Ken Bald

Ken Bald was born in New York City, New York, and raised in suburban Mount Vernon, New York.{{cite web |url=http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/likeness.htm |title=The Look of Love: The Rise and Fall of The Photo-Realistic Newspaper Strip – The Art of Ken Bald: Truth, Beauty, and Photography |first=Prof. A. E. |last=Mendez |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20021013113903/http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/likeness.htm |archivedate=October 13, 2002 |url-status=dead }} Additional . Comic-book fan art he drew at age 14 was published in More Fun Comics #9 (cover-dated April 1936), from DC Comics precursor National Allied Publications.[https://www.comics.org/issue/105/#714706 "Fun Mail" (letters page), More Fun Comics #9 (April 1936)] at the Grand Comics Database. Bald attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York City, for three years, through 1941. At some unknown stage of his career, he also studied at the Ontario College of Art, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.{{cite web |authorlink=Jerry Bails |last1=Bails |first1=Jerry |first2=Hames|last2= Ware |url=http://bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=BALD%2C+KEN|title=Bald, Ken |work=Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999|archivedate=May 11, 2007|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20070511040741/http://bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=BALD%2C+KEN|url-status=live}}

After Pratt, Bald joined the Englewood, New Jersey, studio of Jack Binder, one of the early comic-book "packagers" who would supply complete comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium during what became known as the Golden Age of Comic Books. His first known professional comics work, via Binder, was the seven-page story "Justice Laughs Last," starring the super-speedster Hurricane, in Captain America Comics #7 (Oct. 1941), from Marvel Comics precursor Timely Comics,[http://www.comics.org/search.lasso?query=Ken+Bald&type=credit&sort=chrono&Submit=Search Ken Bald] at the Grand Comics Database. Beginning in 1942, Bald, also via Binder, began drawing features including Golden Arrow and Bulletman for Fawcett Comics.

File:SunGirl2.jpg #2 (Oct. 1948). Cover art by Bald.]]

On December 7, 1942, Bald enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving with the 5th Marine Regiment-1st Marine Division and seeing combat in Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, and Okinawa from 1943 to January 1946, rising to the rank of captain.{{cite news|url=http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/05/captain_america_ken_bald.html | title=NJ man, 95, is oldest working comic book artist| first= Mark|last= Voger |work=The Star Ledger| location = New Jersey| page= 27|date=May 27, 2016|agency = NJ Advance Media |accessdate= June 1, 2016| archivedate= May 29, 2016| archiveurl = https://archive.today/20160529121810/http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/05/captain_america_ken_bald.html | url-status=live}}

In the 1940s, Bald drew stories of such superheroes as Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, the Blonde Phantom, the Destroyer, and Miss America variously through comics cover-dated July 1949. He both wrote and drew a number of Millie the Model humor stories in the comics Georgie and Patsy Walker, and at least drew the teen-humor character Cindy in Georgie and Judy Comics and Junior Miss.

Bald penciled the first appearance of the Sub-Mariner spin-off character Namora, in "The Coming of Namora" in Marvel Mystery Comics #82 (May 1947), but it is unclear if he helped create the character; the cover, which was sometimes created first, featured Namora drawn by Bob Powell. Similarly, Bald drew Timely's single issue of The Witness (Sept. 1948), starring a character co-created by writer-editor Stan Lee, but the cover for which was drawn by Charles Nicholas. Bald, with an unidentified writer, co-created the Timely superhero Sun Girl, who starred in a three-issue series cover-dated August to December 1948.

File:Forbidden Worlds 1.jpg #1 (July–Aug. 1951). Cover art by Bald.]]

His other comic book work included the character Crime Smasher in Fawcett's Whiz Comics in the 1940s, and many anthological horror/suspense stories in American Comics Group's Adventures into the Unknown, The Clutching Hand, Forbidden Worlds and Out of the Night from 1949 through late 1954. Also for ACG, he co-created the adventure feature Time Travelers in Operation: Peril #1 (Nov. 1950).

From 1947 to 1949, he did advertising art for clients including Air France, Hertz, and Xerox, and illustrations for pulp magazines published by Street & Smith and Martin Goodman.

In 1957, Bald transitioned to comic strips, beginning with Judd Saxon – about "an up-and-coming young executive",{{cite web|url=http://www.bpib.com/comicsproj/creditsEK.html|title=Judd Saxon |publisher=The Comic Strip Project: Credits E-K |editor-first=Paul |editor-last=Leiffer |editor-first2=Hames |editor-last2=Ware |archive-date=June 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609014039/http://www.bpib.com/comicsproj/creditsEK.html |url-status=usurped}} or "an executive turned detective" written by Jerry Brondfield, for King Features Syndicate. Judd Saxon ended in 1963.

By this time, beginning October 15, 1962,{{cite book|editor-last=Horn|editor-first=Maurice|editor-link=Maurice Horn|title= 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics|publisher=Gramercy Books|location= New York City; Avenel|year= 1996|isbn=978-0-517-12447-5|page= 105, Dr. Kildare (entry)}} Bald had started drawing his next strip, Dr. Kildare. Bald and writer Elliot Caplin produced the daily strip Dr. Kildare,Leiffer, Ware, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110608214419/http://www.bpib.com/comicsproj/creditsAD.html "Dr Kildare" (entry), Credits A-D]}}. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20161226005913/http://www.bpib.com/comicsproj/creditsAD.html Archived]}} from the original on December 26, 2016. based on the television show of that name. A Sunday color strip was added beginning on April 19, 1964. Comics historian Maurice Horn said, "Bald, who modeled the two principals on the actors who played them on television (Richard Chamberlain and Raymond Massey), drew the strip with breezy, self-assured elegance." Bald continued to draw the Dr. Kildare strip for 22 years until 1984, long after the 1960s television series had ended.

