If you haven't read Part One of this series, you might want to do that before you proceed.
When I was reading Dell Comics in the fifties, I had a favorite artist not only before I knew his name but before I was fully aware that comic books were drawn by anyone. Until about the age of six, I thought they just magically appeared…you know, the way cartoons on TV did. If I'd given the matter any thought, I might have suspected that the guy at the drug store where we bought my comic books was creating them when he was not busy filling prescriptions.
My favorite artist, it turned out, was a man named Dan Spiegle.
Oh, I liked other artists as well but Dan did a lot of adaptations of movies and TV shows and when he drew them, the people he drew not only looked like the people on the screen, they pretty much acted like them too. They had the perfect facial expressions and body english to go with what was in the word balloons over their heads. Even at a young age, I was more impressed by that than by an artist's ability to draw a cool-looking monster or a powerful fight scene. I would appreciate him even more when we began working together.
In 1962 when I was ten, some Dell Comics branched off and became Gold Key Comics (explanation here). Dan branched off with them and drew for Gold Key — Maverick, Korak, Space Family Robinson, lotsa Disney movies, etc.
In the seventies when I made little field trips up to the Santa Barbara area, as I explained in Part 1, I would always visit Dan Spiegle. He was as nice as he was talented and he was one of the most talented artists in the business.
The first time I made one of these expeditions to the Santa Barbara/Carpinteria area, some friends of mine and I first visited Dan. He was then drawing, among other assignments, the Scooby Doo comic book that I was writing for Gold Key Comics. We would later collaborate on a great many projects including Blackhawk for DC, Crossfire for Eclipse Comics and more Scooby Doo comics for several different publishers, not all of them in the United States. As you may have figured out, that's me on the left in the above photo and Dan on the right. We're in his studio in Carpinteria. It was a big shed amidst a forest of avocado trees.
At the time, I was unaware how close we would become and how often we'd work together…but if I'd known then, I would have been quite pleased. I had met him briefly before at Richard Kyle's bookshop in Long Beach…at its grand opening party, I think. That day in Carpinteria, Dan barbecued lunch for me and my friends — something else he did quite well — and we had a wonderful, long talk. Later, there were other visits and once or twice, we met Russell Myers at Santa's Kitchen, the restaurant at Santa Claus Lane, for lunch.
That work we did on Scooby Doo turned out to be the start of a about a forty-year relationship. I wrote and Dan drew stories published by Western Publishing, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Eclipse Comics, Archie Comics and several foreign publishers.
Not once was Dan late with anything. Not once did he disappoint me. And I can think of at least a half-dozen times when, on projects that did not involve me, he was a true hero producing superior work on impossible deadlines. Often, it was because some other artist had botched the work or could not possibly have gotten it done on time. He was just amazing…and we never had an argument of any kind.
Dan didn't live far from Santa Claus Lane…about three miles. It's impossible for me to think about the place without thinking about stopping there on the way to his home…or on the way home from his home…or eating there with him on some visit. The food was awful but the company was always gourmet quality. I can't tell you how much I miss that man.