« The Dean » Gene Colan | Adam Austin, born on September 1, 1926 in The Bronx, New York. He attended George Washington High School in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, and went on to study at the Art Students League of New York. His major art influences are Syd Shores, Coulton Waugh and Milton Caniff. He began working in comics in 1944, doing illustrations for publisher Fiction House's aviation-adventure series Wings Comics. « Just a summertime job before I went into the service. », it gave Gene Colan his first published work, the 1-page « Wing Tips » non-fiction filler « P-51 B Mustang » in #42. His first comics story was a 7-page « Clipper Kirk » feature in the following month's issue.
After attempting to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II but being pulled out by his father « because I was underage », Gene Colan enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. Originally scheduled for gunnery school in Boulder, Colorado, plans changed with the war's sudden end. After training at an Army camp near Biloxi, Mississippi, he joined the occupation forces in the Philippines. There, he rose to the rank of corporal, drew for the Manila Times, and won an art contest. Upon his return to civilian life in 1946, Gene Colan went to work for Marvel Comics' 1940s precursor, Timely Comics. He recalled in 2000 : « I was living with my parents. I worked very hard on a war story, about 7 or 8 pages long, and I did all the lettering myself, I inked it myself, I even had a wash effect over it. I did everything I could do, and I brought it over to Timely Comics. What you had to do in those days was go to the candy store, pick up a comic book, and look in the back to see where it was published. Most of them were published in Manhattan, they would tell you the address, and you'd simply go down and make an appointment to go down and see the art director ». Al Sulman, listed in Timely Comics mastheads then as an « editorial associate », « gave me my break. I went up there, and he came out and met me in the waiting room, looked at my work, and said, « Sit here for a minute ». And he brought the work in, and disappeared for about 10 minutes or so ... then came back out and said, « Come with me ». That's how I met editor-in-chief Stan Lee. Just like that, and I had a job. ». Hired as a « staff penciler », Gene Colan started out at about $60.00 a week. Syd Shores was the art director. Due to Gene Colan's work going uncredited, in the manner of the times, comprehensive credits for this era are difficult if not impossible to ascertain.
After virtually all the Timely Comics staff was let go in 1948 during an industry downturn, Gene Colan began freelancing for National Comics, the future DC Comics. A stickler for accuracy, he meticulously researched his countless war stories for DC Comics' All-American Men at War, Captain Storm, and Our Army at War, as well as for Marvel Comics' 1950s forerunner Atlas Comics, on the series Battle, Battle Action, Battleground, Battlefront, G.I. Tales, Marines in Battle, Navy Combat and Navy Tales. His earliest confirmed credit during this time is penciling and inking the 6-page crime fiction story « Dream of Doom », by an uncredited writer, in Atlas Comics' Lawbreakers Always Lose #6. He would rent 16 mm movies of Hopalong Cassidy Westerns in order to trace likenesses for the DC Comics licensed series, which he drew from 1954 to 1957.
While freelancing for DC Comics romance comics in the 1960s, Gene Colan did his first super-hero work for Marvel under the pseudonym Adam Austin. Taking to the form immediately, he introduced the Sub-Mariner feature in Tales to Astonish, and succeeded Don Heck on Iron Man in Tales of Suspense. Shortly afterward, under his own name, he became one of the premier Silver Age Marvel artists, illustrating a host of such major characters as Captain America, Dr. Strange (both in the late-1960s and the mid 1970s series), and his signature character, Daredevil. Gene Colan's long run on the series Daredevil encompassed all but three issues in an otherwise unbroken, 81-issue string from #20-100, plus Daredevil Annual 1. He returned to draw ten issues sprinkled from 1974-1979, and an 8-issue run in 1997. Gene Colan also garnered praise in the 1970s for illustrating the complete, 70-issue run of the acclaimed horror title Tomb of Dracula, as well as most issues of writer Steve Gerber's cult-hit, Howard the Duck.
Back at DC Comics in the 1980s, following a professional falling out with Marvel Comics' then editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter, he brought his shadowy, moody textures to Batman, serving as the Dark Knight's primary artist from 1982-1986, penciling Detective Comics #528-538, 540-546, 555-567, and Batman #340, 343-345, 348-351 and others. He was also the artist of Wonder Woman #288-305. Helping to create new characters as well, Gene Colan collaborated in the 1980s with Tomb of Dracula writer Marv Wolfman on the 14-issue run of Night Force ; with Cary Bates on the 12-issue run of Silverblade ; and with Greg Potter on the 12-issue run of Jemm, Son of Saturn. As well, he drew the first six issues of Doug Moench's 1987 revival of The Spectre. His style, characterized by fluid figure drawing and extensive use of shadow, was unusual among Silver Age comic artists, and became more pronounced so as his career progressed. He usually worked as a penciler, with Klaus Janson and Tom Palmer as his most frequent inkers. He broke from the mass-market comic book penciler / inker / colorist assembly-line system by creating finished drawings in graphite and watercolor on such projects as the DC Comics mini-series Nathaniel Dusk and Nathaniel Dusk II, and the feature « Ragamuffins » in the Eclipse Comics umbrella series Eclipse #3, 5, 8. All these were written by frequent collaborator Don McGregor.
Independent-comics work includes the Eclipse graphic novel Detectives Inc.: A Terror of Dying Dreams, written by Don McGregor and reprinted in sepia tone as an Eclipse mini-series, and the mini-series Predator: Hell & Hot Water for Dark Horse Comics. He contributed to Archie Comics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, drawing and occasionally writing a number of stories. His work there included penciling the lighthearted science-fiction series Jughead's Time Police #1-6, and the 1990 one-shot To Riverdale and Back Again, an adaptation of the N.B.C. TV movie about the Archie characters 20 years later ; Stan Goldberg and Mike Esposito drew the parts featuring the characters in flashback as teens, while Gene Colan drew adult characters, in a less cartoony style.
Back at Marvel Comics, he collaborated again with Marv Wolfman on a Tomb of Dracula prestige series and with Don McGregor on a Black Panther serial in the Marvel Comics Presents anthology. In the 2000s, Gene Colan returned to vampires by drawing a pair of stories for Dark Horse Comics' Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. He penciled the final pages of Blade #12, the final issue of that series, drawing a flashback scene in which the character dresses in his original outfit from the 1970s series Tomb of Dracula. That same month, for the anniversary issue Daredevil #100, he penciled pages 18-20 of the 36-page story « Without Fear » ; the issue additionally reprinted the Gene Colan-drawn Daredevil #90-91. On May 11, 2008, his family announced that Gene Colan, who had been hospitalized for liver failure, had suffered a sharp deterioration in his health.

Official site : http://www.genecolan.com/home.html
Art gallery : http://www.comicartcommunity.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=29
Classic covers : http://www.samcci.comics.org/_artists/colan.htm

Selected works :

• Captain America #116-137, 256, 601
• Marvel Super-Heroes #12-13, 15, 18 ; Captain Marvel #1-4
• Daredevil #-1, 20-49, 53-82, 84-98, 100, 110, 112, 116, 124, 153-154, 156-157, 363, 366-368, 370
• Doctor Strange #172-178, 180-183
• Doctor Strange #6-18, 36-45, 47
• Howard the Duck #4-15, 17-20, 24-27, 30-31
• Howard the Duck Magazine #1-5, 7-9
• Iron Man and Sub-Mariner
• Night Force #1-12
• Silverblade #1-12
• Strange Tales #7-8, 11, 18, 20, 26, 37, 53, 58-59, 97, 102, 169-173
• Sub-Mariner #10-11, 40, 43, 46-49
• Tales of Suspense #9, 39, 73-99
• Tales to Astonish #28, 70-82, 84-85, 101
• Tomb of Dracula #1-70
• Tomb of Dracula Magazine #1, 3-6
• Wonder Woman #288-305

Alan Davis, born on June 18, 1956. He began his career in comics onto an English fanzine. His first professional work was a strip called The Crusader in Frantic Magazine for Dez Skinn's revamped Marvel U.K. line. His big break was drawing the revamped Captain Britain story in The Mighty World of Marvel. Curiously, as he never realised artists drew at a larger size than what was published, his art was drawn as the same size as it would be on publication. Alan Davis's work proved highly popular but scored greater success when Alan Moore took over writing duties on Captain Britain. They found their feet as creators and formed a close working partnership, also creating D.R. and Quinch for 2000 AD. Later, Alan Davis replaced Garry Leach on Marvelman in Warrior and yet again worked with Alan Moore. He also drew the story, Harry Twenty on the High Rock in 2000 AD. He later fell out with Alan Moore over creative differences on Marvelman. The two also disagreed over whether their Captain Britain work should be reprinted by Marvel Comics in the U.S. He drew 14 issues of the monthly Captain Britain title which was later reprinted in trade paperback.
In 1985, Alan Davis was hired by DC Comics to draw their Batman and the Outsiders title, written by Mike W. Barr. His work proved popular enough for him to be assigned artistic duties on Detective Comics, main Batman's series, in 1986, again with Mike W. Barr writing. During the Batman: Year Two storyline, however, he encountered difficulties with his editor and left (his replacement was Todd McFarlane) midway during the storyline.
In 1987, he therefore jumped to Marvel Comics. Here he formed a new efficacious creative team with writer Chris Claremont and, after two New Mutants annuals and three popular episodes for Uncanny X-Men, the duo launched Excalibur, one of the most popular U.S. comics of 1980s. The team featured Captain Britain and Meggan together with former X-Men members Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers. The stories, set in England, pivoted mainly on cross-dimensional capers (including several Lewis Carroll-ish stories featuring the Crazy Gang and the bizarre team called the Technet) based on Alan Moore's Captain Britain stories of early 1980s. Alan Davis' artwork showed at its best on this series, thanks to effective inks provided by Paul Neary and, later, Mark Farmer. He left with #24, but returned with issue #42, this time also as writer, showing a passion for creating new, pleasant characters of his own, which included Feron, Cerise, Micromax and Kylun. He confirmed this in creating a complete new series of characters maintaining some of the English-mythology related Excalibur themes, the unlucky Clandestine team. Created for Marvel U.K. and written and drawn by himself, it ended with #12 but was briefly revamped for a cross-over with X-Men.
During much of the 1990s, Alan Davis drew many of Marvel Comics and DC Comics major characters and titles including JLA: The Nail, The Avengers and Killraven. He was also commissioned to write both main X-Men series in 1999 (providing art for X-Men as well), but he left the following year. Starting in 2002, he wrote and drew for Marvel Comics a 6-issues mini-series revamping a famous comics character of 1970s, Killraven. After a return to Uncanny X-Men, working again with Chris Claremont, Alan Davis wrote and drew a 6-issue Fantastic Four: The End limited series for Marvel Comics. In 2008, he will write and draw a new Clandestine regular series for Marvel Comics.

Official site : http://www.alandavis-comicart.com
Art gallery : http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Coffeehouse/9973
Interview : http://www.comicvine.com/alan-davis/26-2348

Selected works :

• The Avengers #38-43 ; Thor #58 ; Iron Man #34 ; The Avengers #63
• Batman and the Outsiders #22-36
• Detective Comics #569-575
• The Clandestine #1-8
• Excalibur Special Edition ; Excalibur #1-7, 9, 12-17, 23-24, 42-52, 54-56, 58, 61-67
• Fantastic Four #1-3
• Fantastic Four: The End #1-6
• Killraven #1-6
• New Mutants Annual 2-3
• Justice League of America: The Nail #1-3
• Justice League of America: Another Nail #1-3
• Spider-Man: The Official Movie Adaptation
• Superboy's Legion #1-2
• Thor: The Truth of History
• Uncanny X-Men #213, 215, 444-447, 450-451, 455-459, 462-463, Annual 11
• Wolverine: Bloodlust
• X-Men #85-90, 93-94, 96-98
• X-Men / Clandestine #1-2
• Young Avengers Presents #6

Steve Ditko, born Novembre 2, 1927 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Good with his hands, Steve Ditko in junior high school crafted wooden models of German airplanes to aid civilian World War II aircraft-spotters. He was influenced by the work of newspaper cartoonists, particularly Will Eisner, writer-artist of The Spirit, and read Batman comic books. He graduated from Johnstown High School in 1945, afterward doing military service in post-war Germany, where he produced hand-made comics as letters to his family. After his discharge, Steve Ditko studied at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (later the School of Visual Arts) in New York City, under Batman inker Jerry Robinson and others, and began professionally illustrating comic books in 1953. He broke in almost simultaneously at the Crestwood Publications' imprint Prize Comics (penciling and inking « A Hole in the Head » in Black Magic vol. 4 #3 (in December 1953) and at Harvey Comics (assisting inker Mort Meskin on the Jack Kirby pencil work of Captain 3-D #1). Much of his early work, starting with the cover of Space Adventures #10 and the 5-page story « Homecoming » in that issue, was for Charlton Comics, for which he continued to work intermittently until the company's demise in 1986, producing science-fiction, horror and mystery stories, as well as co-creating Captain Atom, with writer Joe Gill, in 1960.
Steve Ditko also drew for Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursor of Marvel Comics, beginning with the 4-page « There'll be some Changes made » in Journey into Mystery #33 (in April 1956) ; this debut tale would be reprinted in Marvel Comics' Curse of the Weird #4. He would go on to contribute a large number of stories, many considered classic, to Atlas Comics / Marvel Comics' Strange Tales and the newly launched Amazing Adventures, Strange Worlds, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish, issues of which would typically open with a Jack Kirby-drawn monster story, followed by one or two twist-ending thrillers or science-fiction tales drawn by Don Heck, Paul Reinman or Joe Sinnott, all capped by an often-surreal, sometimes self-reflexive short by Steve Ditko and writer-editor Stan Lee. These bagatelles proved so popular that Amazing Adventures was reformatted to feature such stories exclusively beginning with issue #7, when the comic was rechristened Amazing Adult Fantasy - a name intended to reflect its more « sophisticated » nature, as likewise the new tagline « The magazine that respects your intelligence ! ».
After Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee obtained permission from publisher Martin Goodman to create a new « ordinary teen » super-hero named Spider-Man, Stan Lee originally approached his leading artist, Jack Kirby. Jack Kirby told Stan Lee about his own 1950s character conception, variously called the Silver Spider and Spider-Man, in which an orphaned boy finds a magic ring that gives him superpowers. Comics historian Greg Theakston says Stan Lee and Jack Kirby « immediately sat down for a story conference » and Stan Lee afterward directed Jack Kirby to flesh out the character and draw some pages. A day or two later, Jack Kirby showed Stan Lee the first 6 pages and, as Stan Lee recalled : « I hated the way he was doing it. Not that he did it badly - it just wasn't the character I wanted ; it was too heroic. ». Stan Lee turned to Steve Ditko, who developed a visual motif Stan Lee found satisfactory, although Stan Lee would later replace Steve Ditko's original cover with one penciled by Jack Kirby. Steve Ditko said : « The Spider-Man pages Stan Lee showed me were nothing like the (eventually) published character. In fact, the only drawings of Spider-Man were on the splash (i.e. page one) and at the end where Jack Kirby had the guy leaping at you with a web gun (...) Anyway, the first 5 pages took place in the home, and the kid finds a ring and turns into Spider-Man. ». Steve Ditko also recalled that : « One of the first things I did was to work up a costume. A vital, visual part of the character. I had to know how he looked (...) before I did any breakdowns. For example : a clinging power so he wouldn't have hard shoes or boots, a hidden wrist-shooter versus a web gun and holster, etc (...) I wasn't sure Stan Lee would like the idea of covering the character's face but I did it because it hid an obviously boyish face. It would also add mystery to the character (...) ». Much earlier, in a rare contemporaneous account, Steve Ditko described his and Stan Lee's contributions in a mail interview with Gary Martin published in Comic Fan #2 : « Stan Lee thought the name up. I did costume, web gimmick on wrist and spider signal ».
After drawing the final issue of The Incredible Hulk #6 (in March 1963), Steve Ditko co-created with Stan Lee the supernatural hero Doctor Strange, in Strange Tales #110 (in July 1963). Steve Ditko and Stan Lee shortly thereafter relaunched a Hulk series as a short feature in the anthology Tales to Astonish, beginning with #60. Steve Ditko, inked by George Roussos, penciled the feature through #67. He designed the Hulk's primary antagonist, the Leader, in #62. Steve Ditko also penciled the Iron Man feature in Tales of Suspense #47-49 with various inkers. The first of these debuted the initial version of Iron Man's modern red-and-golden armor, though whether Steve Ditko or cover-penciler and principal character designer Jack Kirby designed the costume is uncertain. Though often overshadowed by his Amazing Spider-Man work, Steve Ditko's « Doctor Strange stories » have been equally acclaimed, showcasing surrealistic mystical landscapes and increasingly head-trippy visuals that helped make the feature a favorite of college students, according to contemporaneous accounts. Eventually, as co-plotter and later sole plotter, in the « Marvel Method », he would take Doctor Strange into ever-more-abstract realms, which yet remained well-grounded thanks to Stan Lee's reliably humanistic, adventure / soap opera dialog. His tenure on Doctor Strange culminated in the introduction, in Strange Tales #146, of Steve Ditko's grand and enduring conception of Eternity, the personification of the universe, depicted as a majestic silhouette whose outlines are filled with the cosmos.
Whichever feature he drew, Steve Ditko's idiosyncratic, cleanly detailed, instantly recognizable art style, emphasizing mood and anxiety, found great favor with readers. The character of Spider-Man and his troubled personal life meshed well with his own interests, which Stan Lee eventually acknowledged by giving the artist plotting credits on the latter part of their 38-issue run. But after 4 years on the title, Steve Ditko left Marvel Comics ; he and Stan Lee had not been on speaking terms for some time, though the details remain uncertain. Stan Lee recalled that : « Little by little, he became more unfriendly. Instead of bringing his artwork in, he sent it by messenger ». Steve Ditko later claimed it was Stan Lee who broke off contact and disputed the long-held belief the disagreement was over the true identity of the Green Goblin : « Stan Lee never knew what he was getting in my Spider-Man stories and covers until after production manager Sol Brodsky took the material from me (...) so there couldn't have been any disagreement or agreement, no exchanges (...) no problems between us concerning the Green Goblin or anything else from before issue #25 to my final issues ». Comics historian Greg Theakston, who visited Steve Ditko on occasion, theorized Steve Ditko saw The Amazing Spider-Man as semi-autobiographical : « Spider-Man was the culmination of everything Steve Ditko was up until that moment. Steve Ditko had personal ties to the character. When people started to ' manipulate him ' into bringing in more romance into the strip and changing the direction, Steve Ditko felt slighted, crushed (...) They were telling him how to do it. He wouldn't be told ». Writer and future Marvel Comics editor Roy Thomas said in a 1998 interview that « I'll never forget the day I walked into one Marvel Comics office not long after Steve Ditko quit, and here's John Romita Sr. drawing Amazing Spider-Man and Larry Lieber drawing the Spider-Man Annual and Marie Severin drawing Dr. Strange, and I joked, ' This is the Steve Ditko Room ; it takes 3 of you to do what Steve Ditko used to do ' ».
Back at Charlton Comics - where the page rate was low but creators were allowed greater freedom -, Steve Ditko worked on such characters as Blue Beetle, The Question, Captain Atom (returning to the character he'd co-created in 1960), and in 1974 backup stories E-Man, writer Joe Gill's Liberty Belle and Steve Ditko's own Killjoy. With The Question and Killjoy, he freely expressed his personal ideology, based on Ayn Rand's objectivism and the writings of Greek philosopher Aristotle. He also produced much work for Charlton Comics' science-fiction and horror titles. In addition, in 1966-1967, he drew 16 stories by writer Archie Goodwin for Warren Publishing's horror-comic magazines, most of which were done using ink-wash. In 1967, Steve Ditko gave his ideas ultimate expression in the form of Mr. A, published in Wally Wood's independent title Witzend #3. His hard line against criminals was controversial and alienated many fans, but he continued to produce Mr. A stories and one-pagers until the end of the 1970s. He returned to Mr. A once more in 2000.