In 1971, Bald (credited as K. Bruce){{cite web| url= http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/05/dark_shadows_johnny_depp_movie.html | title='Dark Shadows' artist Ken Bald|first= Mark|last= Voger | agency=NJ Advance Media |date=May 7, 2012 |accessdate= June 1, 2016| archivedate= September 7, 2015| archiveurl= https://archive.today/20150907212612/http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/05/dark_shadows_johnny_depp_movie.html | url-status=live}} created the comic strip Dark Shadows based on the Dark Shadows TV series, a soap opera featuring Jonathan Frid as vampire Barnabas Collins. That strip ended the following year. In addition to drawing comics, Bald also worked as a commercial artist.{{cite web|url=http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/b/bald_k.htm |title=Ken Bald Papers |publisher= Syracuse University Library | accessdate= June 1, 2016| archivedate= March 3, 2016| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303185410/http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/b/bald_k.htm|url-status=live}}

File:Dark Shadows comic by Ken Bald - Barnabas Collins.png

With the end of the Dr. Kildare strip in 1984, Bald retired — although Guinness World Records in 2017 declared him the world's oldest comic-book artist and the oldest artist to illustrate a comic-book cover, both at age 96,{{cite web|url= http://guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2017/5/monday-motivation-ken-bald-bringing-comic-book-heroes-to-life-470891| title=Monday Motivation: How Ken Bald is still bringing comic book heroes to life at 96|first= Kristen|last= Stephenson|publisher=Guinness World Records| date= May 4, 2017|accessdate=March 27, 2019|archivedate=October 22, 2018|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20181022044846/http://guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2017/5/monday-motivation-ken-bald-bringing-comic-book-heroes-to-life-470891|url-status=live}} when he came out of retirement to illustrate a variant cover for Marvel's Contest of Champions #2 (Jan. 2016).[https://www.comics.org/issue/1608584/ Contest of Champions #2 (Jan. 2016)] at the Grand Comics Database. Retrieved March 27, 2019. {{cite web| url = https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/bald-kenneth.htm | title= Kenneth Bald|publisher= Lambiek Comiclopedia| accessdate=June 1, 2016| archivedate= March 10, 2016| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20160310044634/https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/bald-kenneth.htm | url-status=live}}

In 1941, after graduating from Pratt Institute, Bald moved to Englewood, New Jersey. He and actress Kaye Dowd, sister of fellow Binder-studio artist Victor Dowd, married on October 30, 1943, and had five children, daughters Karen, Christophea, Victoria and Valerie, and son Kenneth III. By his mid-90s, Bald was residing at Mt. Arlington Senior Living, in Mount Arlington, New Jersey.{{cite web|url=https://www.fivestarseniorliving.com/communities/nj/mt-arlington/mt-arlington-senior-living/news/legendary-marvel-comic-art-exhibition|title=Legendary Marvel Comic Art Exhibition|date=August 1, 2017|accessdate=March 27, 2019|publisher=Mt. Arlington Senior Living|archivedate=March 28, 2019|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20190328020748/https://www.fivestarseniorliving.com/communities/nj/mt-arlington/mt-arlington-senior-living/news/legendary-marvel-comic-art-exhibition|url-status=live}} Ken Bald died March 17, 2019, at age 98 and Kaye Dowd Bald died April 18, 2020, at age 96.{{cite web|url= https://www.berminghamfh.com/obituary/Kaye-DowdBald|title=Kaye Dowd Bald Obituary|publisher=Bermingham Funeral Home|accessdate=May 7, 2020|archivedate=May 7, 2020|archiveurl= https://archive.today/20200507173959/https://www.berminghamfh.com/obituary/Kaye-DowdBald|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2019/03/28/ken-bald-rip/|title=Ken Bald – RIP|first=D. D. |last=Degg|publisher=DailyCartoonist.com|date=March 28, 2019|accessdate=March 28, 2019|archivedate=March 28, 2019| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328204453/http://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2019/03/28/ken-bald-rip/|url-status=live}}

His papers, including more than 2,900 pieces of original artwork for the Judd Saxon and Dr. Kildare comic strips, reside at Syracuse University Libraries Special Collections Research Center.{{cite web|url=https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/b/bald_k.htm|title=Ken Bald Papers|publisher=Syracuse University|accessdate=March 27, 2019|archivedate=December 11, 2012|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20121211140538/http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/b/bald_k.htm|url-status=live}} Contrary to his name, he had hair.

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• {{Official|https://www.kenbald.com/}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20190327222730/https://www.kenbald.com/ archived]
• {{comicbookdb|type=creator|id=4363|title=Ken Bald}}
• [https://library.syracuse.edu/digital/guides/b/bald_k.htm Ken Bald Papers] at Syracuse University Libraries Special Collections Research Center
• [https://osucartoons.pastperfectonline.com/vocabulary?keyword=Bald%2C+Ken%2C+1920-&letter=B&searchtype=creator&showsearch=true Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Art Database]

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Category:1920 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:American comics artists

Category:American illustrators

Category:Golden Age comics creators

Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II

Category:Marvel Comics people

Category:United States Marine Corps officers