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Wesley Morse (June 17, 1897 - June 20, 1963) was a cartoonist who is most famous for his creation of the ''Bazooka Joe'' comic strip for the bubble gum company Topps in 1953. He also created the Copa girl, which was the basis for the Copacabana logo. ==History== Born Wesley Cherry Morse in Chicago in 1897, the son of stage comedienne and corsetière Fanny Cherry (1870-1946), Wesley Morse eventually moved with his parents to New York City. In 1918, Morse joined the Army, spending a year in France in a field artillery battery. Following his experience overseas Morse returned to New York, where, starting in 1921, he became a regular contributor of sketches to magazines like ''Film Fun,'' ''Snappy Stories,'' and ''Shadowland.''〔("Shadowland Goes to The Follies" )〕 Chorus girls and flappers were frequent subjects of his. He also contributed art to advertisements in ''Collier's'', ''Judge'', and ''Life''. Morse was one of only two known authors of underground "Tijuana Bible" comics in the 1930s (Doc Rankin is believed to be another), and memorably created a series of them that used the 1939 World's Fair as their setting and were, according to legend, clandestinely sold at the fair itself.〔Spiegelman, Art. "Those Dirty Little Books" in ''Tijuana Bibles: Art and Wit in America's Forbidden Funnies'', ed. Bob Adelman, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 5-6.〕 Morse drew 60 of the little booklets, as well as four of the larger, more expensive 16 page books from the same publishers. Morse collaborated with H. C. Witwer on the comic strip ''Switchboard Sally'' in 1925, and drew Victor E. Pazmiño's newspaper strip ''Frolicky Fables'' in 1926. He drew the strip ''Kitty of the Chorus'' in the ''New York Daily Mirror'' in 1925, and ''Beau Gus'' for the early comic book ''Circus: The Comic Riot'' in 1938. For several months in 1925 he was probably the anonymous ghost who drew ''Polly and Her Pals'' for Cliff Sterrett while he was on sabbatical.〔Heer, Jeet, intro. ''Polly and Her Pals, Vol. 1: 1913-1927.'' IDW Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-1-60010-711-5.〕 During World War II he drew hundreds of unsigned gag cartoons for newsstand joke books issued by Louis Shomer's Larch Publications; he also worked for the Blackstone Company, an advertising agency where his friend Monte Proser, the owner of the Copacabana, had been an account executive. One of his World's Fair themed Tijuana bibles even shows the night club Proser was operating at the Fair, The Zombie, and its namesake signature drink.〔''Mary Injoyed the Fair After She Had A Zombie'' (). Reprinted in ''Hanky-Panky: Tijuana Bibles Archive Vol. 2'', ed. by Brian J. Hunt. GB Graphics, 2008.〕〔''New York Times'', April 20, 1940, pg. 17.〕 In the postwar period he did artwork for the Latin Quarter, the Copacabana, and other fashionable cafe restaurants and nightclubs in Manhattan, including wall murals, menus and souvenirs. In 1954 he was hired by Woody Gelman to be the creator and original artist for Topps Chewing Gum's character "Bazooka Joe," creating more than a thousand of the little wraparound comic strips. Morse drew these so far ahead of actual requirements that new ones continued to appear for years after he died. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wesley Morse」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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