Chase Craig

• Born 1910-08-28 · Died 2001-12-02

Chase Craig was an American writer-cartoonist who worked principally on comic strips and comic books. From the mid-1940s to mid-1970s he was a prolific editor and scripter for Western Publishing's Dell and Gold Key Comics, including the popular Disney comics line. In 1935 he became an animator for Leon Schlesinger Productions and Walter Lantz Productions. Craig left the animation field in 1939 and began working as a freelancer. He drew several comic strips. In the early 1940s he joined, Dell Publishing where he was one of the first artists to draw comic stories featuring Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and Elmer Fudd. Craig became the West Coast editor for the Western Publishing (Dell/Gold Key) comics in 1950. Into the 1970s Craig served as editor of Dell/Western Publishing's Disney titles, including Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, Uncle Scrooge, Chip 'n' Dale and other titles. He was editing (at one point) a comic per day, at a time when it was not uncommon for one of their comics to sell over a million copies. He was the editor who kept Carl Barks producing Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories and Paul Murry doing Mickey Mouse. Craig created a number of Gold Key's original characters, perhaps the most notable being Magnus, Robot Fighter, 4000 A.D. He envisioned Magnus as "a sort of future Tarzan" and enlisted the artistic and story writing talents of Russ Manning for the new series which premiered in February 1963. Craig also created a number of other cartoon characters for Gold Key comics, including, in 1964, The Little Monsters, which ran more or less continuously until February 1978.