Hal Foster (b. 1892)

Born: 1892 August 16 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Died: 1982 July 25 in Spring Hill, Florida, United States

Biography: Hal Foster was an artist and writer best known for his work on two newspaper strips, “Tarzan” and “Prince Valiant”.

Born in Nova Scotia, Foster rode his bicycle to the United States in 1919 and began to study in Chicago, eventually living in America.

In 1928, he began one of the earliest syndicated adventure strips, an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “Tarzan”.

In 1937, William Randolph Hearst offered him complete ownership to create a new strip for the Hearst papers. The result was Foster’s signature strip, the weekly “Prince Valiant”.

The medieval fantasy adventure is set in medieval times. The strip featured his dexterous, detailed artwork; unusually, he preferred putting narration and dialogue in captions rather than balloons within the art.

Notes: To be confirmed against the Who's Who entry.

Sample Scan:

Name:

    Hal Foster Type: Common Alternative Name
    Given name: Hal Family name: Foster

Other Names:

  1. Harold Foster Type: Common Alternative Name
    Given name: Harold Family name: Foster
  2. Harold R. Foster Type: Common Alternative Name
    Given name: Harold R. Family name: Foster
  3. Harold Rudolf Foster Type: Name at Birth
    Given name: Harold Rudolf Family name: Foster
  4. Харолдъ Фостеръ Type: None
  5. Хал Фостър Type: None
  6. Харолд Фостър Type: None

Schools:

  1. Chicago Art Institute ? to ?

  2. Chicago Academy of Fine Arts ? to ?

Signatures:

  1. H Foster [generic]
  2. H FOSTER
  3. HAL FOSTER
  4. Hal Foster [generic]
  5. HAROLD FOSTER
  6. HAROLD R FOSTER
  7. HF [generic]

Awards:

  1. William Randolph Hearst Cartoon Hall of Fame - [no name]
  2. 1952: Banshee's Award "Silver Lady Award" - [no name]
  3. 1957: National Cartoonist Society Awards (NCS Awards) - Cartoonist of the Year
  4. 1964: National Cartoonist Society Awards (NCS Awards) - Story Comic Strip Division
  5. 1966: National Cartoonist Society Awards (NCS Awards) - Special Features Division
  6. 1967: National Cartoonist Society Awards (NCS Awards) - Special Features Division
  7. 1969: Adamson Awards - Best International Comic-Strip [or Comic Book] Cartoonist
  8. 1975: National Cartoonist Society Awards (NCS Awards) - Silver T-Square Extraordinary Service Award
  9. 1977: National Cartoonist Society Awards (NCS Awards) - NCS Gold Key Award (National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame)
  10. 1977: Inkpot Award - [no name]
  11. 1978: National Cartoonist Society Awards (NCS Awards) - Elzie Segar Award
  12. 1996: Eisner Award - Hall of Fame
  13. 2005: Joe Shuster Awards - Hall of Fame Inductees

Art Influences:

Influences by Hal Foster (b. 1892) were stated by:
  1. Alfredo Alcala (b. 1925)
  2. Gerald Altman (b. 1919)
  3. Murphy Anderson (b. 1926)
  4. Jim Aparo (b. 1932)
  5. Enrico Bagnoli (b. 1925)
  6. Ken Barr (b. 1933)
  7. Eduardo Barreto (b. 1954)
  8. Mark Beachum (b. 1962)
  9. Douglas Beekman (b. 1952)
  10. John Belfi (b. 1924)
  11. Joe Bennett (b. 1968)
  12. Jerry Bingham (b. 1953)
  13. Frank Brunner (b. 1949)
  14. John Buscema (b. 1927)
  15. Gene Colan (b. 1926)
  16. Gene Day (b. 1951)
  17. Víctor de la Fuente (b. 1927)
  18. Alex Dellinges (b. 1932)
  19. Dick Dillin (b. 1928)
  20. Jay Disbrow (b. 1926)
  21. Hy Eisman (b. 1927)
  22. George Evans (b. 1920)
  23. Ted Galindo (b. 1927)
  24. José Luis García-López (b. 1948)
  25. Ron Garney (b. 1962)
  26. Woody Gelman (b. 1915)
  27. Yan Gevuld (b. 1960)
  28. Alberto Giolitti (b. 1923)
  29. Dick Giordano (b. 1932)
  30. Sam Glanzman (b. 1924)
  31. Mike Grell (b. 1947)
  32. Bo Hampton (b. 1954)
  33. Chris Hanther (b. 1946)
  34. Rocky Hartberg (b. 1953)
  35. Don Heck (b. 1929)
  36. Vern Henkel (b. 1917)
  37. Ovi Hondru (b. 1956)
  38. Klaus Janson (b. 1952)
  39. Bruce Jones (b. 1944)
  40. Jeff Jones (b. 1944)
  41. Jack Katz (b. 1927)
  42. Everett Kinstler (b. 1926)
  43. Jack Kirby (b. 1917)
  44. Warren Kremer (b. 1921)
  45. Joe Kubert (b. 1926)
  46. Gary Kwapisz (b. 1961)
  47. Bob Lubbers (b. 1922)
  48. Pablo Marcos (b. 1937)
  49. Lee Marrs (b. 1945)
  50. Fran Matera (b. 1924)
  51. Grant Miehm (b. 1960)
  52. Sheldon Moldoff (b. 1920)
  53. Rick Norwood (b. 1942)
  54. Joe Orlando (b. 1927)
  55. Virginia Pearson (b. 1918)
  56. Howard Purcell (b. 1918)
  57. Fred Ray (b. 1920)
  58. Nestor Redondo (b. 1928)
  59. John Ridgway (b. 1940)
  60. Paul Ryan (b. 1949)
  61. Sanjulián (b. 1941)
  62. Jesse Santos (b. 1928)
  63. Kurt Schaffenberger (b. 1920)
  64. Mark Schultz (b. 1955)
  65. Val Semeiks (b. 1955)
  66. Syd Shores (b. 1913)
  67. Dick Sprang (b. 1915)
  68. Frank Thorne (b. 1930)
  69. Terry Tidwell (b. 1954)
  70. Angelo Torres (b. 1932)
  71. Sal Trapani (b. 1927)
  72. Charles Vess (b. 1951)
  73. Mike Vosburg (b. 1947)
  74. Tom Yeates (b. 1955)

Memberships:

  1. National Cartoonist Society Type: member

Relations:

  1. Parent of - Arthur James Foster (b. 1919)
    Notes: Brain M. Kane and J. David Spurlock, ed. Hal Foster: Prince of Illustrators- Father of the Adventure Strip. Lebanon, New Jersey: Vanguard Productions, 2001

  • GCD
  • Sort by
  • Advanced Query
If you believe any of this data to be incorrect, please let us know.
Cover thumbnails are used for identification purposes only. All rights to cover images reserved by the respective copyright holders.
Creative Commons License All portions of the Grand Comics Database™, except where noted otherwise, are copyrighted by the GCD and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). This includes but is not necessarily limited to our database schema and data distribution format.
The GCD Privacy Policy. The GCD Web Site code is licensed under the GNU General Public License.