The greatest comic book artists of all time
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Jack "The King" Kirby was an influential comic book writer and artist, particularly famous for creating or co-creating some of the most famous characters for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics.
In 1917, Kirby was born under the name "Jacob Kurtzberg" on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He was a son of garment factory worker Benjamin Kurtzberg and his wife Rose Bernstein. Both his parents were Austrian-Jewish immigrants.
He developed an interest in drawing at an early age. He was mostly self-taught as an artist, having started by studying newspaper artwork from comic strip artists and political cartoonists. He cited among his main influences comic strip artists Milton Caniff (1907-1988), Hal Foster (1892-1982), and Alex Raymond (1909-1956), who were all pioneers of the adventure genre in comic strips. His professional name "Jack Kirby" was possibly chosen in reference to Rollin Kirby (1875-1952), an influential political cartoonist, who had won three Pulitzer Prizes in the 1920s.
At age 14, Kirby enrolled in Pratt Institute, a prestigious school for illustrators. He dropped out early. According to Kirby, his personal philosophy did not agree with that of the school. He was interested in producing quantities of artwork at a rapid rate and "get things done", while the Institute taught students to devote large amounts of time to a single piece of artwork.
After publishing a few works in outlets for amateur artists, Kirby entered the world of professional cartooning in 1936. He was hired by the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate to work on comic strips and advice cartoons. He stayed there until 1939. He then briefly joined the field of animation and was hired by the Fleischer Studios. He worked as an in-betweener in animated shorts, drawing intermediate frames between two images to give the appearance that the first image evolves smoothly into the second image. He quit after a short period, feeling dissatisfied with the factory-like conditions at Fleischer.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the comic book medium was taking off and there were many available positions for writers and artists interested in working in the medium. Kirby soon joined the staff at the Eisner and Iger Studio, working under co-founders Will Eisner and Jerry Iger. The Studio was one of a number of pioneering companies selling completed comic book stories and artwork to the fledgling publishing companies of the time. Under various pseudonyms, Kirby contributed artwork to series in various genres, including humor, science fiction, swashbucklers, and Westerns.
The Eisner and Iger Studio dissolved for uncertain reasons by 1940. By that time comic book publishing companies were starting to hire writers and artists directly, instead of simply buying stories. Kirby found work at one of the publishers of the time, Fox Features Syndicate. Kirby's first superhero stories were Blue Beetle stories. He was not credited as an artist, the credit going to the non-existent "Charles Nicholas".
While working at Fox, Kirby was acquainted with Joe Simon. Simon was producing stories for various publishers and had recently created a superhero called Blue Bolt for Novelty Press. He had seeking for a partner to work on the second issue of Blue Bolt and was impressed enough with Kirby's work to offer him the partnership. Kirby accepted and the duo ended up working together for the following decades.
Simon was soon hired as an editor for Timely Comics (later renamed to Marvel Comics) and was also interested in contributing stories. He had the idea for a new patriotic superhero and managed to convince Timely publisher Martin Goodman that the new hero would work as the star of a solo comic book. This was at the time rare, since most comic book characters were featured in anthology titles. Once securing a publisher, Simon asked Kirby to join him in working on the character. The new character was called Captain America and debuted in 1941. Despite its strong similarities to an earlier MLJ Comics character called The Shield, Captain America became the most successful of the two characters and the fist two issues of his title were major best sellers of the comic book medium. This helped establish co-creators Simon and Kirby among the most famous comic creators of the time.
Despite the commercial success of Captain America, Kirby was not paid more than the average comic book artist of the time: 75 dollars per week. He and Simon continued working on the Captain America series until issue #10 while secretly negotiating a deal with another publisher. An early incarnation of DC Comics was offering them a combined weekly salary of 500 dollars if they switched publishers. The switch was formalized by 1942.
At first DC was uncertain on what work to assign Simon and Kirby. After a few minor assignments, they were asked to contribute their own story ideas. The duo soon took over the already established Sandman series featured in Adventure Comics and revamped the character. They also created a new version of the Manhunter, this time as a superhero. Kirby and Simon wanted to name the character "Rick Nelson", but the editor changed the name to "Paul Kirk", essentially naming him after an earlier character called Paul Kirk, Manhunter.
Simon and Kirby found more success with a non-superhero idea. They created the Boy Commandos, a combination of the "kid gang" concept that was already established in comic books, this time with a then-modern war setting. The Commandos soon became one of the most popular DC series of their time, graduated to their own title, and reportedly sold "over a million copies each month". In their heyday, the commandos were the third highest selling characters DC had in its stable. Only Superman and Batman actually sold more.
Besides the Boy Commandos, Simon and Kirby co-created another "kid gang" for DC: the Newsboy Legion. While never as popular as the Commandos, they became the feature characters of Star-Spangled Comics and were considered a hit in their own right.
Kirby's comic book career had to be put in hiatus in 1943, when he was drafted into the United States Army. While he never took part in any major battle, he was deployed in the European theatre of World War II in 1944. Following the Invasion of Normandy, Kirby was tasked with drawing reconnaissance maps and images of areas which the Army was considering to occupy. He was effectively a military scout and reconnaissance agent, and his work put him at risk. A case of severe frostbite in the winter of 1944-1945 resulted in his hospitalization. There were fears that his feet would have to be amputated for him to survive, though he managed to recover with no amputation necessary. He was discharged from the Army in July, 1945, having been awarded medals for his service.
Following his discharge from the Army, Kirby was reunited with Simon. Simon had spend the majority of the War serving in the United States Coast Guard. They were both looking for a way to return to comic book work, though their old jobs at DC had been taken by other creators. They spend the next several years working for Harvey Comics. For Harvey, the duo created some original characters such, as the superheroes Stuntman (1946) and Captain 3-D (1953). However, these characters were not as popular as their earlier creations.
Besides their relatively steady work for Harvey, Simon and Kirby freelanced for other publishers. Their employers of the time included publishers such as Crestwood Publications and Hillman Periodicals. For Crestwood, Simon and Kirby created one of their greatest hits: Young Romance, the first of the romance comics. At the time traditional comic book genres such as superheroes were in decline and publishers and creators were looking for new ideas. Simon and Kirby noticed that romance magazines of the 1940s sold well and had the idea of adapting the genre to comic books. It worked far better than expected. Young Romance and its spin-off series Young Love continued to sell millions of copies for years.
Due to the "follow the leader" mentality of comic book publishers of the time, other publishers soon published their own romance comics. Though few managed to successfully compete with the Simon and Kirby created titles, who were considered better in quality than most of their imitators. The success had an effect in the lives of the duo. Simon and Kirby had negotiated a contract which earned them a large percentage from the profits. Kirby earned more money than ever before and was able to purchase a new home for his family.
In 1953-1954, Simon and Kirby were annoyed to find out that Atlas Comics (the then-current name of Marvel Comics) was reviving Captain America. They had never asked for any input from Simon and Kirby to do this, nor offered to rehire them. Seeking for a way to outdo their old creation, the duo created a new superhero called Fighting American (1954) for Crestwood Publications. At first conceived as a serious 1950s take on the old patriotic hero concept, Fighting American's series soon became largely satirical. It never sold well and did not last long, though it has left enough of a mark in the comic book medium to be constantly reprinted and occasionally revived from a relatively high number of publishers.
In late 1953-1954, Simon and Kirby founded their own comic book publishing company: Mainline Publications. At the time the comic book industry was under attack by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham (1895-1981) and politician Estes Kefauver (1903-1963). Many of the older comic book publishers were affected by the controversy and the resulting drop in sales, either getting out of the business or reducing their output. There was still a high demand for new material and Mainline Publications hoped to fill the void left by the demise of the older publishers.
Simon and Kirby's plans for their company turned out to be too optimistic. They published only four titles, all in established genres. They were "Bullseye: Western Scout" (a Western), "Foxhole" (a war comic), "In Love" (a romance comic), and "Police Trap" (a crime comic). None of them was a great success in sales, but they were noticed by Wertham, who used them as exhibits of comic book "filth". At the same time, Simon and Kirby entered into a complex legal battle with Crestwood Publications. They claimed their former employer owed them at least 130,000 dollars, but the case was settled out of court with the payment of only 10,000 dollars. It was not not enough to solve ongoing financial problems for Mainline Publications, which closed in 1956.
The partnership of Simon and Kirby did not survive the demise of their company. Simon was considering leaving the comic book medium altogether and seeking employment as an advertising artist, but Kirby wanted to keep working in his original medium. They parted amiably. Several of the unpublished material for Mainline Publications was sold to Charlton Comics. Kirby was left with an unused idea for a new team of adventurers. He would continue developing the idea over the following year, and eventually sell it to DC Comics. It was the the earliest incarnation of Challengers of the Unknown, though Kirby did not stay with DC long enough to further develop it.
From 1956 to 1958, Kirby was producing freelance work for DC Comics and Atlas Comics (Marvel Comics), mostly as a writer and penciller, and occasionally as an inker. He contributed stories for characters such as the Green Arrow and the Yellow Claw, though he did not create any major characters of his own. His take on Green Arrow was considered controversial, as Kirby included more science-fiction themes in the stories and was trying to revamp the character. Green Arrow co-creator Mort Weisinger reportedly hated Kirby's concept for the character.
In addition to comic books, Kirby co-created a comic strip called "Sky Masters of the Space Force" (1958). It was a science fiction comic book set in the near-future. It was a minor hit but got Kirby in a legal dispute with Jack Schiff, editor of DC. Schiff had helped bring Kirby in contact with his collaborators for the comic strip. He claimed that Kirby owed him a share of the strip's profits. The matter was settled in court and Schiff won the trial. This helped severe Kirby's relations with DC, and he soon quit the comic strip as well.
In late 1958, Kirby started producing more work for Atlas Comics (Marvel Comics). For various reasons Atlas had lost much of its creative personnel and there was a need for the remaining staff to increase its productivity. Kirby decided he could use some extra money and started mass producing art for Atlas. He became arguably the most prolific artist of the company, with his artwork appearing in almost any ongoing title. His best-remembered production from this time involved anthology stories for Atlas' series of supernatural-fantasy and science fiction titles. They were minor hits of their time and considered classics by later Marvel artists and readers. Most of his creations were supposed to be one-shot characters, but some of his characters have been revived and have made appearances in several works by other creators. They include characters such as Fin Fang Foom, Groot, and Grottu.
Kirby still did not work exclusively for Atlas. He collaborated with Joe Simon to create two more superheroes for Archie Comics. They were the Fly (1959) and a new incarnation of the Shield, called Lancelot Strong (1959). He also worked for the "Classics Illustrated" comic book series by The Gilberton Company, Inc.
In 1961, Atlas/Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee wanted to create a new superhero team to compete with DC's Justice League of America, which was turning out to be a hit. He decided to collaborate with Kirby in creating the team, the result being the Fantastic Four. For the first story of the new team, Lee created a synopsis of what he wanted the story to be like. Kirby then incorporated his own ideas and drew the whole story. Then Lee added his own dialogue to the finished artwork and narrative captions. The finished story was then offered for further inking, coloring, and eventual publication. This was the so-called "Marvel Method" of producing stories, where both co-creators had considerable influence on what was being created.
In later years, both Kirby and Lee would argue over who was the true creator of the Fantastic Four and the driving force behind the series. They both claimed that they came up with most of the concepts and that their collaborator only added relatively insignificant details. A number of comic book historians have tried to determine which version was true, though no definite evidence can be produced. Historian Mark Evanier, who has written a biography of Kirby, has argued that none of the two versions were true. He has argued that the two men were equal collaborators and that the credit for the series belongs to both of them.
The Fantastic Four title became a commercial hit and Kirby was its main artist for the first 102 issues (November, 1961-September, 1970). Atlas/Marvel soon launched a new line of titles, with Kirby serving as an artist for most of them. Besides contributing artwork and plots, Kirby was asked to train other Marvel artists in how to draw the characters. He provided "breakdown" layouts and the other artists would learn to draw based on them. Before long, Kirby's style had become Marvel's new house style. This did not prevent his personal style from further evolving, by incorporating new drawing techniques and other experiments.
