Eldon Dedini (June 29, 1921 – January 12, 2006) was an American cartoonist whose work appeared in Esquire, The New Yorker, Playboy and elsewhere.

Life

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Dedini was born in King City, California, on June 29, 1921; his father was a dairy farmer, his mother a schoolteacher. He studied at Salinas Junior College, where Leon Amyx was on the teaching staff, and then at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. There he met Virginia Conroy; they were married on July 15, 1944. They adopted a baby boy called john in 1960.[1]

Dedini died at his home in Carmel, California, on January 12, 2006 at the age of 84.[1]

Exhibitions

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  • Broccoli & Babes: The Cartoons and Posters of Eldon Dedini: November 4, 2005—January 20, 2006 at the Sasoontsi Gallery, Salinas, Calif.
  • Monterey Museum of Art "Arriola, Dedini, Ketchum" 1982

Awards

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Dedini received the National Cartoonists Society's Gag Cartoon Award in 1958, 1961, 1964 and 1988.

Bibliography

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  • Illustrations for Bantam Books editions of Max Shulman works:
    • Rally Round the Flag, Boys!, (1958) (1959)
    • Barefoot Boy with Cheek (1959)
    • Sleep Till Noon (1959)
    • I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf (1960)
    • The Feather Merchants
    • Anyone Got a Match (1965)
  • The Dedini Gallery. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York (1961)
  • A Much, Much Better World. Microsoft Press, Bellevue WA (1985)
  • Fantagraphics Books published a posthumous collection of his work, An Orgy of Playboy's Eldon Dedini (ISBN 1-56097-727-2) in 2006. Introduction by political cartoonist Dennis Renault. The book is bundled with a documentary "Dedini: A Life of Cartoons" by Anson Musselman.

References

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  1. ^ a b Robert C. Harvey (October 2008). Dedini, Eldon Lawrence (29 June 1921–12 January 2006). American National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1701703. (subscription required)

Sources

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  • American National Biography Online
  • New York Times report of death Retrieved January 14, 2006
  • Monterey Herald obituary Retrieved January 14, 2006 (reprinted at emdashes.com
  • "Broccoli and Babes," an article by Ben Bamsey in Artworks (winter 2005): 58-63
  • Dedini's papers and original art are archived at the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University, which also has on file a videotape of his presentation at the 2001 Festival of Cartoon Art, sponsored by the Cartoon Research Library, during which Dedini showed slides of his cartoons and commented on them, offering a description of his working methods and attitudes.
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