Bob Montana

Bob Montana
Born Robert William Montana
(1920-10-23)October 23, 1920[1]
Stockton, California
Died January 4, 1975(1975-01-04) (aged 54)
Meredith, New Hampshire
Nationality American
Area(s) Cartoonist, Artist
Spouse(s) Peggy[2][3]

Robert William "Bob" Montana (October 23, 1920 – January 4, 1975) was an American comic strip artist who created the original likenesses for characters published by Archie Comics and in the newspaper strip Archie.[4][5][6]

MLJ (Archie) Comics

While freelancing at True and Fox Comics, Montana created an adventure strip about four teenage boys and tried to sell it without success. Then he started working for MLJ Comics where later he was asked to work up a high school style comic strip story, featuring Archie Andrews.

According to Jane (Donahue) Murphy, a high school classmate of Montana's, Archie and his friends were based on people from their hometown of Haverhill and Haverhill High School. She said Archie Andrews was based on Donahue's cousin, Richard Heffernan; Veronica Lodge on Agatha Popoff, the daughter of the local football team's doctor; Jughead Jones on a mischievous teen named "Skinny" Linnehan; while Miss Grundy may have been based on a high school typing and shorthand teacher named Lundstrom.[7]

The success of the Archie and friends story in MLJ's Pep Comics (Dec. 1941) led MLJ to assign Montana to draw the first issue of Archie (Nov. 1942).

Montana was soon drawing the Archie comic strip, doing both the daily and Sunday strip, which over the next 35 years ran in over 750 newspapers.

Montana died of an apparent heart attack while cross-country skiing near his New Hampshire home at the age of 54.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JKXM-MMQ : accessed 02 Mar 2013), Robert Montana, January 1975.
  2. ↑ CONNORS, ANN (8 May 1989). "A Funny Thing Happened to the Haverhill Class of '40". LA Times. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  3. ↑ "Archie comics turn 50". ew.com. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  4. ↑ Windolf, Jim (December 2006). "American Idol". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on July 13, 2016. Retrieved January 9, 2017. Since the [court] settlement, every Archie product has listed John Goldwater as 'creator.' The name Bob Montana falls under a separate credit line that defines him as the 'creator' of 'the original characters’ likenesses.'
  5. ↑ Offenberger, Rik (March 1, 2003). "Publisher Profile: Archie Comics". Borderline (19). Archived from the original on October 28, 2016. Retrieved January 9, 2017 – via MightyCrusaders.net.
  6. ↑ Harvey, R. C. (July 28, 2011). "John Goldwater, the Comics Code Authority, and Archie". The Comics Journal. Archived from the original on April 16, 2014.
  7. ↑ Tennant, Paul (December 28, 2010). "'Archie' comic changes with the times, examines real-life topics,". The Eagle-Tribune. North Andover, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on April 1, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  8. ↑ "'Bob Montana, Cartoonist, Dies; Creator of 'Archie' Strip, 54,". The New York Times. New York, NY. 6 January 1975. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  • "Archie". Don Markstein's Toonopedia.
  • Mark C. N. Sullivan. NOW 60 YEARS OLD, ARCHIE HAS ROOTS REACHING TO HAVERHILL CARTOONIST USED HIGH SCHOOL FRIENDS FOR HIS INSPIRATION The Boston Globe December 30, 2001
  • Bob Montana Papers - Syracuse University
  • Jim Windolf. American Idol Vanity Fair, December 2006.
  • "Who's Who in Riverdale?". archiecomics.com.
  • 1954 Mad Magazine. "Starchie and Goodman Beaver".
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