Tributes - 1996
Burne Hogarth
Comic strip artist and educator. Born Chicago, December
25, 1911. Died Paris, January 28, 1996, aged 84.
Though his paintings and etchings were exhibited around the
world, Burne Hogarth was best known for his role as "the
Michelangelo of the comics". Like Michelangelo, he was
a master of anatomy - but whereas Michelangelo used his talents
on more spiritual topics, Hogarth focussed on the exploits
of Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, in a grandiose and dynamic
series of images which would permanently influence the shape
of adventure comics.
Hogarth showed artistic leanings as a child. At age 15 - while
studying at the Chicago Art Institute - he became an assistant
cartoonist at the Associated Editors Syndicate. Within a year,
he was hired to illustrate two sports features and an educational
strip, Famous Churches of the World.
In 1929, at the age of 17, he created his first syndicated
comic strip, Ivy Hemmenhaw. It proved to be a false start.
During the Great Depression, he worked as an artist-for-hire,
applying (along with many others) to draw the Tarzan strip
after the departure of its original artist, Harold Foster
(who would go on to create Prince Valiant).
Tarzan, created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912, was already
a thriving hero, starring in highly popular books and movies.
The Tarzan comic strip had been established by United Features
in 1929, under the accomplished pen of Foster, who had turned
it into one of America's most acclaimed and popular adventure
comics. When Hogarth was hired as his successor, on the strength
of a single drawing, he had some big shoes to fill.
Not only did he fill them, but he transcended even Foster's
excellent work, forging a action ????? without the over-the-top
violence of Dick Tracy and others. "Tarzan is a hero
of modern times," he would say in 1995, "a person
who is whole, honest, courageous, a real friend of nature,
defender of the weak, peaceful, ecologist - exactly the opposite
of this unfortunate society in which we live."
Like Foster, Hogarth was unsatisfied by the limitations imposed
on him by United. In 1945, he left Tarzan and United to start
his own comic strip, Drago. Drago, set in the Argentinian
forests, was more wild action in the vein of Tarzan. Despite
critical acclaim, it only lasted a year before Hogarth was
lured back to United by improved conditions, including the
freedom to write his own stories. He also delivered the short-lived
Miracle Jones, his first and only humorous strip.
He left again in 1950 to focus his energies on the School
of Visual Arts, which he had founded with Silus Rhodes three
years previously. (It later became one of the major centres
for art training in the U.S.) Always willing to share his
artistic knowledge, he went on to author three technical books
of art instruction. Surprisingly, Europe and Latin America
- which went through influential comic art movements in the
seventies - have been the most receptive to his mentorship.
In 1970, Hogarth retired from the School of Visual Arts, to
devote himself fully to his artwork and writing. He returned
to his favourite hero, Tarzan, with pictorial versions of
the Burroughs' novels Tarzan of the Apes (1972) and Jungle
Tales of Tarzan (1976).
He died in Paris, where he was helping to design the inaugural
cornerstone for an open-air museum at France's National Centre
for Comic Strips and Images.
The daily Tarzan newspaper strip was published until 1973,
and comic books were being published until 1979. Though they
used a number of top artists, Hogarth's Tarzan is still considered
the archetypal rendition of one of the most famous characters
in fiction. Writer Maurice Horn, in 1976, suggested that he
was perhaps "the greatest living artist of the comics"
- but as he flourished in the days before comic book artists
were accorded celebrity status, he will probably never be
fully appreciated.
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