Roy Crane
(22/11/1901 - 8/7/1977, USA)
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When he was young, Royston Campbell Crane traveled across the American Southwest and eventually went to sea. In the early 1920s, he settled in New York, took a correspondence course in cartooning and became the assistant of H.T. Webster on the New York World. His first comic was called 'Music to the Ear'. The strip that made him famous, 'Wash Tubbs', appeared in 1924. This popular strip was already widely imitated by 1933, when Crane came up with his pinnacle of virtuosity and verve, 'Captain Easy'.
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In 1943, tired of the restrictions of his syndicate, he left 'Wash Tubbs' to Les Turner and launched a new strip with King Features Syndicate, which let him own all the rights. This was 'Buz Sawyer', a wartime comic about a navy aviator. It ran for over forty years and won many honors and awards. Crane also added a Sunday page, which focused on the more rural adventures of Sawyer's pal Roscoe Sweeney.
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Due to an ulcer condition, Crane was forced to retire from the strip in the 1960s, but it was continued by Ed Granberry and Henry Schlensker, with whom he kept in close contact. The Sunday page was continued by Crane's assistant Al Wenzel. Roy Crane died in 1977.
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