In the 1960s, Kirby created or co-created hundreds of major and minor characters for Marvel Comics. Among his major creations were Doctor Doom (1962), the Hulk (1962), Thor (1962), Iron Man (1963), Magneto (1963), Uatu the Watcher (1963), the original X-Men (1963), the Inhumans (1965), the Black Panther (1966), Ego the Living Planet (1966), Galactus (1966), and the Silver Surfer (1966). For some of them Kirby only contributed their debut stories, for others entire runs of featured stories. He also helped revive older characters, such as Captain America, Namor, and Ka-Zar (who was given an entirely different setting and backstory).
By the early 1970s, Kirby felt increasingly dissatisfied with his working relationship with Marvel. He was paid much better than before, earning about 35,000 dollars per year. But he felt that he was not given adequate credit for his own creations, that his plot contributions went mostly uncredited, and that Marvel was earning much more money from characters that he had created. He consequently left Marvel. He was hired by DC Comics, as the result of a deal with editorial director Carmine Infantino.
Kirby's contract with DC, produced in 1970, gave him essentially a free reign as writer and penciller in whatever title he worked on. He soon worked in four inter-connected titles. They were the already established (but low-selling) title Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen (which had no one assigned to it so Kirby could take it over without having someone lose their job) and the new titles New Gods, Mister Miracle, and the Forever People. The concept of the titles became known as Jack Kirby's Fourth World.
The idea for the so-called New Gods had reportedly come to Kirby a few years earlier, while he was working on the "Tales of Asgard" sub-series for Marvel's "Thor" title. He wanted to produce a story about two planets at war with each other and the grand finale would be the Ragnarok ("Twilight of the Gods"), the battle that ends the gods at the finale of Norse mythology. Marvel never allowed him to work on such a story, DC on the other hand did. Kirby came up with the idea of the New Gods born out of the death of the old ones. He soon developed an entirely new mythology for his creations, combining disparate ideas from multiple sources. The scope was epic.
Kirby at first intended to tell a finite story about the New Gods. It would have a start, several chapters, and a definite conclusion. But the titles initially sold too well and DC argued against the idea, wanting the tales to continue indefinitely. Kirby was forced to compromise and the story continued, though sales soon dropped. "New Gods" and the Forever people were canceled in 1972. Mister Miracle continued under Kirby until 1974, though the stories became a bit more conventional.
Though Kirby's take on the New Gods and associated characters was considered a bit too weird for mainstream comics, DC never completely lost interest in the characters. They were revived by later creators, reused for decades, and a few (like Darkseid) went on to play prominent roles in the wider DC multiverse. Meanwhile Kirby went on to work in other series.
The other 1970s DC characters created or co-created by Kirby included Etrigan the Demon (1972), Kamandi (1972), OMAC (1974), a new version of Sandman (1974), Atlas (1975), a new version of Manhunter (1975), the Dingbats of Danger Street (1975) and Kobra (1976). All these characters were considered as series protagonists, and some of them did receive their own title. However, none of them enjoyed long-term success.
In 1975, Marvel Comics announced that Kirby would return to work with them. He was soon producing new runs as sole writer and penciller of "Black Panther" and "Captain America". His most enduring work, however, was in the creation of new series and characters. His best known work was "The Eternals" (1976-1978), a 19-issue series about immortal gods active on modern Earth. It was very similar in concept to the New Gods. The human-looking gods were called Eternals, their demonic looking counterparts were the Deviants, and they were both inferior to the mysterious space gods called the Celestials. The series was never a best-seller but has its dedicated fans. The characters and concepts have been incorporated to the wider Marvel multiverse, with several other creators adding to them over the decades.
Somewhat less ambitious were the rest of the Kirby creations of the 1970s for Marvel. They included Machine Man (1977) and Devil Dinosaur (1978). Each held its own short-lived series, but enduring success eludes them. They still have enough fans to warrant several revivals over the following decades.
Kirby left Marvel in 1978 to return to the field of animation, after an absence of nearly 40 years. He spend much of the late 1970s and 1980s working on television animated series such as "Thundarr the Barbarian" and "The Centurions". Futhermore, Kirby found the experience much more satisfying, considering he was in a senior creative post as production designer and worked with young employees who did the more laborious work of animation. They treated him with far more respect than the people in the comic book industry.
Never satisfied with his lack of creative control over his older creations, Kirby briefly returned to comic books with the creator-owned series "Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers" (1981-1984). It was intended as his own sequel to the New Gods. The title character, Captain Victory, was implied to be the son and heir of Orion. His supposed grandfather "Blackmaas" was a look-alike of Darkseid.
In the mid-1980s, when the Kenner toy company judged his New Gods villains, like Darkseid, ideal antagonists for the Super Powers Collection toy-line, DC asked Kirby to design the action figure versions for character. He received royalties for the use of his character designs, the only time he was so compensated. He also returned to his characters in the DC graphic novel called The Hunger Dogs!.
In the early 1990s, Kirby licensed his creator owned-characters to Topps Comics. Existing characters and unused Kirby-produced concepts from earlier decades were used for the so-called Kirbyverse line of comic books. Kirby himself did not contribute new work to Topps. He attempted to make a comeback to the comic book medium with a comic book series called "Phantom Force", but died in 1994 before its publication.
Some of Kirby's unpublished work has seen posthumous publication. His creator-owned characters were inherited by his family and have continued to appear in new works by various publishers. The Kirby family has repeatedly attempted to claim partial ownership over Jack Kirby's Marvel creations, though their legal efforts have so far been unsuccessful. The Kirby family has not disputed the ownership of his DC creations.King Kirby- Art Department
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Frank Frazetta is one of the most prolific and well-known illustrators of the 20th century. This is due in part to the variety of media in which his art has appeared (comics, posters, album covers, books, etc.), but also to his very recognizable style. Frazetta was a very precocious artist, claiming to have begun drawing at the age of three, and selling a drawing at the age of eight. He received formal art training at the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts. He entered into the world of comic book illustration at the age of 16, with work on "Shining Knight" comics. His early work was for DC, but he later did work for Timely (Marvel), Standard, and Toby. His more famous early work was done for EC Comics, where he illustrated a number of horror and suspense stories. In 1952, he worked as an assistant for Al Capp ("L'il Abner"), but quit in 1960 after disagreement over salary cuts. He turned to paperback cover illustrating to pay the bills. While not very lucrative at the time, the illustrations are today sought by many collectors, especially his work on the Edgar Rice Burroughs titles (Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, and others). In the mid 60s, Frazetta joined other former EC cartoonists at Warren Publications, where he worked on "Creepy", "Eerie", and helped design "Vampirella". Frazetta's work was probably at its most popular in the 1970s, where it could seen almost everywhere. His drawings were and are instantly recognizable - the men are impossibly muscular, the women are supernaturally beautiful, and the monsters are indescribably hideous. Many of his illustrations have been collected into handsome, oversized volumes, or can still be found decorating teenagers' walls.- Producer
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Stan Lee was an American comic-book writer, editor, and publisher, who was executive vice president and publisher of Marvel Comics.
Stan was born in New York City, to Celia (Solomon) and Jack Lieber, a dress cutter. His parents were Romanian Jewish immigrants. Lee co-created Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Daredevil, Thor, the X-Men, and many other fictional characters, introducing a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. In addition, he challenged the comics' industry's censorship organization, the Comics Code Authority, indirectly leading to it updating its policies. Lee subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
He had cameo appearances in many Marvel film and television projects, with many yet to come, posthumously. A few of these appearances are self-aware and sometimes reference Lee's involvement in the creation of certain characters.
On 16 July 2017, Lee was named a Disney Legend, a hall of fame program that recognizes individuals who have made an extraordinary and integral contribution to The Walt Disney Company.
Stan was married to Joan Lee for almost 70 years, until her death. The couple had two children. Joan died on July 6, 2017. Stan died on November 12, 2018, in LA.- Writer
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Frank Miller was born in Olney, Maryland, to a nurse mother and a carpenter and electrician father, and was raised in Montpelier, Vermont. He is of Irish descent. Miller was a big comics writer/artist in the '70s and '80s. He wrote and penciled the Marvel series "Daredevil" for a long time. His friend, Klaus Janson, inked. He also wrote two spinoffs about the character "Electra" and did a miniseries about the "X-Men" character "Wolverine". His hit miniseries "Ronin" was published by DC in the mid-eighties. His greatest success came with DC's character "Batman". In 1980, he wrote the acclaimed "Batman" story "Wanted - Santa Claus - Dead or Alive!" for DC Comics. In 1986, his most notable comic-book work, the groundbreaking "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns", an alternate history story about Batman in a grim future, was published by DC. Miller wrote and penciled. In 1988, he wrote the acclaimed "Batman: Year One", about Batman's first year on the job, for DC. In 1996, he wrote "Spawn versus Batman", a one-shot issue published by DC and Image Comics. He wrote the major motion pictures RoboCop 2 (1990) and RoboCop 3 (1993) and did the "Robocop" comic series for a little while.
Miller directed The Spirit (2008) and co-directed Sin City (2005) and Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)_.- Writer
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Will Eisner was an American comic book artist and writer of Austrian-Jewish and Romanian-Jewish descent. He was one of the pioneering artists of the American comic book industry. He is most famous for creating the masked crime-fighter Spirit/Denny Colt, and for being the main creator of the original eponymous series "the Spirit" (1940-1952). Later, Eisner worked primarily with graphic novels. He is credited with popularizing the term "graphic novel" in 1978. The Eisner Award (for creative achievement in American comic books) and the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame were both named after him.
In 1917, Eisner was born in Brooklyn, New York City. Both of his parents were first-generation European-Jewish immigrants, and distant relatives of each other. Eisner's father was the artist Shmuel "Samuel" Eisner (born 1886) from Austria-Hungary. Before World War I, Shmuel worked in Vienna, painting murals for wealthy patrons and for Catholic churches. He migrated to the United States, primarily to avoid conscription. He found work in New York City, painting backdrops for vaudeville and for the Jewish theater.
Eisner's mother was the Romanian-Jewish Fannie Ingber (born 1891). She was born aboard a ship which transported her immigrant parents to the United States. Ingber's parents died c. 1901, when she was 10-years-old. She was then primarily raised by her older stepsister. Her stepsister turned out to be a harsh taskmaster, who kept Ingber mostly preoccupied with chores. Ingber was not allowed to socialize with others or to attend school. She was consequently illiterate.
Will was the eldest of three children born to the Eisner family. His family was impoverished, and moved frequently during his childhood. Eisner was often a target of anti-Semitic insults from his schoolmates, and was frequently involved in physical confrontations with them. His family was not particularly religious.
During his childhood and adolescence, Eisner was an avid reader of pulp magazines. He was also interested in films, particularly enjoying the avant-garde films of Man Ray (1890-1976). He aspired to become an artist, and Shmuel bought art supplies for his son. In 1930, Fannie pressured her son to get a paying job to supplement the family income. His first job was selling newspapers on street corners. There was intense competition among newsboys for the best locations, and Eisner often had to fight competing newsboys,
Eisner received his secondary education at the DeWitt Clinton High School, an all-boys public high school located in The Bronx. He drew art for the school newspaper "The Clintonian", for its literary magazine "The Magpie" and for its yearbook. His early artwork was primarily influenced by the work of commercial artist J. C. Leyendecker (1874-1951), one of the most famous cover artists of his era. Besides illustrations, Eisner worked on scenic design for the school's theater.
Following his graduation from high school, Eisner studied art at the "Art Students League of New York" , an art school located in Manhattan. His teacher there was the veteran artist George Bridgman (c. 1864-1943), who specialized in the fields of anatomy and figure drawing. Following his graduation, Eisner was hired as an advertising writer-cartoonist by the newspaper "New York American". The newspaper was owned at the time by William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951).
To supplement his income, Eisner started drawing illustration for pulp magazines. His rate at the time was 10 dollars for every completed page. Among his early employers was the Western-themed magazine "Western Sheriffs and Outlaws". In 1936, his high-school friend Bob Kane (1915-1998) suggested to him that he should also try to sell art to comic books. For most of the 1930s, American comic books consisted mostly of comic strip reprints in color. By 1935, some of them had started including new material in their publications.
Eisner fist sold new material to the comic book magazine "Wow, What A Magazine! ", by convincing its editor Jerry Iger (1903-1990) that he could deliver quality work. Eisner's first series character was Captain Scott Dalton, an globe-trotting adventurer who searched for rare artifacts. "Wow" also published further series by Eisner, including the pirate-themed series "The Flame" and the spy-themed series "Harry Karry".
"Wow" only lasted for 4 issues (July-November, 1936). Afterwards Eisner and Jerry Iger became business partners, founding the art studio "Eisner & Iger". It was one of the early comic book "packagers", companies which sold original material to fledgling comic book publishers. Eisner sold art at the rate of 1.50 dollars per page. Among the studio's main customers were the companies Fiction House, Fox Feature Syndicate, and Quality Comics. They also sold material to the British publisher Boardman Books. The company was profitable. In 1939, Eisner had an income of 25,000 dollars. A respectable income, considering that the Great Depression was still ongoing.
Among the characters Eisner created or co-created were the jungle girl Sheena, Queen of the Jungle/Sheena Rivington (for Fiction House), the size-changing superhero Doll Man/Darrel Dane (for Quality Comics), and the ace pilot Blackhawk (for Quality Comics). Sheena was among the earliest female jungle heroes, and has been described as a female Tarzan. She became Fiction House's most famous character, and inspired many derivative jungle girl heroines. Doll Man was Quality's first super-powered character and a pioneer in the genre of superheroes who could shrink in size. He predated characters such as Ant-Man/Hank Pym and Atom/Ray Palmer by two decades. Blackhawk served as the leader of the military-themed group "The Blackhawks", featured in one of Quality's longest-running series. After Quality went out of business, the series was continued by DC Comics.
In 1939, Eisner was involved in a legal controversy. At the time, the most popular superhero character was Superman/Clark Kent, published by an early incarnation of DC Comics. Victor Fox (born 1893), the owner of the Fox Feature Syndicate, commissioned Eisner to create a Superman-like character. Eisner created Wonder Man/Fred Carson, a character empowered by a magic ring. Despite a different origin story, Wonder Man appeared as an imitation of Superman. Wonder Man looked similar to Superman (though he had blonde hair instead of Superman's black hair), wore a similar costume, and had near-identical powers. DC Comics sued the Fox Feature Syndicate for copyright infringement, and won the case in court. Fox and Eisner had to cease using Wonder Man as a character. This was the first copyright lawsuit in comic book history.
Also in 1939, Eisner and Iger dissolved their business partnership. Their motivation for this decision is unclear. Eisner sold his share in their company at the price of 20,000. In December 1939, Eisner received a business proposal Henry Martin, sales manager of "The Des Moines Register and Tribune Syndicate". A number of Sunday newspapers wanted to compete with their contemporary high-selling comic books, by publishing a comic-book insert into the newspapers. They wanted Eisner to handle this insert and to provide its contents. Eisner took the offer.
Eisner provided three new characters as series protagonists for the comic-book insert: the Spirit/Denny Colt, Lady Luck/Brenda Banks, and Mr. Mystic/Ken. By agreement, the characters were copyrighted in the name of Everett M. "Busy" Arnold (1899 -1974), Quality Comics' publisher who had agreed to publish the insert. But by the terms of this agreement, their copyright ownership would revert to Eisner himself if their partnership dissolved. This eventually occurred, and the trio were among the earliest creator-owned characters in American comics.
The Spirit served as the main series for the comic-book insert, with the other two as back-up series. The Sunday supplement was nicknamed "The Spirit Section"). It was published in 20 newspapers, with a combined circulation of 5 million copies. It was published from 1940 to 1952.
In late 1941 or early 1942, Eisner was drafted by the United States Army. He was 25-years-old and he was of eligible age to serve in then-ongoing World War II (1939-1945). He was initially assigned to work camp newspaper at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, located in Aberdeen. His comics were used as training material for soldiers. He became a warrant officer.
During his military service, Eisner provided new illustrations for the Baltimore-based military magazine "Army Motors", and served as an editor to the Pentagon-based ordnance magazine "Firepower". He would continue to work for "Army Motors" until 1950, and then continue to work for its successor publication , "PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly" until 1971, While working for "Army Motors", Eisner created the series character Joe Dope. Dope was the protagonist in an educational comic strip aimed at a military audience. He was depicted as a bumbling soldier, and his stories illustrated various methods of preventive maintenance of various military equipment and weapons.
While Eisner was preoccupied with military service, he supervised an entire studio which continued to work on the Spirit. Several of his assistants served as ghost writers and ghost artists of the Spirit from 1942 until Eisner's return to civilian life in 1945. His most notable assistant at the time was Jules Feiffer (1929-), later a leading editorial cartoonist in his own right. Other known ghost artists of the Spirit were Jack Cole (1914-1958) and Lou Fine (1914-1971). Jack Keller (1922-2003) worked as a background artist on the strip. Known ghost writers of the Spirit include the pulp fiction writer Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986) and the novelist William Woolfolk (1917-2003).
In 1945 took over as the writer and artist of the Spirit again. The Spirit was a masked crime-fighter, wearing a simple costume. The costume included a blue domino mask, a business suit, a white shirt, a red necktie, a fedora hat, and gloves. His real identity was that of Denny Colt, a criminologists who was considered deceased following a short period under suspended animation. His headquarters were located underneath his own tombstone. His adventures were heavily influenced by film noir, and featured a "gritty, detailed view of big-city life", with drama taking place in urban streets, dilapidated tenements, and smoke-filled back rooms.
Eisner often combined elements from different genres in the Spirit series, wanting to experiment in story style. The series was noted for its frequent use of femme fatales, The Spirit's main love interest was the feisty feminist Ellen Dolan, his archenemy was the mysterious master-of-disguise known as the Octopus (whose real face was never depicted), and his most prominent sidekick was Ebony White. Ebony was an African-American taxi driver, and was among the earliest major African-American characters in comics. He was phased out of the series in 1949.
The Spirit's original series ended on October 5, 1952, possibly due to declining sales. From 1940 to 1950, Spirit stories were reprinted in comic book form by Quality Comics. From 1952 to 1954, they were reprinted by Fiction House. From 1966 to 1967, the stories were reprinted by Harvey Comics. For this edition, Eisner illustrated original covers, and a few original stories to supplement the reprints.
Back in 1948, Eisner formed the company American Visuals Corporation, which produced instructional materials for the government, related agencies, and businesses. His main customer was the United States Army, for which he continued to produce military publications until the 1970s. Other prominent clients of the American Visuals Corporation were the football team Baltimore Colts, the New York Telephone, and RCA Records.
In 1978, Eisner published his first graphic novel, called "A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories". It was a cycle of connected short stories, depicting the lives of impoverished Jewish characters within a tenement in New York City. From this point onward, he produced about one graphic novel per year. Among his most notable graphic novels was "Fagin the Jew" (2003), a biography of the literary villain introduced in the serial novel "Oliver Twist" (1837-1839). Eisner disliked Fagin's stereotypical depiction in the original novel, and wanted to depict Fagin as a complex and conflicted individual. The story was depicted as a narrative presented by Fagin himself, the night before his execution by hanging.
In the last decades of his life, Eisner was a lecturer at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He taught students essential lessons on cartooning. He also wrote the ,educational books "Comics and Sequential Art" (1985) and "Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative" (1996).
On December 22, 2004, Eisner had a quadruple bypass surgery. On January 3, 2005, he died due to surgery-related complications. He was 87-years-old at the time of his death. A memorial service was held for him at the Angel Orensanz Foundation, an art gallery located in in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Eisner was survived by his wife Ann Weingarten Eisner, and by their son, John. His only known daughter, Alice Eisner, had predeceased him in 1970.- Writer
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Steve Ditko was an American comics writer and artist of Rusyn descent. He is better known for co-creating the superheroes Spider-Man/Peter Parker and Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange for Marvel Comics. He created many other characters for various publishing companies. Among his better known creations are Blue Beetle/Ted Kord, Captain Atom/Allen Adam, the Creeper/Jack Ryder, Hawk and Dove/Hank Hall and Don Hall, Mr. A/Rex Graine, the Question/Charles Victor Szasz, Shade the Changing Man/Rac Shade, Ditko was an adherent of Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand (1905-1982). Her work had a significant influence on his own work, which often reflected Objectivism's belief in moral absolutism.
In 1927, Ditko was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a city located 56 miles (90 kilometers) to the east of Pittsburgh. His parents were master carpenter Stephen Ditko and his homemaker wife Anna. Both parents were first-generation American Rusyn immigrants from Czechoslovakia. Steve was the second of four children born to the Ditko family, and he was raised as a typical member of a working class family.
Stephen Ditko, Steve's father, loved newspaper comic strips. He introduced his son to the work of comic strip artists of the 1930s and 1940s. The Ditko family's favorite comic strip was the adventure series "Prince Valiant" by Hal Foster (1892-1982). As Steve grew up, so did his interest in both comic strips and comic books. His favorite characters during his adolescence were Batman/Bruce Wayne and the Spirit/Denny Colt.
Ditko received his secondary education at the Greater Johnstown High School, and graduated in 1945. In October 1945, Ditko enlisted in the United States Army. He spend his military service in Allied-occupied Germany. While there, Ditko drew comic strips for a military newspaper. It was his first comics-related work, though he lacked formal training at the time.
Following his discharge, Ditko had the option to receive a college education, thanks to the G.I. Bill. The G. I. Bill was a law that provided a range of benefits to returning veterans, including the payments of tuition and living expenses needed for them to attend high school, college, or vocational school. In 1950, Ditko chose to enroll at the art school "Cartoonists and Illustrators School" (later known as the School of Visual Arts) , located in New York City.
While studying at art school, Ditko found a mentor in veteran comic book artist Jerry Robinson (1922-2011). Robinson had been one of the main artists of the "Batman" series, and was credited as the co-creator of Robin/Dick Grayson and the Joker. Robinson found Ditko to be a dedicated student, and a very hard worker. He encouraged Ditko to write his own stories and to create his own characters,
By 1953, Ditko had graduated and began work as a professional comic book artist. His first work was illustrating the science fiction story "Stretching Things" for Stanmor Publications. Stanmor sold this story to the comic book publisher Farrell Publications, which first published it in 1954.
Ditko's second professional story, but first published work, was the romance story "Paper Romance" . It was published by Gillmor Magazines in October, 1953.
Ditko was soon after hired by the studio operated by veteran comic book writers and artists Jack Kirby (1917-1994) and Joe Simon (1913-2011). While working for them, Ditko received additional training by his co-worker Mort Meskin (1916-1995). According to an interview, Ditko admired Meskin's ability to create detailed drawing compositions without cluttering the image.
Some of Ditko's earliest known work was published by Prize Comics, an imprint of Crestwood Publications which was co-headed by Kirby and Simon. In 1954, Ditko was first hired by the publisher Charlton Comics, a low-budget company located in Derby, Connecticut. His first story for them was a vampire story, titled "Cinderella". He continued working for Charlton on-and-off until 1986, when the company shut down.
In 1954, Ditko contracted tuberculosis and had to take a hiatus from his comic book work. He recuperated at his family's house in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. By 1955, Ditko had recovered and he moved back to New York City. In 1956, Ditko was hired by Atlas Comics, Marvel Comics' predecessor. He mostly illustrated surreal stories, written by Atlas' writer-editor Stan Lee (1922-2018).
Ditko's work for Atlas Comics was published in its anthology titles, including "Amazing Adventures", "Journey into Mystery", "Strange Tales", "Strange Worlds", "Tales of Suspense" and "Tales to Astonish". Ditko's stories were sufficiently were sufficiently popular for him to be assigned as the main artist of "Amazing Adventures" in December, 1961. The anthology was renamed to "Amazing Adult Fantasy", to reflect its publication of stories that were more sophisticated that Atlas/Marvel's typical output.
Ditko's stories for Atlas and Marvel Comics were composed according to the company's "Marvel Method" of writer-artist collaboration. The writer provided a brief outline of the plot, while the artist fleshed out the story and illustrated it. This gave Ditko significant creative influence on any story, though he did not receive a credit as a co-writer or co-plotter.
