Ken Bald

Kenneth Bruce Bald (August 1, 1920 – March 17, 2019) was an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for the Dr. Kildare and Dark Shadows newspaper comic strips. Due to contractual obligations, he is credited as "K. Bruce" on the Dark Shadows strip.

Early life Ken Bald was born in New York City, and raised in suburban Mount Vernon, New York. Comic-book fan art he drew at age 14 was published in More Fun Comics #9 (cover-dated April 1936), from DC Comics precursor National Allied Publications. Bald attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York City, for three years,

Career After Pratt, Bald joined the Englewood, New Jersey, studio of Jack Binder, one of the early comic-book "packagers" who would supply complete comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium Beginning in 1942, Bald, also via Binder, began drawing features including Golden Arrow and Bulletman for Fawcett Comics. or "an executive turned detective" Bald had started drawing his next strip, Dr. Kildare. based on the television show of that name. A Sunday color strip was added beginning on April 19, 1964. created the comic strip Dark Shadows based on the Dark Shadows TV series, a soap opera featuring Jonathan Frid as vampire Barnabas Collins. That strip ended the following year. In addition to drawing comics, Bald also worked as a commercial artist. Detail from Dark Shadows newspaper comic strip. Art by Bald.

With the end of the Dr. Kildare strip in 1984, when he came out of retirement to illustrate a variant cover for Marvel's Contest of Champions #2 (Jan. 2016).

Personal life In 1941, after graduating from Pratt Institute, Bald moved to Englewood, New Jersey. Ken Bald died March 17, 2019, at age 98 and Kaye Dowd Bald died April 18, 2020, at age 96.

His papers, including more than 2,900 pieces of original artwork for the Judd Saxon and Dr. Kildare comic strips, reside at Syracuse University Libraries Special Collections Research Center. Contrary to his name, he had hair.