Robert William "Bob" Montana (October 23, 1920 - January 4, 1975) was an American comic strip artist who created the central characters published by Archie Comics.
Born in Stockton, California, he was the son of ex-Ziegfeld girl Roberta Pandolfini Montana and Ray Montana, a top banjo player on the Keith vaudeville circuit. Bob Montana knew he wanted to be a cartoonist from the age of seven. Traveling to vaudeville houses in all 48 states before t...
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Robert William "Bob" Montana (October 23, 1920 - January 4, 1975) was an American comic strip artist who created the central characters published by Archie Comics.
Born in Stockton, California, he was the son of ex-Ziegfeld girl Roberta Pandolfini Montana and Ray Montana, a top banjo player on the Keith vaudeville circuit. Bob Montana knew he wanted to be a cartoonist from the age of seven. Traveling to vaudeville houses in all 48 states before the age of nine, he received his childhood schooling backstage in theater dressing rooms, where he also learned about comedy and humor writing. During summers, the family stayed in Meredith, New Hampshire, where his father raised vegetables and operated a restaurant. Bob Montana practiced his cartooning by drawing caricatures of the restaurant's customers. When he was 13, his father died of a heart attack, and his mother remarried.
Montana's stepfather had managed a theatrical costume shop in Bradford, Massachusetts. In 1936, the family moved...
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