Born in Milton, Massachusetts in 1952, Peter John Sanderson, Jr. is proof that an obsession for comic books and consistency can be made into a viable career. Sanderson is a comic book critic and historian, as well as a teacher at New York University (NYU). He is best known for his work with both Marvel…
Born in the Bronx, NY in 1930, Howie Schneider is best remembered for Eek & Meek, the comic about two mice (later two men) he created for the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) in 1965 and ran for 35 years. Schneider also published several cartoon books, wrote a daily cartoon called Unschucked for the Provincetown Banner…
Born in 1908 in Brooklyn, NY, Myron Waldman always loved to draw. He went to Pratt Institute and majored in Art, graduating in 1930. Shortly after that, Waldman got a job with Max Fleisher Studios. He started as an inker, but by 1934 was one of Fleisher’s lead animators, working on Betty Boop, Popeye, Raggedy…
Born in 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Steve Englehart graduated college from Wesleyan University and served briefly in the Army before moving to New York. He got his comic book start working as Neal Adams’ art assistant at Warren Publishing. Art was not Englehart’s chief interest, however, and he soon switched to different areas, going to…
Born on the 4th-dimensional planet Bgztl in the 30th Century, Tinya Wazzo shared the rest of her people’s ability to phase out of reality, becoming completely intangible. Tinya decided to use those abilities to help others and sought out the Legion of Super-Heroes, becoming their fifth member as Phantom Girl. She was a Legionnaire in…
Born on the 4th-dimensional planet Bgztl in the 30th Century, Tinya Wazzo shared the rest of her people’s ability to phase out of reality, becoming completely intangible. Tinya decided to use those abilities to help others and sought out the Legion of Super-Heroes, becoming their fifth member as Phantom Girl. She was a Legionnaire in…
Born in 1949, ComicMix creator/columnist John Ostrander loved comics from early on but initially followed a different love: religion. Raised Roman Catholic, Ostrander wanted to become a priest and attended a year of seminary before deciding it wasn’t right for him. Instead he turned to acting. Ostrander was part of a Chicago theater company in…
Born in New York’s the Bronx in 1969, Keith R.A. DeCandido was a science-fiction fan from the very start—his parents were fans of the original Star Trek, as well as classic SF/Fantasy novelists like Heinlein, Le Guin, and Tolkien. DeCandido attended Fordham University and edited the college newspaper, and after graduating he worked for several…
Born in 1964 in Pin-Tung, Taiwan, Ben Dunn emigrated to the U.S. a year later. Growing up, he enjoyed reading comics and tried his hand at drawing, but it wasn’t until he returned to Taiwan for six months in 1976 that Dunn was first exposed to—and fell in love with—manga. Eight years later, tired of…
Born in 1951, Leonard Rifas loved comics but found cartooning to be hard work. He wanted to make sure the stories and messages he conveyed were important enough to demand such time and attention, so he turned to educational comics. In 1976, he produced All-Atomic Comics, about the use of nuclear energy. That same year…
Born in Vinci, Florence, Italy in 1452, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was the illegitimate son of a local notary and a peasant girl. He showed an early talent for art, and at the age of 14 he was apprenticed to the renowned Florentine painter Verrocchio. In 1472, at the age of 20, Leonardo…
Born in 1954 in Philadelphia, Charles “Chuck” Dixon grew up reading comic books. He did his first comic book writing, on Evangeline for Comico, in 1984—his wife (since divorced) Judith Hunt drew the book. A year later, Marvel editor Larry Hama hired Dixon to write back-up stories for The Savage Sword of Conan. In 1986…
