Bugs Bunny Artist Armstrong Dies
According to today’s Los Angeles Times, noted Bugs Bunny cartoonist Roger Armstrong died of a heart attack two weeks ago at the age of 89. Among Armstrong’s other credits included Donald Duck, Woody Woodpecker, Scooby Doo, the Pink Panther, the Beagle Boys,The Flintstones, Little Lulu, Scamp and other features published by Dell and Gold Key Comics. He also drew the Bugs Bunny newspaper comic strip from 1942 to 1944 as well as for a time in the 1950s.
Writer / historian Mark Evanier told the TImes "He was a pioneer of doing funny animal comic books, taking an animated property from the screen and adapting it to the comic book page." Mark worked with Armstrong on both The Flintstones and Super Goof comic books in the 1970s. "He was in those books for decades doing this wonderful work and kind of setting the bar for the other artists who drew for those comics."
Armstrong was also a past president of the National Watercolor Society and served as director of the Laguna Art Museum from 1963 to 1967.