Who were the original people who first drew the cartoon charactor Betty Boop (not the voice) and are they still alive?

BRY2K

Betty Boop was created by Grim Natwick King Features Syndicate. He died in 1990. Betty BOOP's animation is originally credited to animator Myron "Grim" Natwick. She wasn't quite herself in that first outing — for one thing, she wasn't the star, but appeared only in one brief scene; and for another, she was depicted as a dog. But her characteristic "Boop-oop-a-doop" was there right from the beginning. La Boop remained in her original form through a half-dozen more cartoons. In 1931's Mask-A-Raid, her doggie ears became sexy earrings and her boyfriend, Bimbo, became her pet. The "Boop-oop-a-doop" bit continued unchanged. Once humanized, Betty remained so, but her relationship with Bimbo could be anything from master-dog to partners-in-adventure to lovers, depending on the needs of the cartoon. An earlier Fleischer Studio star, Koko the Clown, tho no longer able to sustain a series of his own, became a frequent Boop co-star. Betty had a short-lived comic strip, syndicated by King Features (which now holds title to the character), beginning in 1934. It was drawn by Bud Counihan, who had worked as Chic Young's assistant on Blondie. But she never really caught on as a comics character, and it, too, was long gone by the end of the 1930s. Another King Features connection was her mid-30s penchant for co-starring with its characters, including Little Jimmy, Henry and The Little King. One of them, Popeye the Sailor, went from there to becoming an animation star in his own right. http://www.toonopedia.com/boop.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_Natwick Nov 18 09, 5:32 PM