Zeke Zekley

Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Zekley was hired first as a cartoonist for the tabloid newspaper, the Detroit Mirror (at the time owned by the owners of the The Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Medill Patterson). He worked there until the newspaper went out of business in August 1932. After the Detroit Mirror folded, Zekley continued freelancing work in Detroit, especially for what he referred to as "a ginger-ale client", most likely the local company, Vernors Ginger Ale. In 1935 Zekley moved to California to work for Disney, but was laid off after a couple months of work. Zekley then met Charles McManus, brother of Bringing up Father creator George McManus. He then began his career as McManus' assistant, at first doing lettering and inking on the strips. Over time Zekley took over more and more of the comic strip, often penciling and writing as well as inking and lettering. When McManus died on October 22, 1954, King Features Syndicate passed him over for Vernon Greene to continue the comic strip. Zekley tried his own comic strip, Dud Dudley, through McNaught Syndicate, but it lasted only from June 6 to November 19, 1955. He also worked on a comic panel called Paps Younger in 1961 (syndicate unknown and syndication uncertain) and by 1967, another comic panel called Popsie, which is known to have appeared in the newspaper, Pacific Stars and Stripes. Zekley did the cartoons for the National Broadcasting Company television show, The Tab Hunter Show, from 1960 to 1961. Hunter played the role of a cartoonist for the show. During the 1950s, Zekley had started Sponsored Comics, which created promotional comics and comic strips using his work and the work from other creators. Sponsored also did Family Comics, a pre-packaged comic section designed for Californian supermarkets. Many of the comic strips in Family Comics were also promoted as being available for syndication, but only one strip, Kippy, is known to have been syndicated. He worked on the strip, Peachie Keen for Family Comics. His most well known comic book Sponsored worked on was McDonaldland Comics (McDonalds, 1976 ? series). For about 10 years starting around 1972, he did cartoons for The Squirrel's Club Magazine with the Glendale Federal Savings and Loan. The Squirrel's Club was a savings account club designed for children. In the late 1970s, Zekley's Sponsored Comics got the contract to do PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly (Department of the Army, 1951 series). He did the work for several months before Zekley allowed it to revert back to its previous contract holder, Murphy Anderson. During his lifetime, Zekley also painted murals. One was a series of murals called Murals without Morals. He even painted a mural on actor Clark Gable's ranch house in 1940. He also is known to have done the occasional editorial cartoon during the 1960s. Zekley is reported to have been a production assistant for the Jiggs and Maggie films for Monogram Pictures in the late 1940's and did animation production from 1955 to 1959.