R.I.P. Bill Gallo... My Newspaper Reading Will Never Be The Same

Legendary NY Daily News cartoonist Bill Gallo has passed on at the age of 88, and the newspaper world is worse off for it. Gallo was a 70 year employee of the NY Daily News (That is amazing, just amazing) and also a World War II veteran. His cartoons tackled all types of subjects over the years, and his style and structure is often copied but never quite duplicated. He created many memorable (and recognizable)characters over the years: Yuchie the ball playing child, Basement Bertha, and General Von Steingrabber (Yankee owner George Steinbrenner's alter ego).

I always looked forward to seeing his comic illustrations, or reading the columns he wrote about his beloved sport, Boxing. Even though he was 88 years old and battling breathing problems for the last year and a half, he still contributed to the News as much as he could. He would draw his columns from his hospital bed and send them to the News via messenger. This is the mark of a true hero. Here is what the Daily News legendary sportswriter Mike Lupica (Click here to read Lupica's whole tribute) had to say about Bill:

He was a friend to anybody who ever opened this newspaper and cared about it. And so today, one last time, you open the paper and there is Bill Gallo. There is Bertha and old Steingrabber, and Yuchie and Thurman Munson the day after he died. There is the work of those pens and pencils and brushes. The right hand reaches out one last time, across all the years, and the business is alive and so is he.

Gallo's good friend Joe DiMaggio

Basement Bertha's First Appearance

Goose Gossage for MVP

Zip it  Muhammed Ali!!!

R.I.P. Thurman Munson... One of Gallo's most famous drawings

The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra

General Von Steingrabber

Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame... at least Gallo thought so.

My dad's all-time favorite player, Roy Campanella

9/11 Tribute

Joe Torre was often in Gallo's cartoons

Yankee's In Heaven!!!

You will be missed Bill... Here are a few of his cartoons that I have loved over the years. Click here to see many more over at The Daily News website.