creig flessel

11 Things: Creig Flessel

Thursday, January 31, 2008

1. Feb. 2, 1912: Creig Flessel is born in Huntington, Long Island, New York.

2. 1920s: Attends the Grand Central Art School at the same time as Charles Addams (who later does the New Yorker comics that become the inspiration for "The Addams Family").

3. 1930s: Works on More Fun Comics and pre-Batman issues of Detective Comics. Later works on the original Sandman. Marries Marie Marino in 1937.

4. 1940s: Works on Adventure Comics and creates the Shining Knight. Also works on New York World's Fair Comics.

5. 1950s: Works for ad agency Johnstone and Cushing. Briefly works on Superboy comics.

6. 1960s: Works on a syndicated comic strip about a young minister, David Crane. (Balances this out in No. 8.)

7. 1970s: Works on Prez 4: Vampire in the White House in 1974.

8. 1980s: Works on the Tales of Baron von Furstinbed for Playboy. (Balanced this out in No. 6.)

9. 1990s: Receives the 1991 Comic-Con International Inkpot Award and the 1992 National Cartoonists Society Silver T-Square Extraordinary Service Award.

10. 2000s: Moves to Mill Valley. Gets mentioned in Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," (albeit with his name misspelled). In 2007, he receives the Sparky Award and celebrates his 70th wedding anniversary.

11. Feb. 2, 2008: Flessel turns 96. He makes it a point to mention that he still draws, adding with a laugh, "at my age, what the hell else am I going to do?"

- Tim Sullivan, tsullivan@sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/30/NSR6UNP42.DTL

This article appeared on page G - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle