Jim Mooney, a legend in the comic book industry artist who passed away last month, will have one last published piece this Sunday. This Sunday’s Funky Winkerbean was written by Tony Isabella who made the characters appear as Superman and Supergirl. At Tony’s suggestion, Funky creator Tom Batiuk contacted Jim and asked him to draw the super-hero characters, to which Jim agreed.
Regarding Jim, Tom said:
I … found him to be one of the nicest and genuine individuals you’d want to encounter. He agreed to do the Sunday and did a wonderful job. The strip will run Sunday April 13th and quite possibly could be Jim’s last published work. If so, I feel privileged to have been a small part of it.
h/t Tony Isabella
Well, that strip will go down as a real piece of comics history, then. Jim never got the respect he deserved, but he was one of the unsung journeymen who always delivered. (I would say he “helped make the comic book industry what it is today,” but Jim doesn’t deserve blame for its sorry state.)
I met Mr. Mooney a few years ago at a convention, and spent the better part of an hour with him as he drew sketches for, and talked to, fans…myself included (I bought two drawings and a Spider-Man page from him). As Tom Batiuk said, he WAS “one of the nicest and genuine” comics artists I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, and I was happy to see him get the attention he was getting (mostly from older comics fans, admittedly)that day. I’ve found, after attending conventions for 30 years, that the older artists usually ARE more gracious and personable.
Jim Mooney’s Funky Supergirl:
http://www.timesunion.com/comics/?feature_id=Funky_Winkerbean&feature_date=2008-04-13
(click on image to enlarge).
The 1959 debut cover of Supergirl
(by Curt Swan and Al Palstino):
http://supergirl.astraldream.net/comics/Action%20252%20SG-00.jpg