Anthony Louis "Tony" DiPreta (July 9, 1921 – June 2, 2010) was an American comic book and comic strip artist active from the 1940s Golden Age of comic books. He was the longtime successor artist of the comic strip Joe Palooka (1959–84) and drew the Rex Morgan, M.D. daily strip from 1983 until DiPreta's retirement in 2000. Early life and career Born July 9, 1921, in Stamford, Connecticut, to a family that included brothers Joe and Leonard, Tony DiPreta grew up during the Great Depression, during which his father had little or no work and his mother sewed in a sweat shop for $7 a week. He decided while in junior high school that he would pursue an art career after reading in the local newspaper that cartoonist H. T. Webster made $50,000 a year. "I thought, 'Boy, that's a lot.' I went down and saw him, and he talked to me. Then I started drawing for my junior high school. It made me feel like I could really draw." DiPreta took art classes when he attended Stamford High School. After graduating, DiPreta and fellow future professionals Red Wexler and Bob Fujitani took classes at the Silvermine Guild, where the trio drew from live models. DiPreta had worked for a local advertising agency while attending high school, and after a year doing that, he obtained a union job at McCalls Photo Engraving, also in Stamford. During his subsequent year at McCalls, DiPreta began coloring comic books for company client Quality Comics, located a half-mile away. Separately, DiPreta freelanced as a fill-in letterer for Lyman Young's newspaper comic strip Tim Tyler's Luck. DiPreta recalled, "My brother Joe used to caddy [at the old Greenwich golf course]. ... Lyman Young, who did Tim Tyler's Luck, used to play there, and my brother was once lucky enough to caddy for Lyman Young. He told Lyman Young that I wanted to be a cartoonist, and Young said, 'Well, bring him down.' ... I went to see him and he said, 'Why don't you letter my strip?' But this wasn't a permanent job. He'd call me on a Saturday afternoon — when he wanted to play golf — and I'd come over and letter his strips." After seeing the portfolio samples that DiPreta brought to him during a lunch hour in 1940, Quality publisher Everett M. "Busy" Arnold hired DiPreta as a staff letterer for