Tom Gill, 1913-2005



Cartoonist and comics educator Tom Gill, best known for his art on the Lone Ranger comic books, passed away in his New York home on Monday at 92 years old. The cause of death was heart failure.

Gill's career began during at the New York Daily News, where according to the Reuters obituary he drew the first map of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He later worked for the Herald-Tribune and the Times.

His comic book drawing career in the 1940 included art duties on Blue Bolt. He also drew the newspaper features Flower Potts and Ricky Stevens during that decade, before turning his attention towards freelance comic book illustration in 1949.

Beginning in 1950 Gill settled into a long period drawing westerns at Dell and then Gold Key, primarily The Lone Ranger. Gill frequently worked from scripts prepared by Paul S. Newman.

Gill also enjoyed a long second career as an arts educator at various New York regional schools. He began teaching at the School of Visual Arts in 1948 and is credited with helping found that institution; he became SVA's alumni director in 1969. Despite losing his eyesight late in life, Gill continued to teach art at area community colleges.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia, two children, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Services are planned for Friday.

Mark Evanier's classy appreciation can be found here, and Mr. Gill's Lambiek entry can be found here. An Albuquerque newspaper article from May contrasted the east coast artist and the wide-open spaces of his comics work, and can be found here.
 
posted 9:33 am PST | Permalink
 

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