Lest we forget: Bill Gallo

May 11, 2011

I have a special affinity for cartoonists and artists. My father was a pretty good  art hobbyist who worked on the cheap, using the backs of discarded poster, cardboard, whatever he could scrounge up. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Anyway, today we mourn the passing of Bill Gallo, long time cartoonist for the New York Daily News. He died yesterday at the age of 88 after complications from pneumonia.

Gallo was best known for his characters Basement Bertha, Yuchie, and General Von Steingrabber, a doppelganger for the Yankees owner. While his style isn’t the most sophisticated, it is quite recognizable and almost like comfort food for generations of Daily News readers.

Naturally the paper has a lot of coverage, including a gallery of his greatest hits, some portraits of the Yankees,  some more recent work, and a slideshow of Gallo photos. It’s interesting to see how these people we know in just one aspect have actual lives and interests that go beyond their jobs.

I know the Daily News competed with other local papers, but at a time like this it would have been big of them to offer a tip of the cap. The Post posted this, and one wonders if they would have even done that if Gallo’s son, Greg, had not been a former executive sports editor there. So far, nothing by the Times.

From Poynter.org, a website that covers media issues. And from ESPN, incorporating the AP obit.

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Tagged as: Bill Gallo, Daily News

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