Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Bob Davis
Bob Davis was born Robert Bishop Davis on January 24, 1910, in Boston, Massachusetts, according to his transcribed birth certificate at Ancestry.com. His parents were Harry C. Davis and Ethel M. Sedgwick.
Davis was three-months-old in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census which counted his parents, sister Dorothea, uncle Fred K. Sedgwick, and Beatrice Harmon, a lodger. They resided in Boston at 694 Huntington Avenue. Davis’ father, a Canadian, was a woodwork designer.
On September 12, 1918, Davis’ father signed his World War I draft card. He was employed at the U.S. Navy Yard and his home address was 50 Turner Street in Brighton, Massachusetts.
According to the 1920 census, the Davis family were Boston residents at 56 Gardner Street. Davis’ father was a superintendent at the Navy Yard.
Boston city directories for 1929 and 1930 listed an artist named Robert Davis who resided at 406 Massachusetts Avenue. Davis’ art training is unknown. Davis has not yet been found in the 1930 census. His parents and sister remained in Boston.
Apparently Davis moved to New York City where he produced the strip Philo Vance for the Bell Syndicate. American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Davis drew, from 1931 to 1932, Philo Vance, a suave sleuth created by Willard Huntington Wright who used the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine. Davis signed the strip R.B.S. Davis which included the initial S for Sedgwick, his mother’s maiden name. (see Today in Comic Book History; scroll down to Turning Points by Maggie Thompson and look for “80 years ago November 28, 1941”) Davis produced at least three Philo Vance adaptations which were labeled E, F or G at the bottom of a panel. There were 24 strips in each adaptation. Story E was The Insurance Mystery. Story F was The Skull Mystery. Story G was The Transatlantic Mystery. From May 16 to of July 29, 1932, the Worcester Evening Gazette (Massachusetts) published all three stories, however, each story was missing at least one strip or more. The Transatlantic Mystery debuted in the State Journal (Lincoln, Nebraska), June 3, 1932.
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At some point Davis got married.
The 1940 census said Davis and his wife, Ruth, were part of his parents’ household which included his sister, who was a display artist. They lived in Stow, Massachusetts at Lake Boone. Davis had four years of high school. He was a self-employed cartoonist. His wife was an undergraduate with two years of college. According to the census, in 1935 Davis and his wife were residents of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Davis signed his World War II draft card on October 16, 1940. His address was the Gleasondale Post Office in Stow. Later, it was crossed out and updated with 40 Benedict Avenue, Tarrytown, New York. Davis’ employer was Funnies Inc. in New York City. He was described as five feet ten inches, 155 pounds, with brown eyes and hair.
Davis was mentioned in Ron Goulart’s Comic Book Culture: An Illustrated History (2000).
Page 64 captionDick Cole was the creation of [Bill] Everett’s friend, and Funnies, Inc., colleague, Bob Davis.Bob Davis’ Dick Cole was also aboard and was one of the few schoolboy heroes to be found in American comic books. Both a writer and an artist, Bob Davis had sold stories to the detective pulps* and in the early 1930s drawn a short-lived newspaper strip about suave detective Philo Vance.
Blue Bolt #1, June 1940
Davis’ comic book credits are at the Grand Comics Database and Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999.
Davis’ tragic death was reported in The Daily Argus (Mount Vernon, New York), November 29, 1941.
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Tarrytown Man Killed in Crash On Saw Mill
Car Hits Guard Rail, Somersaults into River Near Ashford Avenue
Dobbs Ferry—Robert B. Davis, thirty-one, of 40 Benedict Avenue, Tarrytown, was killed last night when his car swerved from the Saw Mill River Parkway, struck a stone pillar and plunged into the Saw Mill River, landing upside down in the water. The accident occurred about 1,000 feet south of Ashford Avenue.
According to police, Mr. Davis was driving north on the parkway when his automobile veered to the left, struck a stone pillar and somersaulted into the creek. The pillar was part of a guard rail on a small bridge over the Saw Mill River. The car landed in the water on its roof, with only the wheels exposed.
Lacked Rescue Equipment
Passing motorists notified Parkway Police who in turn summoned the Ardsley Fire Department. Fire Chief Hans Roeser rushed to the scene with a squad of volunteer firemen but were unable to be of assistance owing to lack of rescue equipment. The Dobbs Ferry Fire Department Rescue Squad, in command of Chief William French, was summoned with full equipment of floodlights, first-aid equipment and rescue apparatus. Dobbs Ferry Firemen Lawrence Dawson, Edward Buckley, John Yozzo and former Fire Chief James Brooks plunged into the river, fully clothed, in an attempt to extricate the trapped man.
The vehicle was so badly damaged that the firemen were unable to get into the interior of the vehicle, even after smashing the windshield and side windows. A tow car was called and the car was pulled by tow-rope on its side. After tearing open a door Davis was removed from the car to the bank of the creek where artificial respiration was administered.
Termed Dead At Hospital
After 15 minutes’ effort at resuscitation, Davis was removed to Dobbs Ferry Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival by Dr. Ed ward Ceccolinl, resident-physician. Dr. Ceccolini notified County Medical Examiner Amos O. Squire.
Police report that Davis’ wristwatch stopped at 9:10 P. M. and that the body was in the river one-half hour. Police said they were unable to determine immediately if Davis was killed by the impact or was drowned.
More than 1,000 motorists and onlookers jammed the parkway near the scene, of the accident until Parkway police in command of Captain Frank McCabe cleared the roadway.
The New York Times, November 29, 1914, said “Mr. Davis, who was 31 years old, was employed by Funnies Inc., of New York City. He was married but had no children.”
Davis was listed in Deaths Registered in the Town of Stow, 1941. His age was 31 years, ten months and four days. The cause of death was asphyxiation by drowning at Dobbs Ferry, New York. Davis was laid to rest at Brookside Cemetery.
In Fire and Water: Bill Everett, The Sub-Mariner, and the Birth of Marvel Comics (2010), Blake Bell said in the Endnotes:
… Everett gave Hydroman the secret identity “Bob Blake” ... It’s likely that Everett created Hydroman and used the first name of his best friend and colleague Bob Davis, the artist who followed up Everett’s work on the Chameleon in Target Comics and appeared in the same issues of Blue Bolt ... In the 1961 [Jerry] DeFuccio letter, Everett speaks of Davis thus: “Bob Davis was, indeed, one of my best friends. He met his death on his way home to Tarrytown, when he apparently went to sleep at the wheel of his car (a sedan, not a sports car) and plunged into a shallow pond off the Saw Mill River Parkway. As I recall it, he did not drown, but died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. What made his untimely death so poignant to us was the fact that it occurred after an afternoon and evening of frolic and fun with Carl, myself, and a couple of others from the Funnies gang. I remember that Bob kept calling his wife, Ruth, to tell her he’d be on his way shortly, and we finally persuaded him to leave about 7:00 p.m. That was the end.”
• There was another Bob Davis whose full name was Robert Hobart Davis. A list of his detective stories is at The FictionMags Index. He was profiled at ERBzine, Volume 3365.
Labels: Ink-Slinger Profiles
