A few weeks back on November 27th, 2009 the world of comics got a little less funnier with the passing of comic artist Irving Tripp. Tripp died at 88 after complications with cancer.
Born in 1921, Tripp may not be a household name from the Golden-Age of comics like Kirby or Simon but had just as huge of an impact on the industry (Tripp partially is over-looked due to the fact that it wasn’t always the industry standard back in the day to credit all artists and writers for their work, many of who served as ghost artists or writers for the original creators). Tripp worked at Dell Comics (who was a power house of producing youth-aimed comics based off Disney properties like The Lone Ranger and many more) on an array of projects. When the production schedule for John Stanley on Little Lulu would prove too much for the artist, Tripp came in and took over a huge balk of pencil, ink and lettering duties for Little Lulu and its spin-off comic Tubby.
There was a time when Little Lulu was simply all the rage, up there with your weekly grabs like Batman or the Fantastic Four. The humor and stories that filled her title, as well as spin-off title Tubby, are memorable, heart warming and laugh out loud funny for all ages. Simply put, I love Little Lulu and highly recommend picking up the re-print collections which Dark Horse has published faithfully over the past few years. The fact that Tripp drew a great deal of these honestly puts him up there as not just a talented artist but one that had a huge impact on a ton of people, if anything for the fact alone the amount of readers he brought smiles to during Lulu’s long popularity and high sales.
Tripp, aside from Little Lulu and Tubby, also drew issues of Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and worked on a number of Disney comics (most famously Dumbo) and an array of other titles. He worked at Dell until his retirement in 1982.
Drew McCabe
drew@comicattack.net
He will be missed.
Always a shame to see a pioneer pass away.