Mell Lazarus, American cartoonist, Died at 89

  Artists

Mell Lazarus was born on May 3, 1927, and died on May 24, 2016.

He was an American cartoonist.

Mell was best known as the creator of two comic strips, Miss Peach (1957–2002) and Momma (1970–present).

Also to that, Lazarus wrote two novels.

With his comic strip Pauline McPeril (a 1966-69 collaboration with Jack Rickard), he used the pseudonym Fulton, which is also the name of a character in his first novel, The Boss Is Crazy, Too.

He started as a professional cartoonist when he was a teenager.

In the 1920s, he worked for Al Capp and his brother Elliott Caplin at the Capp family-owned Toby Press, which published Al Capp’s Shmoo Comics, among other titles.

Mell Lazarus novel The Boss Is Crazy, Too (Dial, 1963) concerns Carson Hemple, art director of a comic-book and confession-magazine publishing company, who is told by the owner to help force the company into bankruptcy, and who responds with inventive embezzlement schemes.

That book was inspired by his time at Toby Press.

He won the National Cartoonists Society’s award for Newspaper Strip, Humor, in 1973 and 1979, both times for Miss Peach.

Mell won the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, for Miss Peach, in 1981, and the organization’s Silver T-Square Award in 2000.

Mell Lazarus became the second recipient of the National Cartoonists Society Medal of Honor, on January 23, 2016, established the year before.

Mell Lazarus passed away at 89 yrs old.