Bela P. Zaboly (May 1910 - April 1985), also known as Bill Zaboly, was an American cartoonist best known for his work on Thimble Theatre (aka Popeye) from 1939 to 1959. Zaboly's illustrated signature used the initials BZ with the "B" formed by the wings of a bee.[1] In headings for Thimble Theatre, his typeset credit line was given as "Bill Zaboly" rather than "Bela Zaboly".
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Zaboly drew for his school paper in high school. After graduation, he was employed in the art department of the Cleveland-based syndicate, Newspaper Enterprise Association, where he started as an office boy and eventually became a staff cartoonist.
Early strips[]
As an illustrator, printmaker and painter, he exhibited in Cleveland and Chicago during the early 1930s, also creating the Sunday strip Otto Honk about moon-faced, dim-bulb Otto, who was variously employed as a private eye, movie stunt man and football player. Zaboly discontinued this strip in 1936. He was an assistant to Roy Crane on Wash Tubbs, and from 1936 to 1938 he drew Our Boarding House after Gene Ahern left NEA.[2][3] Zaboly, his wife Irene and their son lived at 13609 Drexmore Road in Cleveland.
Popeye[]
After Popeye creator E. C. Segar was hospitalized for the final time in August 1938 (followed by his death weeks later), Thimble Theatre was scripted by Tom Sims. Doc Winner, who worked in the King Features bullpen and had previously filled in for Segar as both writer and artist between January and May 1938, illustrated the strip (in a style highly reminiscent of Segar's) until Zaboly took over in 1939; the earliest daily strip bearing Zaboly's signature appeared on December 4, while his earliest signed Sunday strip appeared the following month. Zaboly and Sims collaborated on the daily strip until December 1954, and they worked on the Sunday strip until September 1959. Ralph Stein succeeded Sims as writer on the daily strip, with Zaboly continuing as artist. Zaboly would remain with the strip until Bud Sagendorf took control of both the dailies and Sundays in August 1959, entirely disregarding Zaboly, Sims and Stein's output. Zaboly also served as artist on the continuation of Segar's Sappo topper strip[1][2] until its eventual cancellation in 1948.
Initially a near-identical imitation of Segar's 1930s style, Zaboly's artwork nonetheless began to gravitate towards a looser aesthetic (complete with a bolder, more simplified linework) by the early 1950s, potentially to contend with the gradual contraction of the space allotted to newspaper comics during this period relative to the larger format they received during Segar's lifetime. Zaboly also illustrated several notable changes in the strip, notably replacing Swee'Pea's nightgown with a small sailor suit, which allowed him to walk during the years of 1957 to 1959. Sagendorf would then return the character to his original appearance.[3]
Zaboly also drew the Popeye coloring books of the late 1950s and early 1960s, plus other licensed images of the Popeye cast of characters during that period, such as Popeye's Presto Paints (Kenner, 1961).
The last Thimble Theatre daily by Zaboly was published August 8, 1959, with his Sunday strips continuing for a few months after that. With his Thimble Theater run ending, Zaboly returned to Cleveland, went back to work for NEA and was also an art salesman for the Alan Junkins Studio in Cleveland's Caxton building. He later attempted to launch his own syndicate, without success.[3]