about a suburban beat cop, Mickey Finn. DiPreta continued in that position, while concurrently drawing freelance for comic books, through 1955. In 1959, DiPreta succeeded creator Ham Fisher and first successor artist Moe Leff on the long-running boxing strip Joe Palooka. He continued on that strip, written by Jim Lawrence, Bob Gustafson, Ken Fitch, Morris Weiss, and Ed Moore, through its end in 1984. In 1983, he became the latest successor, following artists Marvin Bradley, Frank Springer, and Fernando Da Silva, of Rex Morgan, M.D., working with writer-creator Nicholas P. Dallis, also known as Dal Curtis, and Dallis' assistant, writer Woody Wilson. The strip continued after DiPreta's 2000 retirement. Fellow Stamford cartoonist Mort Walker said in 2010 that DiPreta did an unspecified amount of work at some point on Walker's strip Beetle Bailey. Later career DiPreta's last known comics credit is A.C.E. Comics' Fantastic Adventures #3 (Oct. 1987), for which he penciled and inked the cover, the four-page humor story "The Score Board Kid" (by writer Jerry DeFuccio), and "The Motor-Man On Wheels!", a six-page DeFuccio profile of DiPreta and the artist's Golden Age character Zippo. Personal life In November 1960, DiPreta married Frances, who died September 26, 2009. The couple had two sons, Richard and Edward, and a daughter, Janet. DiPreta died of respiratory and cardiac arrest in Greenwich, Connecticut, on June 2, 2010, aged 88. References External links 1921 births 2010 deaths American comic strip cartoonists Atlas Comics Artists from Stamford, Connecticut Deaths from respiratory failure Marvel Comics people American people of Italian descent Stamford High School (Stamford, Connecticut) alumni