Al Scaduto

Al Scaduto

About

After more than three decades of producing They’ll Do It Every Time panels, Al Scaduto has developed a real sense of what gets under our skin.

They’ll Do It Every Time is a catchphrase that has entered the language courtesy of the comics.

Originated in 1929 by Jimmy Hatlo, a sports cartoonist for The Call-Bulletin in San Francisco, the feature was created on the spur of the moment when a syndicated cartoon was lost in the mail. The cartoon soon attracted the attention of readers, who submitted their own examples of human foibles.

Its popularity grew, and it was picked up for national distribution by King Features Syndicate in 1936. Today, King Features distributes the panel to more than 100 American newspapers.

They’ll Do It Every Time, now a daily feature, usually is a humorous look at human hypocrisy, inconsistencies or one of the quirky twists of fate that beleaguer us all.

Scaduto was born July 12, 1928, in the Bronx, N.Y. He was an award-winning student at the School of Industrial Art, where he concentrated in cartooning, and he took classes at the Art Students League. After graduation from the High School of Industrial Art in 1946, he went directly toKing Features and has been associated with them ever since.

Two years later, cartoonist Bob Dunn invited Scaduto to assist him on Hatlo’s They’ll Do It Every Time.

One of the few recurring characters in the cartoon was Little Iodine, and Scaduto drew comic books featuring that character for 14 years. He also took on the Sunday They’ll Do It Every Time, drawing it until 1963, when Hatlo died. From then on, Scaduto became the artist for both the daily and the Sunday features. He also writes the scripts for the strip.

In addition to cartooning, Scaduto has illustrated children’s books, advertisements and magazine articles, and designed greeting cards, toys, games and packaging.

In recognition of his work on They’ll Do It Every Time, the National Cartoonists Society twice presented him with its Best Newspaper Panel Award, in 1979 and 1992.

Scaduto lives in Milford, CT. He has two daughters, Patricia Violette and Deborah White, and three grandchildren.

Comics