Wilson McCoy

Wilson McCoy was born April 6, 1902, in Troy, Missouri, the sixth of seven children born to Edward Fernand (a salesman by profession) and Theodosia Turnbull McCoy. Before the age of seven, he was determined to become an artist. His father died when he was eleven years old, leaving his mother with seven children and no money. She opened a boarding house with borrowed funds, and young Wilson got a job in a drugstore, working eight hours a day after school and twelve hours on Saturdays and Sundays for $3 a week, which went into the family treasury. After two years of high school, he went to work as an errand boy for a St Louis advertising agency, D'Arcy Advertising Co.,[1] and practiced drawing during errands. Ultimately, he was taken on the firm's art staff, and after four years, he had saved enough money to attend Washington University's art school before branching out professionally.[2]

McCoy studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the American Academy, and Washington University's School of Fine Arts, St. Louis, where he later served on the faculty.

He was a member of the National Cartoonist Society Foundation (NCSF).[3]

McCoy met Dorothy Rainwater at Washington University and married her in September 1925. His son Robert ("Bob") McCoy was born in 1927 and his daughter Carol was born on the 17th of November 1933. In 1930, the McCoy family lived at 7603 Forsyth, Clayton, Missouri, before moving to 100 N. Bemiston Avenue. When daughter Carol was born, they lived at 6748 Crest Avenue, University City. By 1940, they had moved to 7035 Ethel Avenue, St. Louis.

In 1931, McCoy miraculously escaped death in an auto accident where a reckless driver hit his car, causing it to rest on McCoy’s chest, crushing both his lungs. He made history as the first man to survive such an injury.[4]

One year when Robert was a teenager, a birthday gift for him was that he was the "handsome prince" in one Phantom continuity. Wilson made a very accurate drawing of Robert for the story. That strip hung in the McCoy family home for many years.[5]

The couple had moved to Barrington, Illinois 13 years prior to Wilson's death and lived on E. County Line Road. Later, McCoy's Barrington home, located on Donlea Road in Barrington,[6] was used as a model for the Phantom's girlfriend Diana Palmer's house in the comic strip. McCoy used the study to draw the Phantom strips. The house was on a five-acre lot, and Wilson had a full-size farm tractor to mow it.

Wilson was also a volunteer fire marshal in Barrington. His fire chief helmet from the city is still with the family today as a souvenir.

During the year 1960, Wilson McCoy and his wife frequently visited Mrs. McCoy's sister, Mrs. Terrell Croft, an artist who lived on the Austin Highway, as well as the other sister, also an artist, Mrs. Robert Falmar.

His first commercial art job of creating posters for the Radio Deith Orpheum Company lasted three years, after which he spent five years designing billboards for the General Outdoor Advertising Company. He made paintings for Liberty magazine covers, calendars, prints, pin-ups, and advertisements for major companies such as Shell Oil, Tums, Dr Pepper, and U.S. Rubber.

St. Louis city directories from the 1930s show that McCoy was associated with several studios:[7]

• 1930: McCoy & Quest (2313 Washington Avenue) — with Charles Francis Quest
• 1933: Windsor Studio (2670 Washington Blvd) — with William E. Heede, Martin C. Kaiser, Robert McRoy, Everett Hayden Parks, Elise B. Parks, Lester Harry "Tex" Willman, and Co Windsor
• 1936: Associated Artists of St Louis (2670 Washington Blvd) — with William H. Cramer, Ralph Wesley Guze, William E. Heede, Martin C. Kaiser, Marjorie M. Lippman, Everett Hayden Parks, Elise B. Parks, Lester Harry "Tex" Willman, John Hamilton Stevens. and Fred Adolph Toerper
• 1937: Advertiser’s Artists Co. (2670 Washington Blvd) — with Kenneth Cowhey, Ralph Wesley Guze, Martin C. Kaiser, Lester Harry "Tex" Willman, John Hamilton Stevens, and Benjamin Stalker Read

Wilson McCoy had initially shared an art studio with Ray Moore, the original Phantom artist. When Moore went to serve in the military during the Second World War, McCoy took over the responsibilities of illustrating The Phantom. McCoy started signing the strips and was fully credited as the artist from the daily story "Queen Astra Of Trondelay" (1946), although he started drawing the strip from 1941, when he first filled in for Moore.[8]

Differing sources conflict in their accounts of the transition from Moore to McCoy. In one account, after his return from the war, Moore focused on the Sunday page only but was forced to retire in 1947.[9] In a 1978 interview with Phantom writer Falk, he described the change this way: McCoy was Moore's assistant and good friend. When Moore was called into the military in 1941, McCoy took over and he also continued when Moore came back. From then on Moore drew on extremely rare occasions, but he was still on the pay list, and at first his signature was also on some of the series he did not draw.[10] In yet another interview, Falk stated, "Ray only drew it for three or four years, then he went off to war as a pilot. Then Wilson McCoy, who was a friend of his, an art director of some company, took over in his absence. But he kept Ray's name on it right through the war.[11]

Wilson McCoy at the drawing desk - 1954

McCoy's wife, Dorothy, was also an artist, and she penciled in the lettering and panel borders on her husband's strips.[12][8]

In an interview with Ed Rhoades, Bob McCoy confided: "Initially, Wilson McCoy was paid $75 a week to sub for Moore, an arrangement that ticked him off" when he discovered how much more Moore was getting paid. But conditions improved, and the family moved to a prosperous Chicago suburb. Wilson McCoy built a studio. Robert regained a bedroom."

