Stan Drake

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Stanley Albert Drake (November 9, 1921 - March 10, 1997) was an American cartoonist best known as the founding artist of the comic strip The Heart of Juliet Jones, and as a successor artist on Blondie.

Juliet Jones, created in 1953 by Drake and writer Elliot Caplin, was a soap opera comic drawn by Drake in a naturalistic style. Drake, whose assistants included Tex Blaisdell and Frank McLaughlin, stayed on the strip until 1989, when he was succeeded by Frank Bolle.

In 1984, Drake was succeeded Mike Gersher on the humor strip Blondie (written by Dean Young), which Drake continued to draw until his death.

He created comic books for Marvel Comics such as The Pit, was a prolific painter with a collection of protraits of almost 50 of the world's greatest cartoonists, displayed at the Comic Artist's Museum in Sarasota, Florida.

He is known as well for "Kelly Green", a black-and-white strip about a young widow who acts as a detective. This was done for the French firm, Dargaud International Publishing and appeared in Pilote magazine.

Drake was an avid golfer and published illustrations in Golf Digest and the book The Touch System for Better Golf.

He was recognized for his work with the National Cartoonist Society Story Comic Strip Award for 1969, 1970, and 1972 for his work on The Heart of Juliet Jones.