Steve Ditko moved to DC Comics in 1968, where he created the Creeper in Showcase #73 (in April 1968) with scripter Don Segall, under editor Murray Boltinoff. He shortly afterward recommended Charlton Comics editor Dick Giordano to DC Comics, where Dick Giordano would become managing editor in 1981. Steve Ditko co-created the Hawk and the Dove in Showcase #75, working with writer Steve Skeates, but left after drawing the first 2 issues of the duo's ongoing series. His stay at DC Comics was short - he would work on all 6 issues of the Creeper's own title, Beware the Creeper, though leaving midway through the final one - and again, the reasons for his departure are uncertain. From this time up through the mid 1970s, he worked exclusively for Charlton Comics and various small press / independent publishers, including former Marvel Comics publisher Martin Goodman's start-up Atlas / Seaboard Comics, where he co-created the super-hero the Destructor with writer Archie Goodwin, and penciled all 4 issues of the namesake series, the first two of which were inked by fellow comics legend Wally Wood. Steve Ditko returned to DC Comics in 1975, creating one short-lived title, Shade, the Changing Man. With writer Paul Levitz and inker Wally Wood, he co-created Stalker which ran for 4 issues. He also revived the Creeper and did such various other jobs as a short Demon backup series in 1979, work on Legion of Super-Heroes in 1980, and stories in DC Comics' horror and science-fiction anthologies. He also drew the Prince Gavin version of Starman in Adventure Comics #467-478. He then decamped to do work for a variety of publishers, briefly contributing to DC Comics again in 1986, with 4 pin-ups of his characters for Who's Who in the DC Universe and a pin-up for Superman #400 and its companion portfolio.
He returned to Marvel Comics in 1979, taking over Jack Kirby's Machine Man and continuing to freelance for the company into the late 1990s. In 1982, he also began freelancing for Pacific Comics, beginning with Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #6, in which he introduced the super-hero Missing Man, with Mark Evanier scripting for Steve Ditko's plot and art. Subsequent Missing Man stories appeared in Pacific Presents #1-3, with Steve Ditko scripting the former and collaborating with Robin Snyder on the script for the latter two. He also created the Mocker for Pacific Comics in Silver Star #2. For Eclipse Comics, he contributed a story featuring his character Static in Eclipse Monthly #1-3, introducing super-villain the Exploder in #2. With writer Jack C. Harris, Steve Ditko drew the backup feature « The Faceless Ones » in First Comics' Warp #2-4. Working with that same writer and others, he drew a handful of The Fly, Fly-Girl and Jaguar stories for The Fly #2-8, for Archie Comics' short-lived 1980s super-hero line ; in a rare, possibly unique latter-day instance of Steve Ditko inking another artist, he inked penciler Dick Ayers on the Jaguar story in The Fly #9. In 1993, he did the Dark Horse Comics one-shot The Safest Place in the World. For the Defiant Comics series Dark Dominion, he drew issue #0, which was released as a set of trading cards. In 1995, he penciled a 4-issue series for Marvel Comics based on the Phantom 2040 animated TV series. This included a poster that was inked by John Romita Sr. An aborted series at Fantagraphics Books, Steve Ditko's Strange Avenging Tales ran one issue in 1997.
Steve Ditko retired from mainstream comics in 1998, having worked in his latter years both on such established super-heroes as the Sub-Mariner in Marvel Comics Presents to newer, licensed characters such as the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The last mainstream character he created was Marvel Comics' Longarm in Shadows & Light #1. Since then, Steve Ditko's solo work has been published intermittently by independent publisher and long-time friend Robin Snyder, his former editor at Charlton Comics, Archie Comics and Renegade Press in the 1980s. The Robin Snyder-published books have included Static, the Missing Man, the Mocker and, in 2002, Avenging World, a collection of stories and essays spanning 30 years. Steve Ditko's final original works for mainstream comics have been : for Marvel Comics, the self-inked, 12-page Iron Man story « A Man's Reach ... », scripted by writer Len Wein, in the black-and-white comic book Shadows & Light #1 and, for DC Comics, the 5-page New Gods story « Infinitely Gentle, Infinitely Suffering », inked by Mick Gray and believed to be intended for the 2000-2002 Orion series but not published until the 2008 collection Tales of the New Gods.

