Gone But Not Forgotten: Henry Boltinoff

Back in the mid 1960’s to the early 1970’s the name of Henry Boltinoff (1914-2001) was synonymous with DC comics, and yet many comic readers of the time may not remember his work at all despite his gag strips appearing in most DC titles at some point during this time period (in fact Boltinoff drew for National/DC from the 1940’s). Boltinoff created numerous characters including Super-Turtle( above), Freddie the Frogman , Abdul the fire eater, Billy, Homer, Doctor Rockets and Doctor Floogle amongst literally 100’s of other half and full-page gag cartoons. Most of his characters bore little to no relevance to the actual comic they appeared in for example Freddie the Frogman didn’t appear in Aquaman however, "Super-Turtle" did seem to appear more regularly in Superman titles. Henry's clean line and silly stories may be dated by today’s standards, but I always enjoyed them as a kid / young teenager, and I have held on to many DC comic titles that were of little interest to me simply because they contained a Boltinoff gag strip. I hope you enjoy some of these fun gag strips from another time.

Around 1965 most of Boltinoff’s strips were discontinued and were replaced the by the “Cap’s Hobby Center” strip which was obviously aimed at tying in with some of DC’ advertisers that sold hobby kits. Later, the strip would be renamed “Cap’s Hobby Hints” where readers could earn $5 (and the original art) by sending in their hobby hints.

The excellent "Mikes Amazing World of Comics" has a fantastic selection of Henry's strips.