In the early 1960s, Stan Lee wanted to create a new teenage hero, called Spider-Man. He first gained permission to create such a story by his publisher Martin Goodman (1908-1992). He then had to design the new character, and then gave the assignment to his main artist at the time: Jack Kirby. Kirby created a 6-page-long draft for the character's first story, but Lee rejected his designs. He then gave the assignment of designing Spider-Man to Ditko, who was the company's second most prominent artist at the time. Ditko's version of the character was accepted by Lee.
Ditko created Spider-Man's original costume. He incorporated a face mask which hid the character's facial features, a costume with no shoes that would allow the character to cling on walls, and a hidden wrist-shooter. Ditko also created the character's "web gimmick" and his spider signal. The idea of webs coming out of the character's hands was credited to Ditko's roommate at the time, the fetish artist Eric Stanton (1926-1999).
Spider-Man's origin story was published in "Amazing Fantasy" #15 (August 1962), the final issue of the anthology series. It became a top-seller, so Marvel Comics decided to give Spidey (as the character was nicknamed) his own series: "The Amazing Spider-Man" vol. 1 (March, 1963-November, 1998). Ditko was the new magazine's main artist for its first 38 issues (March, 1963-July, 1966).
Besides Spidey himself, Ditko co-created most of his early supporting cast and early foes. His creations included (in order) Aunt May/May Reilly Parker, Uncle Ben/Ben Parker, the Burglar, Crusher Hogan/Joseph Hogan, Flash Thompson/Eugene Thompson, Elizabeth Allan, Maxie Shiffman, Raymond Warren, Bluebird/Sally Avril, and Seymour O'Reilly (all introduced in Amazing Fantasy #15),J. Jonah Jameson (issue #1), Man-Wolf/John Jameson (issue #1), Chameleon/Dmitri Smerdyakov (issue #1),Vulture/Adrian Toomes (issue #2), Tinkerer/Phineas Mason (issue #2), Doctor Octopus/Otto Octavius (issue #3), Betty Brant (issue #4), Sandman/Flint Marko (issue #4), Principal Davis/Andrew Davis (issue #4), Lizard/Dr. Curtis Connors (issue #6), the Living Brain (issue #8), Charlie Murphy/Charles Murphy (issue #8), Electro/Maxwell "Max" Dillon (issue #9), Dr. Nicholas Bromwell (issue #9), Montana/Jackson Brice (issue #10), Fancy Dan/Daniel Brito (issue #10), the Ox/Raymond Bloch (#issue #10), the Big Man/Frederick Foswell (issue #10), Crime-Master/Bennett Brant (issue #11), Mysterio/Quentin Beck (issue #13), Green Goblin/Norman Osborn (issue #14), Kraven the Hunter/Sergei Kravinoff (issue #15), Anna Watson (issue #15), the Great Gambonnos/Ernest Gambonno and Luigi Gambonno (issue #16), Wilson Allan (issue #17), Hobgoblin/Ned Leeds (issue #18), the Scorpion/Mac Gargan (issue #20), Princess Python/Zelda DuBois (issue #22), Lucky Lobo/Francisco Lobo (issue #23), Mary Jane Watson (issue #25), Professor Spencer Smythe (issue #25), Spider-Slayer (issue #25), Crime-Master/Nicholas "Nick"/ "Lucky" Lewis (issue #26), Barney Bushkin (issue #27), the Molten Man/Mark Raxton (issue #28), Doris Raxton Allan (issue #28), Prowler/Cat Burglar/ the Cat (issue #30), Green Goblin/Harry Osborn (issue #31), Gwen Stacy (issue #31), the Jackal/Professor Miles Warren (issue #31), Dean Corliss (issue #31), the Looter/Meteor Man/Norton Fester (issue #36), Sally Green (issue #36), Robot Master/Gaunt/Professor Mendel Stromm (issue #37), Max Young (issue #37), and Guy Named Joe/Joe Smith (issue #38).
Ditko eventually demanded credit for his plot contributions, and Stan Lee complied. Fros issue #25 onward, Ditko started receiving plot credits. One of the most celebrated issues plotted by Ditko was issue #33, titled "If This Be My Destiny...!", In it Spider-Man is pinned down by heavy machinery, and is plagued by visions of having failed to rescue his uncle and being then unable to rescue his aunt. He eventually escapes through sheer force of will. The story has been repeatedly cited as one of Marvel Comics' best stories.
While continuing his work on Spider-Man, Ditko co-created Dr. Strange. The character was introduced in "Strange Tales" #110 (July 1963), and continued to appear regularly in the magazine. Ditko's Doctor Strange artwork was acclaimed "for its surrealistic mystical landscapes and increasingly psychedelic visuals". It became a favorite series for college students of the 1960s. Dr. Strange was a magic user whose adventures took place in "bizarre worlds and twisting dimensions".
In the Dr. Strange series, Ditko introduced some of the earlier cosmic characters used by Marvel. A multi-part story in "Strange Tales" #130-146 (March 1965 - July 1966) introduced Eternity, a living personification of the universe,
Besides Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, Ditko contributed stories for other Marvel characters of the era. He drew stories of the Hulk/Bruce Banner and Iron Man/Tony Stark. Ditko is credited for designing the Leader/Samuel Sterns in 1964, who has since served as the Hulk's primary adversary.
In 1966, Ditko decided to quit working for Marvel Comics, though he never explained the reasons for his decision. His relationship with Stan Lee had deteriorated sometime earlier, and they were no longer on speaking terms. Art and editorial changes in their stories were handled through intermediaries. According to John Romita Sr. (1930-), Ditko's replacement in the Spider-Man series, Ditko and Lee had disagreed on how to handle their characters.
After leaving Marvel Comics, Ditko returned to Charlton Comics. The pay rates at Charlton were considerably lower than Marvel's, but its creators enjoyed more creative freedom over their stories. Between 1965 and 1968, Ditko was the main creative force behind the stories of Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, and the Question.
From 1966 to 1967, Ditko also worked for Warren Publishing. The publisher specialized in comic magazines, and Ditko contributed 16 stories for the anthology series "Creepy" and "Eerie".
In 1967, Ditko created the creator-owned character Mister A. The character was inspired by Objectivism philosophy, and often delivered lethal justice to criminals. The first Mister A story was published in "witzend", an an underground comic which handled creator-owned stories by comic book professionals. Its original publisher was veteran comic book artist Wally Wood (1927-1981). Ditko regularly worked on Mister A stories for various publishers between 1967 and 1978. He eventually published the penultimate Mister A story in 2000, and the ultimate story in the series in 2009.
In 1968, Ditko was hired by DC Comics. His first major creation for the company was the Creeper, with the character introduced in "Showcase" #73 (April 1968). The sibling duo Hawk and Dove were then introduced in Showcase #75 (June 1968). The Creeper graduated to his own comic book series called "Beware the Creeper: (June 1968 - April 1969), and Ditko handled all 6 of its issues.
In 1969, Ditko resigned from DC Comics. He contributed a story to the first issue of Wally Wood's series "Heroes, Inc. Presents Cannon" (1969), but otherwise worked near-exclusively for Charlton Comics in the early from 1969 to the mid-1970s. In 1974, Ditko became the main artist for the stories featuring Liberty Belle/Caroline Dean.
In 1975, Ditko was hired by the short-lived publisher Atlas/Seaboard Comics (1974-1975). The company was owned by Martin Goodman, Marvel Comics' former owner. Ditko co-created a character called Destructor, which was given his own series. Ditko handled the art for all 4 of its issues (February-August, 1975). He also worked on 2 issues for the series Tiger-Man, and a single issue for Morlock 2001. Atlas/Seabord shut down in 1975.
In 1975, Ditko returned to DC Comics. His first major work there was creating the antihero Stalker/Elpis, who briefly received his own sword-and-sorcery themed series. Ditko handled all 4 of its issues. He also created the character Shade, the Changing Man, and handled all issues of his short-lived series (1977-1978).
Besides working on his own characters for DC Comics, Ditko contributed stories for its other characters. He worked on stories for Etrigan the Demon, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and Man-Bat/Robert Kirkland "Kirk" Langstrom. Several of his stories were published in anthology titles. In 1980, Ditko became the main artist for the stories featuring Starman/Prince Gavyn, a new extraterrestrial superhero. His stories only covered the first year of Starman's series.
In 1979, Ditko was hired by Marvel Comics again. He took over the series "Machine Man", featuring Jack Kirby's character Machine Man/Aaron Stack. The character was a sentient robot. Ditko also wrote stories for Captain Universe and the Micronauts, space-faring heroes. In 1980, Ditko co-created a new hero: Dragon Lord/Tako Shamara. The character failed to caught on with readers.
From 1984 to 1986, Ditko drew a series featuring the character of Rom the Space Knight/Rom of Galador, another extraterrestrial superhero. The long-running series ended in 1986. In 1988, Ditko co-created a new teenage superhero for Marvel, called Speedball/Robbie Baldwin. Speedball graduated to his own series, which lasted for 10 issues. Ditko was the series main artist, and contributed most of its plots. Following the series' cancellation, Speedball became a featured character in the team book "New Warriors".
While Ditko mostly worked for Marvel Comics during the 1980s, he also contributed for Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics, First Comics, and Archie Comics. He contributed stories for Archie's resident superheroes, including the Fly/Thomas "Tommy" Troy, Flygirl/Kim Brand, and Jaguar/Ralph Hardy.
In 1982, Ditko was on contract with Western Publishing to serve as the main artist for a new science-fiction series called "Astral Frontiers". The series ended in development hell, and Western stopped publishing comics in 1984.
In the early 1990s, Ditko was hired by Valiant Comics to contribute stories for its stable of characters. Ditko worked on stories for "Magnus, Robot Fighter", Solar/Phil Seleski, and X-O Manowar/Aric of Dacia.
Ditko contributed an Iron Man and Dr. Doom crossover story in the anthology Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 2, #8 (January, 1992). This story introduced new super-heroine Squirrel Girl/Doreen Allene Green. The character eventually gained a cult following, joined the Great Lakes Avengers (an Avengers' spin-off team), and graduated to her own series. She was among the last original characters Ditko created for Marvel Comics, and the last one to become popular.
In 1995, Ditko served as the main artist for a comic-book miniseries featuring Phantom 2040/Kit Walker, the 24th incarnation of the Phantom. The series was an adaptation of a then-popular French-American animated series. It was among Ditko's large mainstream works. His other commercial works of the 1990s included one-shot publications for Dark Horse Comics, Defiant Comics, and Fantagraphics Books.
In 1998, Ditko wrote a few stories featuring Iron Man, Namor, the Sub-Mariner, and the Power Rangers. Then he mostly retired from mainstream comics. His final mainstream work was a 5-page-long story featuring the New Gods. It was intended for publication c. 2000, but was not published by DC Comics until 2008.
During the last decades of his life, Ditko mostly worked on creator-owned stories. Most of them were published by his long-time associate Robin Snyder, a former editor of Charlton Comics. Most of these works did not receive a wide circulation. In 2008, Ditko published the essay book "The Avenging Mind", and a collection of editorial cartoons under the title "Ditko, Etc...,".
In 2010, Ditko helped in the publication of reprint collections featuring his work from the 1970s. At about the same time, DC and Marvel published a number of previously unpublished stories by Ditko. Ditko had sold the stories to the two publishers in earlier decades, but they were kept in their respective inventories.
In the 2010s, Ditko continued to work in his apartment within Manhattan's Midtown West neighborhood. He lived alone, having never married and having no known children. In June 2018, Ditko was found dead within his apartment. The cause of death was a myocardial infarction (heart attack),itself caused by arteriosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Ditko was 90 years old at the time of death.