Official site : http://www.steveditko.com
Art gallery : http://www.comicartcommunity.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=86

Selected works :

• Amazing Adventures #1-6 ; Amazing Adult Fantasy #7-14 ; Amazing Fantasy #15
• Amazing Spider-Man #1-38, Annual 1-2
• The Avengers Annual 13, Annual 15
• Blue Beetle #1-5
• Creepy #9-16
• Eerie #3-10
• Most issues of Ghostly Haunts, Ghostly Tales, The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves
• The Incredible Hulk #6
• Machine Man #10-19
• Mysterious Suspense #1
• Phantom 2040 #1-4
• ROM Spaceknight #59-75, Annual 4
• Shade, the Changing Man #1-8
• Showcase #73 ; Beware the Creeper #1-6 ; World's Finest Comics #249-255
• Showcase #75 ; Hawk and Dove #1-2
• Speedball #1-10
• Strange Suspense Stories #75-77 ; Captain Atom #78-89
• Strange Tales #110-111, 114-146, Annual 2
• Tales of Suspense #47-49
• Tales to Astonish #60-67

Will Eisner | William Erwin Eisner, born March 6, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York City and died on January 3, 2005. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School. With influences that included the early 20th century commercial artist J. C. Leyendecker, he drew for the school newspaper The Clintonian, the literary magazine The Magpie and the yearbook, and did stage design, leading him to consider doing that kind of work for theater. Upon graduation, he studied under Canadian artist George Brandt Bridgman (1864-1943) for a year at the Art Students League of New York. Contacts made there led to a position as an advertising writer-cartoonist for the New York American newspaper. He also drew illustrations for pulp magazines, including Western Sheriffs and Outlaws.
In 1936, high-school friend and fellow cartoonist Bob Kane, of future Batman fame, suggested that the 19-year old Will Eisner try selling cartoons to the new comic book Wow, What a Magazine ! « Comic books » at the time were tabloid-sized collections of comic strip reprints in color. In 1935, they began to include occasional new comic-strip like material. Editor Jerry Iger bought an Will Eisner adventure strip called « Captain Scott Dalton », an H. Rider Haggard -styled hero who traveled the world after rare artifacts. He subsequently wrote and drew the pirate strip « The Flame » and the secret agent strip « Harry Karry » for Wow, What a Magazine ! as well.
Wow, What a Magazine ! lasted 4 issues. After it ended, Will Eisner and Jerry Iger worked together producing and selling original comics material, anticipating that the well of available reprints would soon run dry, though their accounts of how their partnership was founded differ. One of the first such comic book « packagers », their partnership was an immediate success, and the two soon had a stable of comics creators supplying work to Fox Comics, Fiction House, Quality Comics (for whom Will Eisner co-created such characters as Doll Man and Blackhawk) and others. Turning a profit of $1.50 a page, Will Eisner claimed that he « got very rich before I was 22 », later detailing that in Depression-era 1939 alone, he and Jerry Iger « had split $25000 between us », a considerable amount for the time. His original work even crossed the Atlantic, with Will Eisner drawing the new cover of the October 16, 1937 issue of Boardman Books' comic-strip reprint tabloid Okay Comics Weekly.
In 1939, Will Eisner created Wonder Man for Victor Fox, an accountant who previously worked at DC Comics and wanted to get into the comic book business. Following Victor Fox's instructions to create a Superman-type character, and using the pen name Willis, he wrote and drew the first issue of Wonder Comics. Will Eisner protested the derivative nature of the character and story and eventually testified in the court case, admitting that the character was a thinly veiled version of Superman. This period of his career is depicted in his semi-autobiographical graphic novel, The Dreamer.
In « late 1939, just before Christmas time », Will Eisner recalled in 1979, Quality Comics publisher Everett M. « Busy » Arnold « came to me and said that the Sunday newspapers were looking for a way of getting into this comic book boom ». In a 2004 interview, he elaborated on that meeting :

