| Ken Bald | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 1, 1920 New York City, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Penciller, Inker |
| Pseudonym(s) | K. Bruce |
Kenneth Bruce Bald (born August 1, 1920) is an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for the Dr. Kildare and Dark Shadows newspaper comic strips. Due to contractual obligations, he is credited as "K. Bruce" on the Dark Shadows strip.[1]
Contents |
Biography [link]
Early life and career [link]
Ken Bald was born in New York City, New York and raised in suburban Mount Vernon, New York.[2] He attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn for three years, then joined the Englewood, New Jersey studio of Jack Binder, one of the early comic-book "packagers" who would supply complete comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium.[2] Beginning in 1942, during the 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books, Bald, via Binder, began drawing backup features for the prominent Fawcett Comics.[2]
Creator credits were not routinely given during this era, and while historians have tentatively identified Bald as both penciler and inker of the 14-page Bulletman story "The Terror of the Iceberg" in Fawcett's Master Comics #26 (May 1942), his earliest confirmed credit is penciling the 16-page Captain America story "Ali Baba and His Forty Nazis" in Captain America Comics #32 (Nov. 1943), published by Marvel Comics precursor Timely Comics.[3]
Going on staff at Timely, Bald drew stories of such superheroes as Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, the Blonde Phantom, the Destroyer, and Miss America variously through comics cover-dated July 1949. He both wrote and drew a number of Millie the Model humor stories in the comics Georgie and Patsy Walker, and at least drew the teen-humor character Cindy in Georgie and Judy Comics and Junior Miss.[3]
Bald penciled the first appearance of the Sub-Mariner spin-off character Namora, in "The Coming of Namora" in Marvel Mystery Comics #82 (May 1947), but it is unclear if he helped create the character; the cover, which was sometimes created first, featured Namora draw by Bob Powell. Similarly, Bald drew Timely's single issue of The Witness (Sept. 1948), starring a character co-created by writer-editor Stan Lee, but the cover for which was drawn by Charles Nicholas. Bald, with an unidentified writer, co-created Timely the superhero Sun Girl, who starred in a three-issue series cover-dated August to December 1948.[3]
His other comic-book work included the character Crime Smasher in Fawcett's Whiz Comics in the 1940s, and many anthological horror/suspense stories in American Comics Group's Adventures into the Unknown, The Clutching Hand, Forbidden Worlds and Out of the Night from 1949 through late 1954. Also for ACG, he co-created the adventure feature Time Travelers in Operation: Peril #1 (Nov. 1950).[3]
In 1957, Bald transitioned to comic strips, beginning with Judd Saxon — about "an up-and-coming young executive",{{cite book|first=Maurice|last=Horn[4] or "an executive turned detective"[5] written by Jerry Brondfield, for King Features Syndicate.[5] On October 15, 1962,[6] A Sunday color strip was added April 19, 1964.[6] Bald and writer Elliot Caplin premiered the strip Dr. Kildare,[7] based on the television show of that name. Comics historian Maurice Horn said, "Bald, who modeled the two principals on the actors who played them on television ( Richard Chamberlain and Raymond Massey), drew the strip with breezy, self-assured elegance."[6] Bald left Judd Saxon the following year.[4] In 1971, he created the comic strip Dark Shadows, also based on a TV series, a soap opera featuring Jonathan Frid as vampire Barnabas Collins. That strip ended the following year. With the end of the Dr. Kildare strip in 1984,[6][7] Bald retired.[5]
Additionally, Bald worked as a commercial artist.[5]
Personal [link]
Bald and his wife, Kaye, have five children: Karen; Kenneth, Jr.; Christophea; Victoria and Valery.
References [link]
- ^ Bald, Kenneth Bruce, foreword, Dark Shadows: The Comic Strip Book, edited by Kathryn Leigh Scott, Pomegranate Press, 1996. ISBN 0-938817-39-6. p. vii
- ^ a b c Mendez, Prof. A. E.. "The Look of Love: The Rise and Fall of The Photo-Realistic Newspaper Strip — The Art of Ken Bald: Truth, Beauty, and Photography". Archived from the original on August 10, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070810132549/https://profmendez.tripod.com/html/likeness.htm. Additional WebCitation archive.
- ^ a b c d Ken Bald at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ a b Leiffer, Paul; Ware, Hames, eds.. "Judd Saxon". (entry), The Comic Strip Project: Credits E-K. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. https://www.bpib.com/comicsproj/creditsEK.html.