In 2019, Ditko's last essay was published posthumously. His last printed words concerned his thoughts about his friends and foes: "Here's to those who wish me well, and those that don't can go to hell."- Writer
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Joe Shuster was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. At age 9 he and his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he met and befriended his future partner Jerome "Jerry" Siegel. Siegel and Shuster were both avid science fiction fans, publishing a fanzine in the mid-1920s. It was during this period that they read Philip Wylie's book, "Gladiator", about a mysterious character with superpowers and invulnerability. They created a strip for their fanzine (Shuster drawing, Siegel writing) featuring a super-powered villain, but later made him into a hero. In 1936, they tried, unsuccessfully, to turn it into a daily comic strip. About the same time, both young men got a job working for DC-National (now DC Comics), working on such titles as Doctor Occult, Slam Bradley, and Radio Squad.
In 1939, DC editor Sheldon Meyer decided to give the two young men a chance, and published their character Superman a new comic title, "Action Comics". Superman was an almost immediate hit, spawning his own eponymous title within a year, then going on to be featured in virtually every type of media.
Shuster and Siegel continued working on Superman for many years, but became increasingly resentful of the profits that DC-National made off their character (because of the practice at the time, the creators had signed away all rights to the character to the publisher). In 1946, Shuster and Siegel sued DC for a share of the rights to Superman (their lawyer was Albert Zugsmith). The case dragged on until 1948, when the two men settled for royalties only on the Superboy character. They were also required to sign away any future claims to the Superman character.
Shuster was bitter about his treatment, and decided to leave the comics field. In 1975, after the Superman movie raised new interest in the character, the two men once again sued DC for recognition and royalties. DC, with much prodding from publisher/editor Carmine Infantino, re-instated Siegel and Shuster's name on the masthead as creators, and awarded the two men an annual stipend of $35,000. Shuster died in 1992, nearly blind and still bitter about the treatment he'd received.- Writer
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Jerry Siegel was born in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1931, he met and befriended his future partner, Joe Shuster, when the latter moved from his birthplace in Canada. Siegel and Shuster were both avid science fiction fans, publishing a fanzine in the mid-1920s. It was during this period that they read Philip Wylie's book, "Gladiator", about a mysterious character with superpowers and invulnerability. They created a strip for their fanzine (Shuster drawing, Siegel writing) featuring a super-powered villian, but later made him into a hero. In 1936, they tried, unsuccessfully, to turn it into a daily comic strip. About the same time, both young men got a job working for DC-National (now DC Comics), working on such titles as Doctor Occult, Slam Bradley, and Radio Squad. Siegel also created and worked on the Spectre In 1939, DC editor Sheldon Meyer decided to give the two young men a chance, and published their character Superman a new comic title, "Action Comics". Superman was an almost imediate hit, spawning his own eponymous title within a year, then going on to be featured in virtually every type of media.
Siegel and Shuster continued working on Superman for many years, but became increasingly resentful of the profits that DC-National made off their character (because of the practice at the time, the creators had signed away all rights to the character to the publisher). In 1946, Shuster and Siegel sued DC for a share of the rights to Superman (their lawyer was Albert Zugsmith). The case dragged on until 1948, when the two men settled for royalties only on the Superboy character. They were also required to sign away any future claims to the Superman character.
Shuster left the comic field, while Seigel left DC to become comics editor at Ziff-Davis Publications during the 1950s. Without his long-time partner, however, Siegel found the creative spark to be missing, and gradually lost work. Finally, Siegel's wife went to DC's publisher and told them, "Do you really want to read the headline "Superman Creator Starves to Death'?", and asked for the comic publisher to give him uncredited work.
Siegel wrote many Superman stories in the 1960s, including many about Superman's home planet Krypton. In 1964, however, DC once again let Siegel go. He moved to Los Angeles, where he became a virtual recluse. In 1975, after the Superman movie raised new interest in the character, the two men once again sued DC for recognition and royalties. DC, with much prodding from publisher/editor Carmine Infantino, re-instated Siegel and Shuster's name on the masthead as creators, and awarded the two men an annual stipend of $35,000. Finally receiving the recognition he deserved, Siegel became recognized as one of the pioneers of the comics industries. In 1999, his heirs' finally won their court case with DC and received 50% ownership and control of Superman.- Writer
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Bob Kane was an American comic book writer and artist of Jewish descent, most famous for co-creating Batman and several members of Batman's supporting cast. Kane was inducted into the comic book industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1994 and into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996.
Kane was born under the name "Robert Kahn" in New York City. His father was the engraver Herman Kahn, and his mother was the housewife Augusta. Both of his parents were originally from Eastern Europe.
Kane attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he was friends with future comic book writer Will Eisner. Following his graduation, he legally changed his name to "Robert Kane" and enrolled at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art to study art. The school was a private college, located at Cooper Square on the border of the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan.
Kane originally wanted to become an animator, and in 1934 he was hired as a trainee animator by the animation studio Fleischer Studios (1921-1942), headed by the brothers Max Fleischer (1883-1972) and Dave Fleischer (1894-1979). He worked for up to two years in the production of animated short films, but had left the studio by 1936.
Kane entered the comics field in 1936, as a freelance penciler and inker. His early work was published in the magazine "Wow, What A Magazine!," which was edited by cartoonist Jerry Iger (1903-1990). Kane's most notable contribution was the comic serial "Hiram Hick", which he both drew and inked.
In 1936, Jerry Iger and .Will Eisner partnered to create their own company, "Eisner & Iger" (1936-1939). It was a comic book packager, producing complete comic stories that could be sold to publishers that did not have their own creative staff. In 1937, Kane was hired by this upstart company.
Kane's early work included the anthropomorphic animal series "Peter Pupp" (published by the magazine "Wags" in the United Kingdom and by Fiction House's "Jumbo Comics" in the United States), the comedy series "Ginger Snap" (published in "More Fun Comics"), the comedy series "Oscar the Gumshoe" (published in "Detective Comics"), the comedy series "Professor Doolittle" (published in "Adventure Comics"), and the adventure series "Rusty and his Pals" (published in "Adventure Comics). Among them, Peter Pupp stood out for its "overtones of mystery and menace".
By 1939, Superman had become a major hit for an early incarnation of DC Comics and there was a new market for comic book superheroes. Interested in creating his own superhero Kane started working on a new character, "Bat-Man". Kane said his influences for the character included actor Douglas Fairbanks' film portrayal of the swashbuckler Zorro; Leonardo da Vinci's diagram of the ornithopter, a flying machine with huge bat-like wings; and the 1930 film "The Bat Whispers", based on Mary Rinehart's mystery novel "The Circular Staircase" (1908).
Kane had already used Bill Finger as a ghost writer for his early comic strips. He asked Finger to provide additional ideas for Batman, and to write the initial Batman stories. Following a number of Finger's suggested redesigns, "Batman" debuted in "Detective Comics" #27 (May, 1939). It became a major hit for an early incarnation of DC Comics.
Early Batman stories were written and penciled by Bob Kane's own art studio (located in The New York Times building) and then sold for publication. Kane received the sole credit for whatever he and his staff created. Finger remained the main writer of the series, while Jerry Robinson (1922-2011) and George Roussos (1915-2000) were hired as Kane's art assistants. The four of them are jointly credited for introducing most of Batman's early supporting characters and memorable villains.
By the early 1940s, DC Comics demanded more Batman stories than the Bob Kane studio could produce. In response, DC hired its own writers and artists to work on additional stories, though Bob Kane continued to receive the sole credit for the stories. The most notable of these "ghost artists" was Dick Sprang (1915-2000) who remained attached to the Batman series for at least a decade, and co-created a popular new villain, the Riddler. Among the ghost writers of Batman, the most notable was Gardner Fox (1911-1986), who introduced some of Batman's notable equipment.
From 1943 to 1946, Bob Kane focused entirely on the Batman newspaper comic strip, and no longer produced new Batman stories for comic books. In his absence, Jerry Robinson became the main penciler for the Batman stories. Additional ghost artists of the period included Jack Burnley (1911-2006) and Win Mortimer (1919-1998). Several Batman-related covers were designed by Fred Ray (1920-2001), who was also the primary Superman cover-artist of the 1940s,
In 1946, the Batman newspaper comic strip ended, and Bob Kane started producing comic book stories for Batman again. He eventually hired his own ghost writers and ghost artists, The most notable among them were Lew Sayre Schwartz (1926-2011), the main artist of the Batman series between 1946 and 1953, and Sheldon Moldoff (1920-1967), the main artist of the series between 1953 and 1967. Schwartz is mainly remembered for co-creating a popular villain, called Deadshot. Moldoff is remembered for co-creating the villains Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze, the second version of the villainous Clayface, Batman's allies Bat-Mite, Bat-Girl/Betty Kane, and Batwoman/Kathy Kane, and Batman's pet dog Ace the Bat-Hound.
In the 1960s, Kane found work in television animation., He created the television series "Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse" (1960-1962), featuring two anthropomorphic animal superheroes. Courageous Cat was a parody of Batman, while sidekick Minute Mouse was a parody of Robin. Kane subsequently created the television series "Cool McCool" (1966-1967), depicting the adventures of an inept secret agent.
In 1966 or 1967, Kane chose to retire from his work in comic books and animation. He was 52-years-old and had been working on the field for three decades. He started producing "fine art" works for exhibitions in galleries. His work as a painter was prolific, though comic book historians have noted that he again hired ghost artists to help him produce the paintings.
In 1989, Kane was hired as a consultant for the live-action "Batman" (1989) film directed by Tim Burton. He served in the same consulting role for its three sequels, released between 1992 and 1997. In 1998, Kane was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he eventually died. He was 83-years-old and had lived in retirement for two decades.
Kane was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. Several of the characters Kane created remain popular, and he continues to receive posthumous credit in works based on his creations.- Writer
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Jim Lee is a Korean American comic-book writer and artist. He started his professional career in 1987, as a new artist for Marvel Comics. By the early 1990s, he had become one of the most popular artists in the field. His work on the X-Men broke sales records, and the costumes he designed for various team members defined their looks for at least a decade. In 1992, Lee became a co-founder of Image Comics. From 1992 to 1998, Lee was the owner and publisher of WildStorm Productions. In 1998, Lee sold WildStorm to DC Comics. WildStorm continued to exist as a DC imprint from 1998 to 2010, with Lee continuing to run the company. From 2010 to 2020, Lee served as a co-publisher of DC Comics, running the company alongside his then-partner Dan DiDio. In 2020, Lee became DC's sole publisher.
In 1964, Lee was born in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. His family soon moved to the United States, and Lee was primarily raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States c. 1976, when he was 12-years-old. He first learned the Korean language in early childhood, and learned English as a secondary language. He was raised in a typical middle-class family.
Lee attended the River Bend Elementary School, located in Chesterfield, Missouri. He received his secondary education at the Saint Louis Country Day School, an all-boys school located in Ladue, Missouri. The school had grades from junior kindergarten to grade 12. Lee's first artistic activity was drawing posters for school plays.
As a school student, Lee reportedly felt as an outsider. He was a middle-class student in an upper-class school with a "preppy" style. His feelings of being an outsider influenced his reading habits. He was interested in comic books about outsider characters. His favorite characters were the X-Men, an entire group of outcasts.
While Lee designed art as a hobby, he was not initially interested in a professional career as an artist. Following his high school graduation, he enrolled at Princeton University to study psychology. He graduated with a psychology degree, but felt reluctant to then attend medical school. He decided to try to become a professional comic book artist, although he lacked professional training at the time.
Lee submitted artwork to various publishers, but nobody was interested in hiring him. A number of professional comics artists advised him to contact editors in person. While attending a comics convention in New York, Lee was introduced to veteran comics writer Archie Goodwin (1937-1998). Goodwin at the time served as an editor for Marvel Comics, and helped Lee to get hired by Marvel.
Lee's first professional assignment was serving as an artist for the series "Alpha Flight", featuring a group of Canadian superheroes. He served as a regular artist for the team book (on-and-off) from issue #53 to issue #64 (December, 1987-November, 1988).. He continued serving as a cover artist for the series until 1990.
His second assignment was becoming an artist for the series "Punisher: War Journal", featuring the lethal vigilante Punisher/Frank Castle. He served as a regular artist from issue #4 to issue #19 (March, 1989-June, 1990). His artwork for the title showcased Lee's inspiration from the works of Frank Miller, Kevin Nowlan, Whilce Portacio, and David Ross. It was also influenced by Lee's affection for Japanese manga.