« Everett M. ' Busy ' Arnold invited me up for lunch one day and introduced me to Henry Martin - sales manager of the Des Moines Register and Tribune Syndicate -, who said, ' The newspapers in this country, particularly the Sunday papers, are looking to compete with comic books, and they would like to get a comic book insert into the newspapers '. (...) Henry Martin asked if I could do it. (...) It meant that I'd have to leave Will Eisner & Jerry Iger which was making money ; we were very profitable at that time and things were going very well. A hard decision. Anyway, I agreed to do the Sunday comic book and we started discussing the deal which was that we'd be partners in the ' Comic Book Section ', as they called it at that time. And also, I would produce 2 other magazines in partnership with ' Busy ' Arnold. ».

Official site : http://www.willeisner.com

Selected works :

• The Spirit Archives vol. 1-24
• The Contract with God Trilogy
  A Contract with God, A Life Force and Dropsie Avenue
• New York: Life in the Big City
  New York: The Big City, The Building, City People Notebook and Invisible People

Bill Everett | William Blake Everett, born May 18, 1917 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and died on February 27, 1973. He is a descendant of the poet William Blake. Bill Everett spent his early life in Arizona, graduating high school there before returning to his native Massachusetts to study at Boston's Vesper George School of Art from 1934-1935. Influenced by commercial magazines artists such as Meade Schaeffer, Dean Cornwell, and especially Floyd Davis, soon dropped out to become a professional artist on the advertising staff of the Boston newspaper The Herald-Traveler. Soon afterward, he left to become a draftsmen for the civil engineering firm The Brooks System, in Newton, Massachusetts. From there, he pursued work in Phoenix, Arizona and Los Angeles, California without success. He returned east, to New York City, where he again did newspaper advertising art, for the New York Herald-Tribune. He next became art editor for Teck Publications' Radio News magazine, then assistant art director under Herm Bollin in Chicago, Illinois. Fired for being, as he described, « too cocky », he returned to New York City where sought employment as an art director. With no luck at this, and desperate for work, he ran into an old Teck Publications colleague, Walter Holze, who was now working in the new field of comic books. As Bill Everett recalled in the late 1960s, « He asked me if I could do comics. I said, ' Sure ! '. At that point, I was starving. I wasn't interested in the comics business ; I was talked into it. ».
Freelancing for Centaur Publications, Bill Everett sold his first page for $2.00 - writing, penciling, inking and all. « Skyrocket Steele » was his first strip. Soon he was getting $10.00 and then $14.00 a page, a respectable sum during this late 1930s period near the beginning of what historians and fans call the Golden Age. He co-created the super-hero Amazing Man at Centaur Publications, working with company art director Lloyd Jacquet, and drew the first 5 issues. Bill Everett and other creators followed Lloyd Jacquet to his new company Funnies Inc., one of the first comic book « packagers » that would create comics on demand for publishers. Bill Everett recalled, « I left Centaur Publications with Lloyd Jacquet and another chap whose name as Max ; I cannot remember his last name. Lloyd Jacquet (...) had an idea that he wanted to start his own art service - to start a small organization to supply artwork and editorial material to publishers. (...) He asked me to join him. He also asked Carl Burgos. So we were the nucleus. (...) I don't know how to explain it, but I was still on a freelance basis. That was the agreement we had. The artists, including myself, at Funnies Inc., worked on a freelance basis. ».
At Funnies Inc., Bill Everett created the Sub-Mariner for an aborted project, Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1, a planned promotional comic to be given away in movie theaters. When plans changed, he used his character instead for Funnies Inc.'s first client, pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman. The original 8-page story was expanded by 4 pages for Marvel Comics #1 (in October 1939), the first publication of what Martin Goodman would eventually call Timely Comics, the 1940s precursor of Marvel Comics. Bill Everett's anti-hero proved a sudden success, quickly becoming one of Timely Comics' top 3 characters, along with Carl Burgos' android super-hero, The Human Torch, and Jack Kirby / Joe Simon's Captain America. Bill Everett soon introduced such supporting characters as New York City policewoman Betty Dean, a steady companion and occasional love-interest, and Namor's cousin, Namora. He drew his star character in Sub-Mariner Comics, published first quarterly, then thrice-yearly and finally bimonthly, for issues #1-32 (from Fall 1941 to June 1949).
