Flanders, Charles 1907-1973

Cartoonist Charles Flanders (1907-1973) began his career as a commercial artist in Buffalo, NY. He moved to New York City in 1928 where he worked for an advertising agency and then as a magazine illustrator before being hired by King Features Syndicate in 1930. For King Features, Flanders worked on several preexisting strips including Tim Tyler's Luck and Bringing Up Father . In the mid-1930s he created comic adaptations of Ivanhoe and Treasure Island for Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's New Fun Comics as well as an original strip, Sandra of the Secret Service .

The last work that he did in his own style was a 1935 Sunday strip, Robin Hood . Following that, he and other King Features artists were encouraged to adopt the style of Alex Raymond, whose Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, and Secret Agent X-9 were very popular. Flanders' emulation was good enough that he eventually was given responsibility for the X-9 strip (1935), followed by King of the Royal Mounted (1936) and The Lone Ranger (1939). Flanders drew the Lone Ranger until 1971, though in his later years he had increasing difficulty and Tom Gill, the artist for the comic book version, often filled in.