Bob Fujitani, Flash Gordon Artist at 97
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A talented illustrator and painter, Bob Fujitani rode the comics craze from the 1930s into the ’90s, illustrating such popular strips as “Uncle Sam,” “Flying Dutchman,” “Rip Kirby,” “Dr. Solar,” “Crime Does Not Pay,” “Turok” and “Son of Stone.” He also drew “Prince Valiant” for comic books…
Fujitani also drew the terrifying vigilante Hangman (a gallows and noose was his calling card) and sketches for “Boy’s Life” magazine. But it was Flash Gordon, that Adonis of space who grappled with Ming the Merciless, the insane dictator of the planet Mongo, that was Fujitani’s favorite comics hero and his most consistent labor of love.
Fujitani worked alongside such legendary giants as Will Eisner and Nick Cardy. It was a grind, he admits, even later when he did most of his work at home. It sometimes took three people to complete an illustrative comic strip: writer, artist, letterer. Fujitani would get the text from the writer and do the artwork to accompany the words. Then he and his wife, Ruth, also a painter, would drive “over the Tappan Zee Bridge and down 9W to letterer Ben Oda’s house.”
Rosemarie T. Anner, for the Connecticut Post, pays a visit to Bob Fujitani.
A brief visit, but nice to see Bob up and about.
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