Animator Helen Komar has passed away.
Helen (Sobkow) Komar
September 4, 1927 – November 27, 2020
Helen was an accomplished artist who enjoyed illustrating, cartooning, and portraiture. She was a master of pastel, pencil, oil and acrylic mediums. Millions of people are unaware that they have seen her animated work on TV and in movies.
Helen’s nearly fifty-year career as a traditional animator and screen cartoonist in New York City saw her contribute to popular animated television cartoons, including Popeye the Sailor Man, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and the original Spider-Man. She worked on many animated television commercials for products such as Maypo Cereal, Trix, Cheerios, Sugar Crisp, Cocoa Puffs, Fruit Loops, Wheaties, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Uniroyal TigerPaw, and Chloraseptic Spray. Her screen credits for animated movies and shorts include: Sir Irving and Jeames (1956), The Incredible Mr. Limpett starring Don Knotts (1964), the adult feature film Fritz the Cat (1972), Maurice Sendak’s Really Rosie (1975) and Chicken Soup with Rice (1975), Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977), The Soldier’s Tale (1984), and Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters (1988).
The IMDb has a list of some of the animated movies she worked on.
Helen has a guest-starring role in a birthday card from Tissa David to Michael Sporn,
where Michael identifies Helen:
Helen, is Helen Komar, a lifelong assistant working in NY first at Paramount then onto lots of other places. She managed the animation area for John and Faith for a couple of years. Another great person who slips through the history books.
It looks like Helen partnered with Fannie K. Raynor to attempt a comic of some sort (strip? book?) around 1953, at least they copyrighted the idea.
A newspaper photo from 1980:
