John Prentice

John Franklin Prentice, Jr. (October 17, 1920 – May 23, 1999) was an American cartoonist most known for taking over the comic strip Rip Kirby upon the death of the strip's creator, Alex Raymond. Early life John Prentice was born in Whitney, Texas, on October 17, 1920, on his family's farm. Some of Prentice's relatives were willing to help him pay for college, but on the condition that he study "medicine, law, or business." However, as Prentice always wanted to be an artist, he joined the Navy in 1939 to help pay for college, and served until 1945. During his service, he was stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when it was attacked by Japanese forces. Early work After his time in the Navy, Prentice briefly attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, and then moved to New York City, where he worked in a variety of illustration and comic-book jobs. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Prentice worked for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's romance comics series Young Romance, which is often considered the first romance comic. Originally published by Crestwood Publications, the series eventually moved to DC Comics, for which Prentice also worked in the mid-1950s.