March 31, 2010
The son of UPA and Terrytoons animator Gene Deitch, Kim Deitch was born in 1944 and grew up around the animation business. He began doing comic strips for theEast Village Other in 1967, introducing two of his more famous characters, Waldo the Cat and Uncle Ed, the India Rubber Man. In 1969 he succeeded Vaughn Bodé as editor of Gothic Blimp Works, the Other’s underground comics tabloid. The Mishkin Saga was named one of the Top 30 best English-language comics of the 20th Century by The Comics Journal, and the first issue of The Stuff of Dreams received the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue in 2003.