Bill Everett entered the U.S. Army for World War II military service in February 1942. He attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir, during which time he met Gwenn Randall, who was work for the Ordnance Department at the Pentagon. The couple married in 1944, when he returned from the European theater of operations, and their first child, a daughter, was born shortly before he was shipped out to the Philippines to fight in the Pacific theater ; he returned home in February 1946. With some money inherited from a great-uncle, he took some time off and traveled before settling in Fairbury, Nebraska, his wife's hometown. « This was when I renewed my association with Martin Goodman, working by mail on a freelance basis, picking up the Sub-Mariner where I'd left off 4 years ago. ». His first recorded post-war credit is writing and full art for the 12-page story « Sub-Mariner vs. Green-Out » in Sub-Mariner Comics #21 (in Fall 1946) - the third of 3 Sub-Mariner stories that issue, for which Syd Shores drew the cover. Bill Everett was soon providing Sub-Mariner stories regularly for the solo title as well as for The Human Torch, Marvel Mystery Comics and even Blonde Phantom Comics. Additionally, he drew the title feature in the 3-issue spin-off series Namora.
By now, Timely Comics had evolved into Marvel Comics' 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics. Like most super-hero characters in the postwar era, the Sub-Mariner had faded in popularity, and his solo title had been cancelled in 1949. But after a nearly 5-year hiatus, he briefly returned with Captain America and the Golden Age Human Torch in Young Men #24 (in December 1953), during Atlas Comics' mid 1950s attempt at reviving super-heroes. Bill Everett drew the Sub-Mariner feature through Young Men #28 and in Sub-Mariner Comics #33-42 (from April 1954 to October 1955), which outlasted the other 2 characters' features. During this time, Namora had her own spin-off series. He also drew the features « Venus » and « Marvel Boy », as well as a large number of stories for Atlas Comics' anthological horror-fantasy series. One such tale, « Zombie ! », written by editor-in-chief Stan Lee and published in Menace #5, introduced the character Simon Garth, the Zombie, who in the 1970s would be plucked from this one-shot story to star in Marvel Comics black-and-white, horror-comics magazine Tales of the Zombie.
With writer-editor Stan Lee, Bill Everett co-created the Marvel Comics' super-hero Daredevil, who debuted in Daredevil #1 (in April 1964). Comics historian and former Jack Kirby assistant Mark Evanier, investigating claims of Jack Kirby's involvement in the creation of both Iron Man and Daredevil, interviewed Jack Kirby and Bill Everett and found that :

« In both cases, Jack Kirby had already drawn the covers of those issues and done some amount of design work. He (...) seems to have participated in the design of Daredevil's first costume. (...) Bill Everett did tell me that Jack Kirby had come up with the idea of Daredevil's billy club. (...) Jack Kirby, in effect, drew the first page of that first Daredevil story. In the rush to get that seriously late book to press, there wasn't time to complete page one, so Stan Lee had production manager Sol Brodsky slap together a paste-up that employed Jack Kirby's cover drawing. (...) Bill Everett volunteered to me that Jack Kirby had ' helped him ' though he wouldn't - or more likely, couldn't - elaborate on that. He just plain didn't remember it well, and in later years apparently gave others who asked a wide range of answers. ».

« I must have called Stan Lee, had some contact with him, I don't know why. I know we tried to do it on the phone. I know he had this idea for Daredevil ; he thought he had an idea. (...) With a long-distance phone call, it just wasn't coming out right, so I said, ' All right, I'll come down this week-end or something. I'll take a day off (from his job as art director of Eton Paper Corporation in Massachusetts) and come down to New York City '. (...) I did the one issue, but I found that I couldn't do it and handle my job, because it was a managerial job ; I didn't get paid overtime but I was on an annual salary, so my time was not my own. I was putting in 14 or 15 hours a day at the plant and then to come home and try to do comics at night was just too much. And I didn't make deadlines - I just couldn't make them - so I just did the one issue and didn't do any more. ».

Classic covers : http://www.comicvine.com/bill-everett/26-6103/issues-cover

Selected works :

• Sub-Mariner Comics #1-32, 33-42
• Daredevil #1
• Sub-Mariner #50-55, 57