Dan DeCarlo, who worked at Archie Comics for over 40 years before he was fired as a result of a dispute over the ownership of the rights to Josie & the Pussycats, died at the age of 82.  A graduate of New Rochelle High School and three-veteran of the Art Students League, DeCarlo spent four years in Europe during World War II painting mascots on planes for the Eighth Army Air Force.  After working at Timely with Stan Lee, DeCarlo joined Archie Comics in 1957 and stayed with the company until the year 2000.  Just as Carl Barks was known as 'the good Duck artist' for his work with Disney comics, and John Stanley and Irv Tripp are forever associated with the classic Little Lulu comics, so Dan DeCarlo epitomized the straight but sexy style of Archie comics with his powerful line that predominates even on uninked pages of his work.  After leaving Archie, DeCarlo worked for a number of other comic companies including Bongo Comics, which stylistically proved to be an excellent, if short-lived, fit for his talents.

 

Like the writer Seymour Reit, who co-created Casper the Friendly Ghost and also died this week, DeCarlo was victim of the 'work for hire' rules that kept creators from profiting from their creations when the characters were used in other media.  After Superman creator Jerry Siegel was able to arrange a settlement with DC/Warner Bros., DeCarlo attempted to assert his rights to Josie and the Pussycats, which at the time was being developed as a movie property.  The character of Josie was based on DeCarlo's wife (who was also named 'Josie') and DeCarlo's creation of the property was never really disputed -- but the ironclad nature of the contract that DeCarlo had with Archie Comics spelled doom for his case, which was eventually dismissed.