Born on Long Island, New York in 1917, William “Bill” Woolfolk once claimed that he didn’t create many comic book characters but he did coin many of their most famous lines. He was responsible for Captain Marvel’s exclamation of “Holy Moley!”, among other well-known lines. Woolfolk started writing comic books in the early 1940s after…
On June 18 (pre-Crisis version), a tiny spaceship crashed in a field outside Smallville, Kansas. Jonathan and Martha Kent happened by and discovered the spaceship—and its black-haired, blue-eyed infant occupant. They took the baby in and decided to raise him as their own. One week later, on June 25, the adoption was made official and…
Born in Teresa, Rizal, in the Philippines in 1928, Jesse F. Santos was already displaying his art as a young boy—at the age of ten he did the mural for his church. By 14 he was working as a professional artist. During World War II Santos sketched portraits for American G.I.s. This led to an…
Born in 1924 in New York City, Frank Bolle grew up doodling. He went to the High School of Music and Art and then served in the Air Force from 1943 to 1946. After the war Bolle attended Pratt Institute and began looking for work—his first job in comics was in 1948 and he has…
Born in San Francisco in 1953, Alan “Al” Gordon is actually the second comic book artist by that name—the first, who is no relation, was active in the 1950s and worked for Atlas Comics, Lev Gleason Publications, Toby Comics, and Trojan Comics. The second Alan Gordon started out in the mid-1970s, working as a penciler…
Born in 1957, Gary Carlson first appeared on the comic book scene with his self-published superhero anthology Megaton back in the early 1980s. He created the character of Vanguard with Erik Larsen, whose Savage Dragon also began in the anthology. Carlson later wrote Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Berzerker, and Supreme. He and Larsen also co-wrote…
Born in Beckley, West Virginia in 1950, John Elbert Workman Jr. grew up in Aberdeen, Washington and studied at Grays Harbor College and Clark College, getting an Associate in Arts degree in 1970. He worked in advertising briefly before creating the science-fiction comic series Sindy and the humor strip Fallen Angels in 1972. In 1974…
Born in the Bronx, New York, in 1915, Julius “Julie” Schwartz is considered one of the most influential editors in comic book history. Schwartz got his start in science fiction and fantasy, publishing a fanzine called The Time Traveler in 1932 with his friends Mort Weisinger and Forrest J. Ackerman. He and Weisinger also formed…
Born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1953, Mark E. Gruenwald is a rarity in the comc book industry in that he spent his entire professional career with one company. After graduating with an art degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Gruenwald moved to New York and applied at both DC and Marvel, with no luck. He…
Born in 1957, Hilary Barta began his comic book career in 1982 when he was hired at Marvel to help ink The Defenders #108. In 1984 he moved to First Comics to ink Warp, and slowly graduated to penciling as well. In 1988, after work for Eclipse, Marvel, and First, Barta launched both Marvel’s What…
Born in 1930, Frank Thorne got his comic book start penciling romance comics for Standard Comics in 1948. He then went on to draw the Perry Mason newspaper strip for King Features and to work on several comic books for Dell, including Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, and The Green Hornet. In 1975 Thorne went to…
Born on Governors Island, Manhattan, New York in 1941, Neal Adams attended High School Industrial Art in Manhattan and then went to work in the advertising industry. He had actually applied to work at DC Comics but didn’t get a job offer — Adams did do some freelance work drawing Bat Masterson and Archie Comics…
