Marvelous Mike
Bob Kuwahara was a Japanese-born American animator and comic artist, also known as Bob Kay. Born as Rokuro Kuwahara in Tokyo in 1901, he and his family moved to the USA in 1910. He attended the Otis Art Institute in LA until 1928 and then settled in New York City as a commercial artist. He soon returned to LA, where he began his career in animation as a writer and animator on Walt Disney shorts. He also worked for MGM, and later spent three years in the Heart Mountain internment camp during World War II. Other (future) Japanese-American cartoonists who were incarcerated at that time were Other (future) Japanese-American cartoonists who were incarcerated at that time were Chris Ishii, Jack Ito, Willie Ito, Bennie Nobori, Tom Okamoto and Iwao Takamoto.
Mike
After the war, he moved to Larchmont, New York, where he wrote and drew the 'Miki' comic strip under the pen name Bob Kay for G.M. Adams Service during a period of five years. In 1954 the French artist Gérard Alexandre made a local version of the comic called 'Les Nouvelles Aventures de Miki' for the French girls' magazine Fillette. By that time, Kuwahara had returned to animation, working for Paul Terry's Terrytoons studios. Between 1959 and 1963 he wrote and directed fourteen 'Hashimoto-san' theatrical shorts, and he also worked on the 'Deputy Dawg' series.
He also ghosted the Paul Terry comic strip 'Barker Bill' in 1954-1955, and produced another comic strip called 'Marvelous Mike' for United Features from March 1956 until September 1957.
