Tom Moore, a cartoonist who connected with "Archie" comics creator Bob Montana early on and ended up helping to draw the comics for over four decades, died on Monday in El Paso, Texas. He was 86.
Moore, a Korean War native veteran, drew Archie and his teenage friends Betty, Veronica and Jughead from 1953 until he retired in the late 1980,
reported Us Weekly.
"Tom was very funny and had a knack for putting together really great, hilarious gags and special pages when he worked at Archie," said Archie Comics' editor in chief Victor Gorelik. "He was probably best known here for inking our Jughead relaunch decades ago. We're all sad to hear this news and wish his family the very best during this time."
Moore began drawing cartoons in the U.S. Navy and drawings of his captain turned into a reassignment to become a staff cartoonist,
said the El Paso Times.
"He's a legend, in El Paso and, really, around the United States," said All Star Comics & Games owner Brad Wilson. "A lot of people don't realize how much he influenced comic book art. He was still buying comics and a really nice guy, a fun guy."
Archie Comics acknowledged Moore on Facebook Tuesday.
"I did one comic book a month," Moore told the El Paso Times in 1996 interview. "I did everything. We always worked six months ahead. I'd be doing Christmas issues in June and beach stories with a foot of snow outside my window."
Moore said his goal was to create characters that could adjust to circumstances but had reliable personality traits for the audience.
"It's important to create characters that can adapt to anything, but whose personalities are consistent," said Moore. "Establish that, and don't deviate. Betty doesn't act like Veronica, and Charlie Brown doesn't act like Lucy."
Moore taught commercial art at El Paso Community College after retiring and the El Paso Museum of Art displayed his work in an exhibition in 1996.
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