Nationality American Died February 20, 2000 Area(s) Writer Siblings Al Capp | Name Elliot Caplin Nephews Colin Cameron Capp Role Writer | |
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Notable works The Heart of Juliet Jones Books Juliet Jones in Big Business, Juliet Jones, Encyclopedia Brown's Book of: Comic Strips Nieces Catherine Jan Peirce, Julie Ann Cairol | ||
Elliot Caplin (December 25, 1913 - February 20, 2000) was a comic strip writer best known as the co-creator (with Stan Drake) of The Heart of Juliet Jones. His name is sometimes spelled with one extra letter: Elliott A. Caplin. He was the younger brother of Al Capp, creator of Li'l Abner.
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Caplin graduated from Ohio State University in 1936. Beginning in 1937, he was employed as a writer for King Features Syndicate. He entered the comic book field as editor of True Comics for the Parents Magazine Institute. By 1940, he was an editorial director with the magazine Parents, leaving during World War II to serve with the Navy in the South Pacific. In the post-World War II years, he returned to Parents, continuing as an editor there until 1948.
Caplin co-created the strips "Dr. Bobbs," Peter Scratch and Big Ben Bolt and served as writer for strips by others, including Abbie an' Slats, Long Sam and Little Orphan Annie.
He founded the comic book publisher Toby Press, which operated from 1949 to 1955.
Theater
In the early 1970s, Caplin wrote Meegan’s Game, a play about arrested adolescence. Directed by Paul E. Davis, it had a 1974 workshop production for several weekends at the Cricket Theatre on Second Avenue in an effort to interest potential backers. The play was eventually produced in 1982. Among his many other plays are "A Nickel for Picasso," a fictionalized account of his brother losing his leg. He also wrote a book about his brother, "Al Capp Remembered."
Caplin lived in Larchmont, NY, with his wife Ruth and their three children, Donald, Joan and Toby. He died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 2000.