Today in Comics History, March 24: Happy birthday, Norman Fell!

Born on this day in 1924: Norman Fell, the sad-eyed actor in Ocean's 11, The Graduate, Bullitt, Catch-22, The Killers and more, and of course as the long-suffering homophobic landlord Stanley Roper on Three's Company and its short-lived spin-off The Ropers.



from "He's Company" in MAD #196 (January 1978), script by Arnie Kogen, pencils and inks by Angelo Torres
Unfortunately, most of the other panels from this MAD spoof feature gay panic jokes I'm not gonna reproduce here, including a useage of the full-out six-letter f-word slur for gay men. Sadly, this exact same issue also includes the instance of Star Wars' Artoo Detoo actually using the three-letter f-word (as discussed here by Mike Sterling). A lot of MAD magazine has aged well, so it's startling when you see pieces that have aged so poorly they've become offensive.



You can find also Norm in this their parody of the Airport movies here, and he's drawn by MAD superstar artist Mort Drucker, which means Norman Fell has finally made it in Hollywood. He's smack dab in the middle of the panel:


from "Airplot '75" in MAD #176 (July 1975), script by Dick DeBartolo, pencils and inks by Mort Drucker
Fell also co-starred in the 1961 TV crime drama 87th Precinct. The show adapted Ed McBain's crime novels (rather charmlessly, compared to the books), but Fell was a great fit for the precinct's Detective Meyer Meyer.


photo covers of (L) Four Color #1309 [87th Precinct] (Dell, April 1962); and
(R) 87th Precinct #2 (Dell, July 1962)
Here's a nice character bit by the comic book version of Fell's Meyer, drawn by...wow, drawn by EC top arist B. Krigstein:


from Four Color #1309; script by Lionel Ziprin, pencils and inks by Bernie Krigstein, letters by John Duffy
The artwork in the series second (and final) issue captures Fell's usual sad-sack expression:


from 87th Precinct #2 (Dell, July 1962), pencils and inks by Edd Ashe
Happy birthday to you, Norman!


from Futurama Comics #12 (Bongo, March 2003), script by Eric Rogers, pencils by John Delaney, inks by Phyllis Novin, colors by Joey Mason, letters by Karen Bates