George Gladir obit

George Gladir Obituary

 

He was not on the list.

Gladir, George Cartoonist and Comic Book Writer, Dies 09/27/1925 ~ 04/03/2013 OCEANSIDE / SAN DIEGO -- George Gladir brought Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge, Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones, and all the folks in the mythic comic book town of Riverdale to life for three generations of comic book readers. George was also the creator of the character Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Until several weeks ago, Gladir was still hard at work, still writing for Archie, where he began in 1959. At the 2007 Comic Con, Gladir received the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. He served in World War II as an enlisted man in the 94th Division. Following his graduation, he re-enlisted in the Army and was stationed in Germany, as an intelligence officer, during the Korean War. A Graveside Service will be held at Mission San Luis Rey, Oceanside, California, on Tuesday, April 9, at 1:30 p.m.

Gladir was born in New York City, the son of Russian immigrants, and attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. Serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he became a German prisoner of war after having taken part in the invasion of Normandy. Afterward, he attended the School of Visual Arts in New York before reenlisting in the Army and becoming an intelligence officer serving in Germany during the Korean War.

He became a full-time comic book writer in 1959, doing one-page gag fillers for Archie Comics' Archie's Joke Book as well as for other titles. Writer and artist credits were not routinely given in comic books at that time. and Gladir's first confirmed credit is the gag page "Sign Language", drawn by Dan DeCarlo, in Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica #59 (Nov. 1960).

Gladir went on to write stories for several Archie Comics titles, including Archie's Pal Jughead, Reggie and Me, Betty and Me, and, primarily Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica. In Archie's Madhouse (the logo sometimes given as Archie's Mad House) #22 (Oct. 1962), the character Sabrina Spellman, by Gladir and DeCarlo, debuted in the humor anthology's lead story (the logo then spelled "Teen-Age"). She would eventually become one of the publisher's major characters, appearing in an animated series and a television sitcom. Gladir recalled in 2007,

I think we both envisioned it as a one-shot and were surprised when fans asked for more. We continued to do Sabrina stories off and on in Mad House until 1969 when we were flabbergasted to hear it was to become an animated [TV series]. When it came to naming Sabrina I decided to name her after a woman I recalled from my junior high school days ... who was very active in school affairs, and who assigned a number of us to interview prominent people in the media. In addition, the woman's name had a New England ring to it. Some years later I recalled the woman's name was not Sabrina, but actually Sabra Holbrook.

In the early 1960s, Gladir also began writing for the satiric magazine Cracked, eventually becoming its head writer; over the next 30 years, he wrote approximately 2,000 pages for the magazine, many of them illustrated by John Severin.

In the late 2000s, Gladir and Stan Goldberg created the one-shot comic book Cindy and Her Obasan for Rorschach Entertainment.

Writer

Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch (2013)

Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch

5.0

TV Series

characters (uncredited)

2013–2014

21 episodes

 

Maurice LaMarche and Britt McKillip in Sabrina's Secret Life (2003)

Sabrina's Secret Life

6.3

TV Series

characters

2003–2004

 

Sabrina the Teenage Witch in Friends Forever (2002)

Sabrina the Teenage Witch in Friends Forever

6.1

TV Movie

character: Sabrina, originally conceived for Archie Comics

2002

 

Archie and His New Pals (1969)

Archie and His New Pals

7.9

TV Movie

story written

1969

 

Additional Crew

Sabrina, Down Under (1999)

Sabrina, Down Under

5.2

TV Movie

based on Sabrina the Teenage Witch created by

1999