Morris Weiss

Morris S. Weiss (August 11, 1915 – May 18, 2014) was an American comic book and comic strip artist and writer. Active from the 1930s through the mid-1970s, he created the teen-comedy character Margie for Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics, and was the final cartoonist on the comic strip Mickey Finn. He also worked as a writer or illustrator on numerous other strips, including Joe Palooka.

Biography Early life and career Morris Weiss was born in 1915 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, He broke into the comics field in 1934 with brief stints as the letterer for the comic strip Minute Movies by Ed Wheelan, and as an assistant on the Joe Jinks comic strip; in the early 1940s, United Features Syndicate hired him to draw Joe Jinks. Between 1934 and 1936 he lettered for Harold Knerr on the comic strip The Katzenjammer Kids.

Following his first stint with Mickey Finn, Weiss transitioned to comic books. His earliest known credit there is as penciler and inker of the six-page feature "Boxie Weaver" in Holyoke Publications' Blue Beetle #28-30 (Dec. 1943 - Feb. 1944) and Sparkling Stars #9 (Feb. 1945), the last of which he signed with the pseudonym Ink Higgins. Other early Weiss features for Holyoke include "Private Plopp" and "Petey and Pop". While in the army in 1944 and 1945, Weiss was the staff artist for the camp newspaper at Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia, where he wrote and drew the comic panel M.P. Muffit. writing and drawing the title character's stories in the career-gal humor comic Tessie the Typist. He went on to do numerous stories featuring Tessie and her friend Skidsy, and created the teen-humor feature "Margie", Weiss wrote the dramatic continuity for Joe Palooka from about 1962 to 1970, A collector of American illustration, he purchased a painting in 1947 from Norman Rockwell for $150.

Later life In 1960, Weiss and his family moved to North Miami, Florida. The couple had four children: daughter Wendy and sons Jacob, David and Jerry Weiss, Weiss died at his home in West Palm Beach, Florida, on May 18, 2014.