Alfred Andriola

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Alfred Andriola

Birth name Alfred James Andriola
Born May 24, 1912
Died March 29, 1983
Nationality American
Area(s) Penciller, Inker
Notable works Kerry Drake
Awards

Alfred James Andriola, who lived from May 24, 1912 to March 29, 1983, was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Kerry Drake, for which he won a Reuben Award in 1970. For his picture, see his biography card at the National Cartoonists Society, of which he was a member.

Andriola was born in New York City and grew up in Rutherford, New Jersey. He studied at Cooper Union and Columbia University, intending to becoming a writer. Instead, following a fan letter he wrote to Milton Caniff, he became his assistant, working with him on Terry and the Pirates and Scorchy Smith.

His first strip was Charlie Chan (1938-1942), an adaptation of the popular detective novels for the McNaught Syndicate. For five months in 1943 he drew a minor superhero, Captain Triumph, for Quality Comics' Crack Comics.

For a year he drew the strip Dan Dunn with writer Allen Saunders. Dunn was cancelled on October 3, 1943 and the next day their strip Kerry Drake debuted. Originally a district attorney's investigator, Drake became a municipal police officer when Sandy Burns, his secretary and fiancee, was murdered by Trinket and Bulldozer. As both a DA's man and a city cop he battled a series of flamboyant villains like Bottleneck, Mother Whistler, and No-Face. It gradually became a soap opera strip focusing on Drake's home life with his wife Mindy and their quadruplets, as Drake's younger brother Lefty, a private eye, took over more of the adventure plots. Andriola was assisted (and ghosted) by artists Fran Matera, Jerry Robinson, and Sururi Gumen, the last of whom shared credit with Andriola starting in 1976. Drake was canceled after Andriola died on March 29, 1983.

Andriola also drew the strip It's Me Dilly under the pseudonym Alfred James from 1957 to 1960.

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