Another artist from comics' "Golden Age" has left us. Morris Weiss passed away this afternoon at the age of 99.
Weiss worked over the years on many newspaper strips, including The Katzenjammer Kids and Mutt & Jeff. He frequently assisted on and later took over completely the Mickey Finn strip, and also wrote Joe Palooka for many years. He worked in comic books, mostly for Holyoke, beginning around 1943. His comic book career was interrupted by military service and in 1946, he began drawing and sometimes writing for Timely Publications, the company now known as Marvel. He was a favorite of editor Stan Lee, who used him on comics including Patsy Walker, Tessie the Typist and a popular comic that Weiss created, wrote and drew called Margie. I have a special fondness for his work on the Pinky Lee comic book.
In the late fifties with many comic book companies downsizing or even closing, Weiss did his last work for Stan Lee, picked up some jobs for Western Publishing (their Nancy comic book, among others) and soon transitioned full-time into syndicated newspaper strips. He was active in the National Cartoonists Society and is said to have proposed the idea that became the Milt Gross Fund, an N.C.S. charity to aid cartoonists in financial trouble.
I never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Weiss but his colleagues spoke well of him as both a creative talent and as a gentleman. He certainly had a long and happy life and career.