Alfred Andriola
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Alfred J. Andriola (May 24, 1912-March 29, 1983) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Kerry Drake, for which he won a Reuben Award in 1970.
Andriola was born in New York City and grew up in Rutherford, New Jersey. He studied at Cooper Union and Columbia University, intending to becoming a writer. Instead, following a fan letter he wrote to Milton Caniff, he became his assistant, working with him on Terry and the Pirates and Scorchy Smith.
His first strip was Charlie Chan (1938-1942), an adaptation of the popular detective novels for the McNaught Syndicate. For five months in 1943 he drew a minor superhero, Captain Triumph, for Quality Comics' Crack Comics.
For a year he drew the strip Dan Dunn with writer Allen Saunders. Dunn was cancelled on October 3, 1943 and the next day their strip Kerry Drake debuted. Originally a district attorney's investigator, Drake became a municipal police officer who battled a series of flamboyant villains when his secretary and fiancee was murdered by Trinket and Bulldozer. It gradually became a soap opera strip focusing on Drake and his wife Mindy. Andriola was assisted by Fran Matera, Jerry Robinson, and Sururi Gumen, the latter of whom shared credit with Andriola starting in 1976. Drake was cancelled following Andriola's death in 1983.
Andriola also drew the strip It's Me Dilly under the pseudonym Alfred James from 1957 to 1960.
[edit] External links
- Lambiek Comiclopedia
- Reuben bio
- Kerry Drake - Toonopedia entry