Lee first got to work in an X-Men title when asked to draw "Uncanny X-Men" #248 (September, 1989). Lee was filling-in for the series' regular artist at the time, Marc Silvestri (1958-). Lee was then asked to draw issues #256-258 (December, 1989-February, 1990), covering a multi-part story that was part of the crossover "Acts of Vengeance". The issues marked the return of the missing character Psylocke/ Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock. In the period since her disappearance, Psylocke had mysteriously lost her original body, acquired a new Asian body, and acquired new ninja skills. Lee got to essentially redesign the character in an entirely new form. He also designed two new costumes for her, including her classic ninja outfit.
Lee was eventually promoted to the position of main artist for "Uncanny X-Men" , at the time one of Marvel's high-profile titles. He served in this position from issue #267 to issue #277 (September, 1990-June, 1991) . He worked with writer Chris Claremont (1950-) and inker Scott Williams. During his run of the title, Lee co-created the Cajun thief Gambit/Remy LeBeau. Created as a new member of the X-Men's supporting cast, Gambit eventually joined the team, and became one of its most popular members.
Lee's art style was enthusiastically received by readers, and he was soon considered one of Marvel's most popular artists. In 1991, Marvel launched a second ongoing X-Men title, simply called "X-Men" vol. 2. Lee served as the title's co-writer and main artist from issue #1 to issue #11 (October, 1991-August, 1992). The fist issue had sales of over 8.1 million copies, becoming the new record holder for best-selling issues.
During his ran on "X-Men" vol. 2, Lee designed new uniforms for the team. This included popular and long-lasting costumes for Cyclops/Scott Summers, Phoenix/Jean Grey, Rogue/Anna Marie, and Storm/Ororo Munroe. These costume designs were later used for "X-Men: The Animated Series" (1992-1997).
Lee created relatively few new characters for the X-Men. Among his creations for the title were Anne Marie Cortez (in issue #1), Fabian Cortez (in issue #1), Chrome/Allen Marc Yuricic (in issue #1), Harry Delgado (in issue #1), Marco Delgado (in issue #1), Nance Winters (in issue #1), Omega Red/Arkady Rossovich (in issue #4), Maverick/Christoph Nord (in issue #5), Janice Hollenbeck (in issue #5), Arthur Barrington (in issue #6), Birdy (in issue #6), Meek (in issue #7), Belladonna/Bella Donna Boudreaux (in issue #8), and Julien Boudreaux (in issue #8).
In the early 1990s, there were tensions within Marvel Comics because of the company's work-for-hire policies. The company heavily merchandised the artwork of their most prominent artists, but compensated these artists with modest royalties. Disgruntled with their relatively meager earnings and their lack of copyright over characters and concepts which they created, a number of these artists eventually broke away from Marvel. Lee was among them. He co-founded Image Comics with his then-partners : Erik Larsen (1962-), Rob Liefeld (1967-), Todd McFarlane (1961-) , Whilce Portacio (1963-), Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino (1952-).
Image Comics devoted itself to publishing creator-owned titles. Each image partner (except Portacio) also established their own company, with each of the 6 companies publishing their titles under the Image banner. These companies were autonomous from any central editorial control, and did not operate as subsidiaries of Image. Lee initially named his company Aegis Entertainment, but quickly renamed it to WildStorm Productions.
WildStorm's initial title was "Wildcats" (sometimes rendered "WildCats" or "WildC.A.T.s"), featuring a team of eponymous superheroes. The characters involved were created by Lee himself and his friend Brandon Choi. The concept of the series involved a centuries-long war between two alien races which secretly lived on Earth, the Kherubim and Daemonites. The Wildcats were mostly composed of Kherubim-human hybrids. The Kherubim were humanoid in appearance, nearly immortal, and rendered nearly sterile over the centuries. Only one in 10,000 Kherubim females was capable of giving birth. Kherubim hybrids were seemingly more fertile than their ancestors. The Daemonites were reptilian in appearance, and they were a parasitic race. They survived by taking over host bodies from various species. They also had various powers, most prominently telepathy.
"Wildcats" was a commercially successful title, and WildStorm was then able to produce more titles. Lee created or co-created such characters as the super-powered soldier and mercenary Deathblow/Michael Cray, the teenage superhero team Gen¹³, and the United Nations-sponsored heroic team Stormwatch. They all starred in their own series.
In 1993, Lee negotiated a deal with Valiant Comics for a crossover series featuring characters from both companies. The result was the then-popular miniseries "Deathmate". As WildStorm expanded, Lee published creator-owned comics by several notable comics professionals.
From 1996 to 1997, Lee was involved with a new Marvel Comics project, called "Heroes Reborn". The concept involved the relaunch of previously defunct Marvel series, featuring classic characters with new origin stories and updated settings. Lee took over the Fantastic Four title as both writer and illustrator, and also served as the new writer for Iron Man/Tony Stark. Meanwhile, Rob Liefeld took over the titles of Captain America and the Avengers.
Lee's two titles proved commercially successful, while Liefeld's titles were controversial. Liefeld left the "Heroes Reborn" project earlier than expected, and Marvel assigned both Captain America and the Avengers to Lee's studio. The project concluded in 1997, though Marvel was initially willing to continue the Heroes Reborn lineup indefinitely. Marvel wanted Lee to personally draw at least one of the ongoing titles, but Lee was unwilling to make a long-term commitment to Marvel.
Following "Heroes Reborn" conclusion, Lee negotiated another deal with Marvel. He was scheduled to serve as a new editor for Marvel, handling relaunched versions of the Defenders, Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange, and Nick Fury. All three titles were scheduled for debuts in December 1997, but this agreement was canceled prematurely.
Returning to WildStorm, Lee published a number of new titles. The most successful among them were "The Authority" and "Planetary". The Authority featured the eponymous superhero team, which operated beyond the constrains of laws and politics. The series was initially handled by the creative team of Warren Ellis (1968-) and Bryan Hitch (1970-). "Planetary" featured alternate versions of characters from many companies and genres, interacting with each other in a shared reality. It was handled by the creative team of Warren Ellis and John Cassaday (1971-).
In this period WildStorm also launched the imprint "America's Best Comics" (ABC) under the control of veteran writer Alan Moore (1953-). The imprint published then-popular series, such as "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", "Promethea", "Tom Strong", "Tomorrow Stories", and "Top 10".
While Lee was prolific as a publisher in the late 1990s, his output as a writer and artist was rather limited. His most notable work in this period was the 12-issue series "Divine Right: The Adventures of Max Faraday" (1997-1999), It featured Lee's new character, novice computer scientist Max Faraday. The concept of the series was that Faraday accidentally downloaded access codes to the Creation Wheel, a millennia-old device that can grant its users with the power of God. He then found himself targeted by people wanting this power for themselves.
In 1998, Lee sold WildStorm to DC Comics. He continued to run the company as an imprint of DC Comics. Meanwhile, he returned to work as an artist. In the early 2000s his most notable work was the 12-issue story arc "Batman: Hush" (October 2002-September 2003). The story arc introduced new super-villain Hush/Thomas Elliot, involved several Batman villains in an elaborate scheme, and explored the romantic relationship of Batman/Bruce Wayne and Catwoman/Selina Kyle. The story arc received critical acclaim.
In 2003, Lee designed the super-villain Sin Tzu, introduced in the beat 'em up video game "Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu", The video game was a spin-off the animated television series "The New Batman Adventures" (1997-1999). It was the last video game based on the DC Animated Universe. Sin Tzu was depicted as an Asian warlord and master strategist. The character was later adapted into the mainstream Batman comics.
Lee's next high-profile comics work was the 12-issue story arc "For Tomorrow" (June 2004-May 2005), featuring Superman. In this story, Superman is puzzled by the mysterious disappearance of 1 million people. Among the victims was his wife Lois Lane, and Superman was struggling with feelings of personal loss and guilt over her fate. The story arc also featured a guest appearance by Wonder Woman/Diana of Themyscira, and the return of the prominent super-villain General Zod. Lee's artwork in this story arc was highly praised, though the script by Brian Azzarello was met with lukewarm reviews.
Lee next worked on the series "All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder", which lasted for 10 issues (September 2005-August 2008). The series was a new origin story for Robin/Dick Grayson, and also covered the early career of Batman/Bruce Wayne. The first issue of the series was the highest-selling comic book of 2005, and the series in general enjoyed high sales. Lee's artwork was among the series' main selling points, though the script by Frank Miller was poorly received. The series was plagued by schedule delays, as Lee was concurrently involved with designing content for the video game with designing content for the video game "DC Universe Online",
In 2006, Lee was involved with a relaunch of the "Wildcats" series. He provided the artwork for the first issue of "Wildcats" volume 4, which turned out to be the only one published. The series' intended writer Grant Morrison (1960-) was preoccupied with other projects, and never scripted more than one issue. The series was canceled after that.
In February 2010, Lee was appointed as the new co-publisher of DC Comics, sharing duties with Dan DiDio (1959-). In September 2010, the WildStorm imprint was shut down. Several of its characters were later reused by mainstream DC Comics publication.
Lee's first landmark publication as a publisher was "The New 52" event of 2011. DC Comics canceled all of its superhero titles, and then launched 52 new series with #1 issues. The event wiped out the continuity of the DC Universe, and introduced a new continuity. Lee was named as one of the main architects of the event, sharing duties with writer Geoff Johns (1973-).
In 2013, Lee redesigned the Mortal Kombat ninja character Scorpion/Hanzo Hasashi. His version of the character was used in the video game "Injustice: Gods Among Us". Also in 2013, Lee became a member of the Advisory Board of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit organization chartered to protect the First Amendment rights of the comics community.
In 2014, the company General Mills commissioned DC Comics to redesign its monster-themed cereals. Lee personally redesigned the character Boo Berry. He commented in an interview that he found "the task of designing a cartoon character" to be more difficult than drawing his typical detailed designs for comics.
Lee was one of the main artists for the miniseries "Batman: Europa", which lasted 4 issues (January-April, 2016). The series featured an adventure of Batman and the Joker entirely set in Europe, and was inspired by Lee's visit of Italy. It is one of the few stories to feature Batman and the Joker as allied to each other, as they team-up against a mysterious new enemy. Their common foe was eventually revealed to be Bane, who wanted to teach them a lesson, about how dependent on each other they were in his view.
Also in 2016, Lee was the main artist for the one-shot publication "Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fool's Special". Lee was the main artist of the ongoing series "Suicide Squad" vol. 5 from issue #1 to issue #8 (October 2016 to February 2017). His version of the team prominently featured the character Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel.
In June 2018, Geoff Johns stepped down from his position as Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of DC Comics. Lee was named as Johns' replacement in the role, while continuing to serve as a co-publisher. In February 2020, Dan DiDio resigned from his position as co-publisher. Lee became the sole publisher for DC Comics.
By 2021, Lee was 56-years-old. He has been active as a professional comics artist for 34 years. He continues to be a popular comics creator, and does not seem to be considering retirement yet.- Art Department
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Neal Adams is an American comic book artist and writer from New York City. He has been active in the field since the early 1960s. His work has been critically acclaimed, and he has been inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999, and the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame. He has been a creators-rights advocate since the 1970s, and once led efforts to unionize the comic book creators.
In 1941, Adams was born on Governors Island, an island located in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. The island was used as a United States Army post from 1783 to 1966, primarily used as a training ground for troops. Residential buildings and modern roads were added to the island in the 1920s.
Adams received his secondary education at the School of Industrial Art, a Career and Technical Education high school located in Manhattan. The school had been established in 1936 by a small group of art teachers. Adams graduated in 1959, and then started seeking work as a freelance comic book artist.
Adams submitted samples of his work to the publisher Archie Comics. He aspired to draw stories for the superhero the Fly/Thomas "Tommy" Troy. A panel of his work was published in "Adventures of the Fly" #4 (January 1960), added to another artist's story. The panel was considered superior to one which had been drawn by a more experienced artist. It was Adams' first published work.
