Dick Rockwell passes away

Mark Evanier reports that Richard Waring "Dick" Rockwell, who "ghost drew" the Steve Canyon comic strip for 35 years, passed away Tuesday at the age of 85.

Dick began his comic book career in 1948 working for Stan Lee at what was then called Timely Comics. He also worked for Lev Gleason, Dell and several other publishers before (and occasionally, after) connecting in 1952 with Caniff. The way the story is told, Rockwell applied for membership in the National Cartoonists Society, which involved submitting a sample of his work. Caniff, who was then in charge of looking over applications, saw Rockwell's and immediately called him to say he qualified for membership and to ask if he was available for work. Rockwell was...and he was soon drawing a lot more of Caniff's strip than Caniff was. For much of the next 3.5 decades, Milton would write the strip, Rockwell would pencil it and ink in everything but the main characters, and then the art would go to Caniff who would finish things off and retouch wherever he deemed necessary.

Rockwell also drew comic books, including a Blackhawk story written by Evanier in the early 80s, and a Wild Dog story from Action Comics Weekly. More info