Stan Fine

Stan Fine (born 1924), a prolific American gag cartoonist who contributed to major magazines, signed his work with his full name but sometimes reversed his last name to submit cartoons under the signature Enif.

Born in Pittsburgh, Fine studied at the Philadelphia School of Industrial Art and then launched his cartoon career. His work appeared for decades in a wide variety of publications, including The American Magazine, Cartoon Spice, Collier's, Good Housekeeping, Look. National Enquirer, National Lampoon, The Saturday Evening Post and Woman's World.

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King Features

For a year in the mid-1960s, he entered into newspaper syndication with Art Linkletter's Kids, a daily gag panel featuring a cast of child characters—Klunkhead, Powder Puff, Specs Webster and Terry the Terror. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the series began November 4, 1963 and continued until October 1964.[1] He also worked on the syndicated Hazel, as recalled by Ted Key's son, Peter Key:

When Curtis Publishing went into bankruptcy, my father obtained the rights to Hazel from it and worked out a deal under which he wrote and drew six Hazel cartoons a week for King Features Syndicate, which syndicated them to newspapers across the country. My father hired cartoonist Stan Fine to ink his drawings. I wrote gags for him for an eight-year period, but he still turned out six new Hazel cartoons a week until he retired in 1993. King Features still syndicates Hazel to newspapers, but the cartoons are ones that appeared before.[2]

From his studio at 125 Montgomery Avenue in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, Fine used the services of several gagwriters, including Terry Wampler.[3] Wampler's contributions were acknowledged in one National Enquirer cartoon showing kids in Halloween costumes, outside a darkened house, saying, "We know you're in there, Mr. Wampler, so turn on the light and come out with your hands full."

Books

Books with Fine's byline include How to Stop Smoking Without Hardly Trying (Gem Publishing, 1964) which displayed "16 detachable jumbo picture postcards". His cartoons were reprinted in many collections, including The Little Monsters (Ace, 1956) and the hardcover You've Got Me in the Suburbs (Dodd Mead, 1957), cartoons about commuters and suburbanites, edited by Lawrence Lariar. Fine was often represented in Lariar's Best Cartoons of the Year annuals.

His work is in the Daniel McCormick Collection at Wayne State University.[4]

References

  1. ^ Stripper's Guide
  2. ^ Jim Manago interview with Peter Key
  3. ^ Serenethos Art and Photography
  4. ^ Wayne State University: Daniel McCormick Collection

External links