Adams was hired by Archie Comics, and tasked with writing, penciling, inking, and lettering humorous filler stories for "Archie's Joke Book Magazine". He earned about16 dollars for each half-page that he completed , and 32 dollars for each full page. The payment was meager, but Adams became the main breadwinner for his impoverished family,
Through a recommendation, Adams was hired for three months as an assistant to experienced comics artist Howard Nostrand (1929-1984). They worked on the short-lived syndicated comic strip "Bat Masterson" (1959-1960), which was based on a Western television series. Adams primarily worked as a background artist on the strip, earning a weekly salary of 9 dollars.
Having left Archie Comics, Adams worked for a while as a freelance artist for the advertising industry. He found regular work at the agency Johnstone and Cushing (1936-1962), which specialized on comic-book styled illustrations. Adams received additional training by veteran illustrator Elmer Wexler (1918 - 2007), and created a number of works in Wexler's style.
In 1962, Adams was hired as the main artist for the comic strip "Ben Casey" (1962-1966), which was based on a medical drama television series. The plots of the script were typical for soap operas, involving "heroin addiction, illegitimate pregnancy, and attempted suicide". But Adams produced artwork in a realistic style, which aided the strip's success. Adams earned a weekly salary of 300-350 dollars.
In 1966, "Ben Casey" ended, and Adams returned to working as a freelancer. He served briefly as a ghost artist for the comic strip "Peter Scratch" (1965-1967), about the career of a hard-boiled detective. He also served as a ghost artist for the long-running comic strip "The Heart of Juliet Jones"" (1953-2000), with art imitating the work of the strip's regular artist Stan Drake (1921 - 1997). He reportedly turned down an offer to work on the comic strip "The Green Berets", which glorified the battles of the Vietnam War. He suggested that the agency responsible should hire Joe Kubert ( 1926 - 2012), an artist who specialized in drawing war comics.
In 1967, Adams was hired by the comic book publisher Warren Publishing, which specialized on horror stories. He collaborated with experienced writer Archie Goodwin (1937 - 1998)) in creating stories for the anthology series "Creepy" and "Eerie". At that time, he learned that Joe Kubert had left DC Comics. The company sought new artists for its war comics, and Adams applied for the job. An 8-page story in the anthology series "Our Army at War" #182 (July 1967) was his first story for DC. He continued working concurrently for both Warren and DC.
Adams aspired to work on stories for the popular superhero Batman/Bruce Wayne, but DC editor's kept rejecting his applications for the job He was instead tasked to illustrate comedy stories for the series "The Adventures of Jerry Lewis" and "The Adventures of Bob Hope", which depicted fictionalized versions of famous comedians. He was also tasked with drawing Superman-related covers for "Action Comics" #356 and "Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane".
In "Detective Comics" #369 (November, 1967), Adams illustrated a lighthearted story featuring the superhero Elongated Man/Randolph "Ralph" Dibny. It was his first superhero story. He soon became the regular artist for stories featuring the undead superhero Deadman/Boston Brand, serving in this role for "Strange Adventures" #206-216 (November 1967-February, 1969). As of issue #212, he was also the series' writer. This series became a fan favorite, and won a number of awards. It established Adams' reputation as a great artist.
In 1968. Adams became the regular writer and artist for a short-lived series featuring the return of 1940s superhero the Spectre/Jim Corrigan. While the series re-established the Spectre as a viable character, it was not commercially successful. The series only lasted for 10 issues, with Adams illustrating about half of them. The only significant villain depicted in Adams' stories was the Psycho-Pirate/Roger Hayden, a man who could manipulate the emotions of others.
In 1969, was asked to rewrite and redesign a Teen Titans story about protesters being manipulated by alien invaders.. His version of the story appeared in "Teen Titans" vol 1 #20 (April, 1969). The original version of the story was intended to introduce a superhero code-named Jericho, while Adams' version featured a one-shot character called Joshua.
Adams' continued to be a freelancer, and he was hired by Marvel Comics in 1969. Adams served as the regular artist for "X-Men" vol 1 #56-63(May-December, 1969), and #65 (February, 1970). In his first story, Adams redesigned the super-villain Living Pharaoh/Ahmet Abdol into the giant form of the Living Monolith. He next introduced the villain Larry Trask, along with the second generation of the mutant-hunting robots known as the Sentinels. He also co-created and designed the energy vampire Sauron/Karl Lykos, who was named after a Tolkien character. He co-created a new super-villain team, the Savage Land Mutates, as rivals for the X-Men. Adams was the first artist to design classic villain Magneto/Max Eisenhardt without his helmet. In his final issue, Adams co-created a new villainous alien race, the Z'nox.
As Adams later recalled in interviews, he found that Marvel provided a friendlier working environment than DC. He got to socialize with his co-workers, and befriended colleague such as John Romita Sr. (1930-), Marie Severin (1929-2018), and Herb Trimpe (1939 - 2015). He also formed working relationships with writers Roy Thomas (1940-) and Dennis O'Neil (1939 - 2020), and the inker Tom Palmer (1942-).
In 1970, Adams finally got a chance to work on Batman, when asked by editor Julius Schwartz to revamp the character. The fairly lighthearted Batman stories of the 1960s had fallen out of fashion. Adams and Dennis O'Neil created stories re-establishing Batman's "dark, brooding nature" and the film noir-like world which he inhabits. They also made changes to Batman's rogues gallery.
In 1970, Adams co-created the shapeshifting villain Man-Bat/Dr. Robert Kirkland "Kirk" Langstrom as a new adversary for Batman. In May 1971, Adams co-created the femme fatale Talia al Ghul as both a foe and a love interest to Batman. In June 1971, Adams co-created Talia's father, the immortal villain Ra's al Ghul (Arabic for "The Head of the Demon) as a new major threat in Batman's life. In August 1971, Adams revived the classic villain Two-Face/Harvey Dent, who had last been used in 1954. The disfigured villain became one of Batman's main rogues. In September 1973, Adams revamped the Joker into "a homicidal maniac who murders people on a whim and delights in his mayhem". This version of the character more closely resembled the 1940s version of the character than the "goofy prankster" version used since the 1950s.
Back in "The Brave and the Bold #85 (August-Sepembert 1969), Adams had redesigned the classic superhero Green Arrow/Oliver "Ollie" Queen. He gave the character a distinctive goatee beard and a more stylish uniform. In 1970, he further revamped the character into a streetwise protector of the working class and the disadvantaged, with left-wing political beliefs. Starting in "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" #76 (April 1970), the character shared a series with the space cop Green Lantern/Hal Jordan. Jordan was revamped at that time into a conservative man with a strong belief in "law and order". The two heroes formed an odd pairing in their shared stories
Over the following few years, Adams and Dennis O'Neil collaborated in stories where the two heroes faced real-life problems, such as "racism, overpopulation, pollution, and drug addiction". Green Arrow's former sidekick Speedy/Roy Harper was depicted as a drug addict, bringing the problem of addiction close at home. This new direction to the characters was critically acclaimed, but not commercially successful. "Green Lantern/Green Arrow" was canceled with issue #89 (April, 1972), which featured a story based on Jesus' crucifixion. The series was revived in 1976, without any involvement by Adams.
Adams was one of the main artists working in the space opera story "Kree-Skrull War", published in "Avengers" vol. 1 #89-97 (June 1971 - March 1972). The story depicted a war between two rival space empires, that had been introduced in the previous decade. It also featured the alien superhero Captain Marvel/Mar-Vell becoming an honorary member of the Avengers. It finally introduced a romantic relationship between two veteran Avengers, the magic user Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff and the sentient android Vision. The story is considered a highlight in Marvel's history, and introduced many long-running subplots.
In 1973, Adams co-created a new science fiction character for Marvel, Killraven/Jonathan Raven. The character inhabited a post-apocalyptic a future, where humanity has been enslaved by Martians. Killraven was depicted as a member of a group of freedom fighters who wandered in the ruins of the Eastern United States. The initial Killraven series ended in 1976, though the characters has been revived several times.
For the rest of the 1970s, Adams worked on few stories for DC Comics. He worked however frequently as a cover artist, and worked on redesigns of Superman's supporting cast. He was an uncredited co-artist in the crossover story "Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man" (March 1976). In the story the two heroes team-up to foil the combined threats of Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus/Dr. Otto Octavius. The story is considered the first modern superhero inter-company crossover.
In 1978, Adams and Dennis O'Neil collaborated on the one-shot comic "Superman vs. Muhammad Ali", where the hero has to face Ali in a boxing match. The story established that Superman typically relies on his superior strength to win fights, and lacked in actual training and fighting skills. The 72-page book was a landmark issue, and a personal favorite of Adams. It was also his last professional comic book story for several decades.
Back in 1971, Adams had founded his own company, the illustration studio Continuity Associates. There comic book artists provided artwork for other companies. In the late 1970s, Adams focused most of his efforts on running the lucrative company. The company's employees have at various times included famous names such as Larry Hama, Walt Simonson, and Jim Starlin.
In the 1970s, Adams led efforts to unionize comic book creators. In 1978, he co-founded the Comics Creators Guild. The organization had about 40 members. In 1975, his lobbying efforts convinced DC Comics to pay a yearly stipend and medical benefits to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster,, Superman's original creators. The two men did not own their own creation, and had struggled financially for years. In 1987, Adams' lobbying efforts convinced Marvel Comics to return original artworks from its archives to the artists responsible. These artists could earn additional income from selling the artwork to collectors.
In 1984, Adams founded the subsidiary company Continuity Comics (1984-1994), to publish work by himself and others. Its most popular character was the witch Ms. Mystic, a character which Adams had created in 1982. She had her own series for 9 issues. Adams was involved in a legal controversy when fellow artist Michael Netzer (1955-) claimed that he was an uncredited co-creator of Ms. Mystic, and demanded ownership rights. Adams won the court case, but Continuity Comics collapsed due to financial problems. Adams and Netzer have maintained an adversarial relationship ever since.
In 2005, Adams made his comeback in comics, when hired by Marvel to draw an 8-pages long story featuring the X-Men. In 2010, he both wrote and designed the mini-series "Batman: Odyssey". From 2011 to 2012, he worked on the sequel series "Batman: Odyssey" vol. 2. In 2012, he worked on the X-Men again, co-writing and designing the mini-series "First X-Men". This series established that Wolverine/James Howlett and Sabretooth/Victor Creed led a mutant team of heroes before the X-Men were founded. It also provided additional background information on several characters associated with the X-Men, such as Professor X/Charles Xavier and Bolivar Trask.
Adams produced a number of Batman short stories for DC Comics in 2013 and 2014. In 2016, he created new versions of some of his most famous covers for DC Comics. Also in 2016, he wrote and designed the miniseries "Superman: Coming of the Supermen". In 2017, Adams wrote and designed a mini-series featuring Deadman. So far, this has been his last major work for comic books.
In 2008, Adams participated in efforts to convince the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to end its ownership of artwork created by the artist Dina Babbitt (1923-2009). Babbitt had created the artwork while serving as an inmate of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and ownership over it was held by the camp's authorities. She later wished to reclaim ownership over her work, but the museum rejected her petitions. Adams believes that the artwork properly belongs to Babbitt's descendants, and not to the museum. He has illustrated a graphic documentary about Babbitt's story, and continues to support the case of the Babbitt family.
As of 2021, Adams is 80 years old. He is no longer particularly active as an artist, but he is fondly remembered for creating or co-creating several popular characters. Some of his creations have stood the test of time, and his contributions to long-running characters such as Batman and the X-Men are well-regarded.- Writer
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An American artist and writer in the field of comic books, George Perez is most well known for his work with Marv Wolfman on the New Teen Titans and the reinvention of Wonder Woman in the 1980s. A career that spans some 40 years, Perez is one of the most recognizable and prolific artists in the history of the medium.- Writer
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Kevin Eastman is an American comics artist and writer from Portland, Maine. His main claim to fame is co-creating the hit series "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" with his then-partner Peter Laird. He has also served as the editor and publisher of the science fiction and fantasy comics magazine "Heavy Metal".
In 1962, Eastman was born in Portland, Maine. He received his secondary education from Westbrook High School, located in Westbrook, Maine. During his early life, Eastman was a comic book fan. His favorite comic book creator was Jack Kirby (1917-1994). His favorite comic book was Kirby's "Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth" (1972-1978), set in a a post-apocalyptic world dominated by sentient animals.