- ^ a b c d "Ken Bald Papers". Syracuse University Library. https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/b/bald_k.htm.
- ^ a b c d Horn, Maurice, ed. (1996). 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics. New York City; Avenel: Gramercy Books. p. 105, Dr. Kildare (entry). ISBN 978-0-517-12447-5.
- ^ a b Leiffer, Ware, "Dr Kildare" (entry), Credits A-D
https://wn.com/Ken_Bald
Podcasts:
-
by Army Of The Pharaohs
-
by Skip The Use
Gun Ballad
by: Army Of The Pharaohs[Intro: Chief Kamachi]
Yeah, uh, yeah
We back y'all
Uh, AOTP
This is what y'all's was waiting for, right?
Yeah, nothing but that classic, classic, nothing but that classic, classic
[Verse 1: Chief Kamachi]
Yeah, yo
I stay strolling with Crypt
My opening Griff like the smokes of my fifth
Cup of gin, devilish grin, bodies cozy and stiff
It's the messiah, think the black Moses of myth
I hold the staff and turn snakes into nothing but pith
I spit the 'glyfics and a mystics, you know what it give
One eye, bloodshot, on a pyramid tick
It's real energy, you a high school chemistry kit
The ease, the crease, get a whole energy lift
If your hate since 9-8, Kamachi and Hologram
And 0-7, he the reverend of the lawless land
I crack crosses, I'm here for the fall of man
AOTP, this is what you call a jam
[Verse 2: Demoz]
Nigga I'll leave you poked in the chest
If hip hop is dead, call me ghost in the flesh
I'm close to the best
Kill your fucking man, have a toast to the death
Gotta be a ball game if I'm approaching the bench
Coke on the steps, po-po lock me up
Came home, now we just waiting on mafia
Jae I got you, Vinnie I see you
Crypt, King Size, Planetary, no need to
Display no one else's name, we all lethal
We came from a flame a hundred below evil
Nigga, I'll shoot you, I'll stab you,
I knock your fucking jaw off your face if I smack you
Who's Luke, who's John, who's Paul, who's Matthew
I don't read the fucking bible, nigga I'll just get at you
I'll make a bunch of crazy white boys kidnap you
Let you know this is real true life, no battle
[Chorus: Demoz]
This is a gun ballad, mother fucker get lost
AOTP, every member is a boss
Can you pay the price when your life is the cost
Will you crack under pressure, take another loss
This is a gun ballad, mother fucker get lost
AOTP every member is a boss
Can you pay the price when your life is the cost
Will you crack under pressure, take another loss
This is a gun ballad
[Verse 3: Vinnie Paz]
You knew the white boy was wild nice
And that I stick the cooker to your ribs like fried rice
I got some cousins moving d at a wild price
That have the dope fiends lean mean when they pound spikes
The aim's sloppy dog, knife work mean
Stick it through the neck, pull it out
Knife work clean (ha ha ha ha)
The God's righteous, but I might serve fiends
And the four fifth lift you out your iceberg jeans
I got a lot of young boys and they mad hungry
Murder, kill, shoot the place up, stab for me
This ain't the type of place you can survive God (not at all)
God don't live inside me, I live inside God.
[Verse 4: Doap Nixon]
I ain't messing with nines, nah
I give them shits to my bro
I only mess with big shit, with the shoulders involved
Throw your body in the river so the odor dissolve
A head shot, leave your brain under the motor your car
For real, you can bet your last, I split plenty wigs
It's KTK, Kenny the Kid
And I'm still in the hood, money, getting them packs off
Side of the Barrel, dog
It feel like a scratch off
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I got good aim, peep hole niggas get eye clapped
And we all on ease, all in greens, all in trees, and we all gon' squeeze
AOTP, niggas be running game on you
And I ain't talking about my money's gonna rain on you
I'm talking about the shit that dent up your car
Gat nines and big faces or I'm clipping your broad, faggot
[Chorus: Demoz]
This is a gun ballad, mother fucker get lost
AOTP, every member is a boss
Can you pay the price when your life is the cost
Will you crack under pressure, take another loss
This is a gun ballad, mother fucker get lost
AOTP every member is a boss
Can you pay the price when your life is the cost
Will you crack under pressure, take another loss