriter Bob Welch (d. 2012) is born in Los Angeles, California

1962 - Trinidad and Tobago gain independence

1969 - American boxer Rocky Marciano dies at the age of 45

1986 - Aeromexico Flight 498 collides with another airplane midair, killing 67 in both planes, and another fifteen on the ground

1991 - Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union

1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed are killed when their car crashes in a Parisian tunnel following a chase with the paparazzi.  Diana was just thirty-six years of age

2006 - After being stolen from the Munch museum in 2004, Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is recovered in a police raid

2012 - Comedian and "Family Fortunes" host Max Bygraves dies at the age of 89

2013 - Journalist and game show host Sir David Frost dies at the age of 74

And celebrating a birthday today are the following famous faces; Allan Fotheringham, Warren Berlinger, Larry Hankin, Jack Thompson, Van Morrison, Richard Gere, Rick Roberts, Colm O'Rourke, Gina Schock, Glenn Tilbrook, Dee Bradley Baker, Todd Carty, Jonathan LaPaglia, Debbie Gibson, Zack Ward, Chris Tucker, Craig Nicholls, and Ian Crocker.

All right, so here's the thing with today's subject.  It's a subject that unless you are very knowledgeable in all things comics, you probably won't know him.  But it's someone whose work has been a part of my life for thirty years.  Sadly, this is the date that he passed away, but his memory lives on through his millions of pages of artwork, his contributions to a certain comic redhead...and a permanent place on my office wall?  

Well, all right, first I'll announce today's throwback date.  August 31, 2014.  Only three years.  Not that long ago!

Sadly, August 31, 2014 was the last day of this cartoonist's life.  He was 82 when he passed away, and it certainly was a sad day in the world of comic books.  However, during his lifetime, he left his mark on three major comic book companies and worked on some of the most recognizable comic book titles in the world.

And it was about thirty years ago that I first fell in love with his work.

Today is the day that we celebrate the achievements of comic book artist Stan Goldberg, on the third anniversary of his passing.

In fact, I have a permanent tribute to him hanging on my office wall.  Have a look!

To be honest, I can't remember what I did to get this picture of him.  I probably wrote him a fan letter or something along those lines.  But what I can tell you is that this is an authentic autograph of Stan Goldberg that accompanies this sketch of Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, and Jughead from Archie Comics.  And it's a picture that I will treasure forever.

Now, when I was first reading Archie Comics in 1987, Goldberg's work was all over the inside pages.  At that time, Goldberg was one of Archie's de facto artists alongside Dan DeCarlo, Samm Schwartz, Bob Bolling, Dexter Taylor, Henry Scarpelli, Rex Lindsey, and Jon D'Agostino.  

And he also designed quite a few cover gags over the years from the 1990s...

...to the 2000s...

...to one of his final projects with Archie - the six issue miniseries which showed Archie getting married.

Of course, Stan Goldberg worked for Archie comics for almost forty years - he joined the company in 1971 and his last story was printed in 2010.  But did you know that before he began at Archie comics, he had a hand in helping to design the colour schemes for some of the world's most recognizable superheroes?

That's because before he began working at Archie comics, he started his career off as a freelancer for Atlas Comics - which would later become Marvel Comics.  And beginning in the mid-1960s, Goldberg would work on the colour designs for various characters alongside fellow artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.

Among some of the creations that Goldberg worked on?  Well, Spider-Man, for one.  In fact, it was Goldberg who came up with the colour scheme to use for Spider-Man comic books in the 1960s - a period of comics that fell under the so-called "Silver Age". 

(Ironically enough, when Marvel Comics teamed up with Archie Comics to start releasing a series of Marvel Greatest Hits Digests, Spider-Man was the first superhero featured!)

Goldberg also worked on "The Fantastic Four" and "The Incredible Hulk" comic books series before leaving Marvel in 1969.  While he worked for Marvel, he also had a hand in inking and penciling various comic book characters in the various humour titles that Marvel released. 

Emulating the style of Archie comics guru Dan DeCarlo, Goldberg would work on such titles as "Millie the Model", "Kathy the Teenage Tornado", and "Patsy Walker".

As if that wasn't enough, in between his stints at Marvel and Archie, Goldberg did a brief stint at DC Comics where he contributed to the titles "Binky", "Swing with Scooter", and "Date with Debbie"!

All in all, Goldberg was in the industry for well over six decades, beginning his career with Timely Comics in 1949, and ending it with Archie in 2010.  And he had certainly been rewarded for his efforts.  In 1994, Goldberg won a Comic-Con International Inkpot Award.  And in 2011, he was formally inducted into the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame.  And in 2010, IDW released a collection of Archie Comic stories under the title of "The Best of Stan Goldberg".

Unfortunately, all things had to come to an end.  And it was three years ago today that he passed away from complications from a stroke he sustained two weeks prior - this after making a full recovery from a car accident he was involved in back in 2013.

However, even though he is gone...his work will forever live on.  I know.  I have the picture on the wall to prove it.