In the early 1980s, Eastman was an aspiring comics artist, but his work was mostly unpublished. He financially supported himself by working in restaurants. In 1983, Eastman started a romantic relationship with a female college student. His lover attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, located in Amherst, Massachusetts . Eastman decided to move to Northampton, Massachusetts, to further pursue this relationship.
While living in Massachusetts, Eastman tried to have his work published by local underground newspapers. Through his search for a publisher, Eastman met newspaper illustrator Peter Laird. At the time, Laird lived in Dover, New Hampshire, not far from Eastman's residence. The two men decided to collaborate on a number of comic book projects.
In 1984, Eastman and Laird had a brainstorming session in an effort to find ideas for their own comic book series. They decided to parody elements from four popular comics series of the early 1980s: Marvel Comics' "Daredevil" (about a super-powered mutate with ninja training) and "New Mutants" (about a team of teenage mutants), Dave Sim's "Cerebus the Aardvark" (about an anthropomorphic aardvark who has sword- and-sorcery style adventures), and Frank Miller's Ronin (about a long-dead Japanese ronin who is reincarnated in a dystopian version of New York City). They combined elements from all four series into the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (TMNT for short).
Eastman and Laird decided to self-publish the first issue of TMNT, founding the publishing company Mirage Studios to do so. The company was funded through a loan from Eastman's uncle Quentin. They chose the name "mirage", because their company was more an illusion than a reality. The company mostly consisted of its creative duo, and lacked actual offices.
The first issue of TMNT was published in May, 1984. It was a black-and-white publication, only 40 pages long, The duo had the idea to advertise their product by sending a four-page press kit to 180 television and radio stations, to the Associated Press and to the United Press International. The result was that the comic book received much publicity, unusually so for a product by a fledgling publisher.
The initial print run for the first issue was 3,275 copies, and they were quickly sold out. Due to high demand from market, three additional printings were published the Summer of 1984 and September, 1985. Eastman and Laird had a sales success in their hands. There were advance orders of 15,000 copies for the second issue. Eastman and Laird earned a profit of 2,000 dollars each. They decided to quit their day jobs and to become full-time comic book creators.
Due to their newfound fame, Eastman and Laird were invited to the annual Atlanta Fantasy Fair in 1984. There they were introduced to several experienced professionals of both comic books and literature , such as Forrest James Ackerman (1916-2018), Fred Hembeck (1953-), and Larry Niven (1938-).
In 1985, Mirage Studios had a deal with Solson Publications, which was allowed to publish a number of TMNT tie-in books. This deal was followed by licensing deals with various other companies, leading to the creation of the first TMNT merchandise. Dark Horse Miniatures created lead figurines based on the comics, and marketed them to role-playing gamers and collectors. Palladium Books created a role-playing game based on the Turtles. First Comics was granted the right to publish color reprints of TMNT in trade paperback collections.
Up until 1987, Eastman and Laird personally handled Mirage Studios' merchandise deals. Then they acquired the services of professional licensing agent Mark Freedman. Through deals handled by Freedman, the Turtles started appearing on T-shirts, Halloween masks, and mugs.
In 1987, Mirage Studios closed a deal for the adaptation of TMNT into a five-part animated mini-series. The animation team responsible for these episodes was headed by Japanese animation director Yoshikatsu Kasai, with the animation mostly produced by the animation studio Toei Animation. Scripts were primarily handled by the experienced television writer David Wise (1955-2020), who had previously served as a writer for several science fiction and science fantasy television series.
Due to the success of the initial animated mini-series, a full-length animated series went into production. The animated series lasted from December 1987 to November 1996, a total of 10 seasons and 193 episodes. The series was generally a light-hearted version of the Turtles, in contrast to the "grim and gritty" comic book it was based on. It was one of the most popular animated series produced during the 1980s and 1990s, and introduced the TMNT to a wider audience.
In 1988, Mirage Studios closed a deal with Playmates Toys. The toy company was granted the right to produce the first TMNT action figures, based on both the original comic book and the ongoing animated series.
In 1988, Eastman helped draft the Creator's Bill of Rights. Through this document, independent comic book artists, writers, and publishers demanded creative rights over their work, and protested against exploitative "work for hire" practices in the comic book industry. While it was considered a landmark in the campaign for creative rights, it had little to no impact on the industry.
In 1990, TMNT received its first live-action film adaptation. The film earned 202 million dollars at the worldwide box office, becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film worldwide of 1990. Several sequels followed, establishing the Turtles as a popular film franchise.
By 1990, Eastman had grown tired on working exclusively on TMNT and wanted to expand to other projects. Laird was not interested in either helping him or in financing these projects. Eastman decided to form his own company to handle these projects, forming the publishing company Tundra Publishing. Tundra financed the "dream projects" of several veteran comics creators, who felt disgruntled by the policies of DC Comics and Marvel Comics (at the time the two dominant companies of the American comic book industry).
From 1990 to 1993, Tundra published many series and one-shots aimed at adult readers. Among them was the Jack the Ripper-themed "From Hell", the erotic-themed "Lost Girls" (featuring older versions of Alice, Dorothy Gale, and Wendy Darling), and the revenge-themed "The Crow". Eastman believed there existed a potentially large market of adult readers, who had grown tired of youth-oriented comics such as the "X-Men".
While often critically acclaimed and award-winning, Tundra's comics projects suffered from limited distribution, and poor sales. The company was never profitable. By 1993, Tundra was facing bankruptcy. It sold the rights to its comics titles to Kitchen Sink Press, and shut down. Tundra's failure cost Eastman to lose part of his own fortune, as he was its sole owner. His personal losses are estimated to 9-14 million dollars.
Eastman had long been a fan of the science fiction and fantasy comics magazine "Heavy Metal", the American-licensed version of French magazine "Métal Hurlant". It was aimed at older comics readers, and reprinted European comics that were otherwise unavailable in the United States. In January 1992 he became the new owner of the magazine. He also became its new editor, and tried to tried to renew interest in the publication. He served as its main owner until 2014.
Since the 1980s, Eastman had collected original artwork by leading comics professionals. In 1992, he established the art museum Words & Pictures Museum in Northampton, Massachusetts, and donated his art collection to it. The museum was devoted to the history of narrative art, cartoons, comic books, and graphic novels. Its ever-expanding collection included up to 20,000 original works from hundreds of artists. The museum shut down in 1999, due to financial problems. The fate of its collection is unclear.
In 1995, Eastman married actress Julie Strain (1962-2021). As Eastman helped develop several adaptations of "Heavy Metal" to films and video games, Strain was often cast as an actress in them. She was the protagonist of the animated film "Heavy Metal 2000" (2000), which was based on Eastman's graphic novel "The Melting Pot".
In 2000, Eastman sold part of his ownership rights on Mirage Studios and the TMNT, in part because he wanted to finance other projects. In 2006, he and Julie Strain received a divorce. Eastman gained custody over their only son. In 2008, he sold the rest of his ownership rights on Mirage Studios and the TMNT. He maintains some involvement in the TMNT franchise as an on-and-off writer and artist, and has served as an adviser for some of its adaptations.
In 2014, Eastman sold his ownership rights on "Heavy Metal" to music industry veteran David Boxenbaum and film producer Jeff Krelitz . By the terms of the agreement, he maintained his position as the magazine's publisher, and also serves as a minority investor.
By 2021, Eastman was 58-years-old. His work output has diminished in recent years, but he has never fully retired.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Art Department
Peter Laird is an American comics artist and writer from North Adams, Massachusetts. His main claim to fame is co-creating the hit series "Teenage Mutants Ninja Turtles" with his then-partner Kevin Eastman.
Next to nothing is known about Laird's family background and his early life. Unlike Kevin Eastman, he has rarely spoken about his background in interviews. He was born in 1954, and he was in his early 30s by the time he became a professional comics creator. In the early 1980s, Laird worked as an illustrator for a newspaper located in Dover, New Hampshire. His rates at the time were 10 dollars for each new illustration. To supplement his meager income, Eastman also created illustrations for fanzines.
In 1983 or 1984, Laird met aspiring comics artist Kevin Eastman who was searching for a publisher for his work. Laird was also interested in becoming a comics artist, and the two men decided to collaborate on creating their next works.
In 1984, Eastman and Laird had a brainstorming session in an effort to find ideas for their own comic book series. They decided to parody elements from four popular comics series of the early 1980s: Marvel Comics' "Daredevil" (about a super-powered mutate with ninja training) and "New Mutants" (about a team of teenage mutants), Dave Sim's "Cerebus the Aardvark" (about an anthropomorphic aardvark who has sword- and-sorcery style adventures), and Frank Miller's Ronin (about a long-dead Japanese ronin who is reincarnated in a dystopian version of New York City). They combined elements from all four series into the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (TMNT for short).
Eastman and Laird decided to self-publish the first issue of TMNT, founding the publishing company Mirage Studios to do so. The company was funded through a loan from Eastman's uncle Quentin. They chose the name "mirage", because their company was more an illusion than a reality. The company mostly consisted of its creative duo, and lacked actual offices.
The first issue of TMNT was published in May, 1984. It was a black-and-white publication, only 40 pages long, The duo had the idea to advertise their product by sending a four-page press kit to 180 television and radio stations, to the Associated Press and to the United Press International. The result was that the comic book received much publicity, unusually so for a product by a fledgling publisher.
The initial print run for the first issue was 3,275 copies, and they were quickly sold out. Due to high demand from market, three additional printings were published the Summer of 1984 and September, 1985. Eastman and Laird had a sales success in their hands. There were advance orders of 15,000 copies for the second issue. Eastman and Laird earned a profit of 2,000 dollars each. They decided to quit their day jobs and to become full-time comic book creators.
Eastman and Laird made deals with other companies, granting them the right to create TMNT tie-ins and merchandise. Within a few years, there was a high demand for more TMNT stories and material. Laird has stated in interviews that he did not expect either the TMNT's rapid success, nor the pressures involved in trying to run both a company and a media franchise. For a while, Laird struggled with artist's block. He also realized that he no longer enjoyed drawing.
One solution for Laird's problems at the time was to hire more creative staff to help with the workload. Among the early additions to Mirage's staff were letterer Steve Lavigne, inker Ryan Brown, penciler Jim Lawson, and cover artist Michael Dooney. The company gained its first real offices in Florence, Massachusetts, in order to properly house the new staff. The Mirage creative team produced most of their work in-house, instead of relying on freelancers.
Further additions to Mirage's staff in the late 1980s included writer and artist Eric Talbot, writer Stephen Murphy, and inker Dan Berger. Murphy would eventually be promoted to managing editor of Mirage, shouldering much of the workload.
By 1990, Eastman had grown tired of working exclusively on TMNT and wanted to expand to new projects. Laird refused to either help him or to finance these projects. Eastman founded his own company, Tundra Publishing, while Laird remained at the head of Mirage. From this point on, Laird was de facto Mirage's only publisher, while Eastman progressively distanced himself from the company.
In 1992, Laird founded the nonprofit corporation Xeric Foundation, headquartered in Northampton, Massachusetts. The corporation's main goal is to grant funds to comic book creators who want to self-publish new projects. Laird felt that he owed his success as a self-publishing writer and artist to the loan he had received from Quentin Eastman. He felt that other aspiring creators could have a chance at success, if they have sufficient funds. Over the following decades the corporation has helped fund projects by many writers and artists.
In 2000, Laird partially bought out Eastman's ownership rights on Mirage and the TMNT franchise. According to the terms of the deal, Eastman was left with a small continuing income participation. In 2008, Laird purchased the remaining rights from Eastman, and briefly became the sole owner of the TMNT franchise.
In 2009, Laird sold the rights to the TMNT franchise to media corporation Viacom. Mirage became a subsidiary of Viacom. The rights were mainly handled by Viacom's subsidiary Nickelodeon, which was interested in financing new adaptations of the franchise. By the terms of the deal, Laird maintained the rights to annually create and publish up to eighteen black-and-white comics based on the TMNT franchise.
By 2021, Laird was 67-years-old. He infrequently writes or draws new comics projects, and is otherwise semi-retired.