In describing his workload and schedule, McCoy explained in an interview, "King Features Syndicate, which distributes The Phantom, prefers the artists keep six weeks ahead of their weekly strips and three months ahead for Sunday material."[8] He added: "But few artists ever reach this goal, especially if they are not also the author. Lee Falk writes the story of The Phantom as well as the story for Mandrake the Magician; girls at King Features Syndicate do the coloring for the Sunday comics."[8]

As for help in drawing the strip, Today’s Cartoon (publication) said, Don Moore, a cartoonist and a survivor of WWII after being wounded, treated and discharged from hospital, worked as an assistant to Wilson McCoy who was drawing The Phantom. “I did the background and lettering,” Moore said. The exact date of his time on the Phantom is not known. [13]

The Phantom had its fair share of criticism. The strip was branded as "very objectionable ... in terms of cultural, moral and emotional tone and impact" by "50 trained reviewers" rating comic strips in Parents magazine in 1949. Also in July 1949, censorship laws struck the publication of The Phantom in France.[14] (It should also be noted that in March 1960 The Phantom was being published in 467 newspapers, with half of them being outside the U.S.)[8]

McCoy ceased drawing the strip after he became ill in 1961. His last daily strip was dated 19 August 1961, and his last Sunday strip was dated 17 September 1961; the following Sunday strip, dated 24 September 1961, was drawn by Carmine Infantino.[15] The strip was continued by Bill Lignante for a short while, and then by Sy Barry.[16]

Heritage Auctions is the main auctioneer for U.S. sale of Wilson McCoy original Phantom artwork. In 2013, a 1955 original Phantom Sunday art page was auctioned by the French auction house Artcurial; and in 2016, a Wilson McCoy 1958 Phantom Sunday art page was auctioned by Sotheby's.

Like Phantom creator Lee Falk, McCoy was a world traveler with an adventurous spirit, traveling to jungles where he visited native tribes.[17]

He made several trips to exotic locations to make the stories look realistic. In Cairo, he was detained for unauthorized photography, and in Morocco he was robbed. On safari in Central Africa, he traveled in an unreliable vehicle, was chased by an aggressive rhino, and confronted belligerent elephants. In Central Africa he studied forest Pygmy peoples. Despite being threatened by their poisoned arrows, McCoy won over the tribe members. He sketched them as they posed and in return was welcomed and invited to beat on tom drums. This was his tour to the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) in 1961 for researching the Mbuti pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest tribe for episodes of The Phantom. The Mbuti became the inspiration for the Bandar tribe featured in the Phantom stories.

McCoy participated in four trips abroad sponsored by the National Cartoonists Society for the entertainment of military personnel. The trips were made to Europe in 1953, 1954 and 1955, plus one to Japan in 1955. In 1954, a Christmas card to his family lists the countries he visited in the spring: Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Libya, French Morocco, and France, with the following caption: "I cant wait to show these to Dorothy, Carol and to Alice and Bob, Spring 1954, While drawing funny pictures to entertain overseas military personnel — The Phantom has fun. Taking pictures to entertain his good friends at home."

In a 1960 interview, McCoy explained, "I've been almost every place American soldiers have. I contribute my time and the military forces provide transportation."[8] His travels have helped in his artwork, he said, making it easier for him to draw scenes and people in far-off lands. He claimed to be a "camera bug" and used his photographs as models for some of his work, often including in his strip people of whom he had taken pictures. Wherever he went, he studied the architecture and people's dress for possible future use.[8]

In 1961 upon returning from the trip to the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville), McCoy stopped drawing, became ill, and was hospitalized. R. Wilson McCoy died July 19, 1961, at age 59, on a Wednesday afternoon in Wesley Memorial Hospital, Chicago, following a heart attack the previous Thursday morning.

According to later Phantom artist Sy Barry, "First of all when Wilson McCoy became ill and went into the hospital, he was too ill. He had some kind of infection that reoccurs, that he developed when he was in Africa and it seemed to return. Somehow it formed a blood clot and went to his heart and he died in the hospital."[18] In another interview published by Hermes Press in 2019, Barry recalls "... he seemed to have an infection, a lingering dormant infection that he picked up in Africa and they had gone and treated him with antibiotics but every once in a while it would crop up a bit and affect his heart a bit little too. This time he had a heart seizure in the hospital after having been battling the disease."

He was survived by his wife Dorothy and two children, Robert Wilson Jr. (Bob) and Carol.[19] Son Robert Wilson McCoy Jr[20] was the proprietor of the Museum of Questionable Devices in Minneapolis and a frequent guest at talk shows such as Late Night with David Letterman.[21] He died in 2010 at the age of 83.

A memorial service was held on the Saturday after his demise at the Barrington Methodist Church. As requested by the family, flower contributions were made to the Heart Fund or the Barrington Methodist Church. Rev. Carl G. Mettling, along with Rev. Eugene B. Nyman, were in charge of the service in the church, which was filled to near capacity. Messages and words of condolences were received by the family from all parts of the United States and many other countries.

McCoy belonged to the Barrington Natural History Society, and two days before he was stricken, had shown at the society's meeting, a film with commentary on his journey into the Congo that spring of 1961. It was his first program on the trip into the African jungle, which was made in the interest of his art.