McCARRON Owen
Born 1929 and raised in Halifax. He was a freelance artist, a packager and a publisher.
His work appeared regularly in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. He did cartoon stories including Captain Canada and Sammy Seagull as well as historical strips that featured such events as the Halifax Explosion of 1917 and Owen McCarron’s Fun and Games which ran in papers across the country. He drew and coloured stories for Charleton Comics, Marvel, and DC. and created Louie the Lightning Bug for the Alabama Power Company in 1983.
His weekly feature Owen McCarron’s Fun and Games was probably the genesis for Marvel’s Fun and Games which featured Marvel superheroes. He apparently pitched the idea to Stan Lee and was accepted. He did his packaging and publishing through his company McCarron Advertising and Comic Book World. His products included comic-book giveaways, educational comics and puzzle and activity books distributed in both Canada and the U.S.
He was awarded a Nova Scotia Environment Award for advancing environmental concerns through stories using his various characters. In 2006, the year after his death, he was inducted into the Joe Shuster Award’s Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame,
He died 27 June 2005.
WORK:
CARTOONIST & PACKAGER:
PERIODICAL TEXT & GRAPHIC:
Content games & Cover front:
Fun and Games, 1-6, February 1980. Marvel Comics Group.
SOURCE:
Internet:
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Arts: “Halifax Artist Owen McCarron dies”. Posted July 1, 2005.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_McCarron . 3 September 2024.
GALLERY:
Fun and Games, 1-6, February 1980: Front cover.