Otto Binder
Otto Oscar Binder was an American author of science fiction and non-fiction books and stories, comic books. He is best known for his many scripts for Captain Marvel Adventures and other stories involving the entire superhero Marvel Family, he was prolific in the comic book field and is credited with writing over 4400 stories across a variety of publishers under his own name, as well as more than 160 stories under the pen-name Eando Binder. Born in Bessemer, Otto Binder was the youngest of six children in a family that had emigrated from Austria a year earlier, he was raised Lutheran. They settled in Chicago in 1922, during a period rich with science fiction, which enthralled Binder and his brother Earl; the two began writing in partnership and sold their first story, "The First Martian" to Amazing Stories in 1930. Not earning enough as a writer to live on, Binder and his brother worked at many jobs. Earl found employment at an iron works. In late December 1935, Otto Binder began working for Otis Adelbert Kline as a literary agent in charge of Kline's New York City office most prominently marketing the stories of Robert E. Howard, although insufficient business during this Great Depression era forced Kline to close his company after a year and a half.
At the time of Otto's move to New York City, Earl Binder dissolved the writing partnership, all new material produced under the name of Eando Binder from January 1936 on, was the work of Otto Binder. Concurrent with his agent work, Binder was writing for Mort Weisinger, editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories, Ray Palmer, editor of Amazing, for the latter of whom he created the Adam Link series Binder entered comics in 1939 on the heels of his artist brother, who moved to New York to work at the studio of Harry "A" Chesler, one of that era's "packagers" who provided outsourced content for publishers entering the new medium of comic books; the following year, magazine publisher Fawcett Publications began its Fawcett Comics line, Binder started writing the exploits of such characters as Captain Venture, Golden Arrow, Bulletman and El Carim. After a year, editor Ed Herron had Binder tackle Fawcett's most prominent character, the superhero Captain Marvel, he soon wrote for the spin-off features starring Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Marvel, the latter of whom he co-created with Marc Swayze.
Binder spent from 1941 to 1953 with Fawcett, writing "986 stories... out of 1,743, over half the entire Marvel Family saga", per comic-book writer-editor E. Nelson Bridwell, his first Captain Marvel writing was the "Dime Action Book" novel Return of the Scorpion, featuring the villain from the 1941 Republic serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel. His first Captain Marvel comic-book story was "Captain Marvel Saves the King" in Captain Marvel Adventures #9, he wrote for numerous other Fawcett features, as well as many two-page text fillers that were required in comics in order to be eligible for magazine postal rates. His text stories in Captain Marvel Adventures, under the "Eando" pseudonym, starred Lieutenant Jon Jarl of the Space Patrol. During his time at Fawcett, Binder co-created with Swayze and C. C. Beck such characters as Mary Marvel, Uncle Dudley, Mr. Tawky Tawny, Black Adam and Mr. Mind, as well as two of Doctor Sivana's four children: the evil teens Thaddeus Sivana Jr. and daughter Georgia.
Binder and Beck unsuccessfully attempted to launch a newspaper comic strip featuring Mr. Tawky Tawny in 1953. Binder left Fawcett when the company shut down its comic book division in 1953, but found no shortage of work. For Timely Comics, the 1940s company that would evolve into Marvel Comics, he created Captain Wonder, the Young Allies, Tommy Tyme and the patriotically themed superheroine Miss America, wrote for stories starring Captain America, the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, the Destroyer, the Whizzer, the All-Winners Squad. For Quality Comics, Binder co-created Kid Eternity, wrote Blackhawk, Doll Man, Uncle Sam and Black Condor stories. For MLJ Comics, he wrote stories starring Steel Sterling, the Shield, the Hangman, the Black Hood. At Gold Key Comics, Binder co-created other characters, his science fiction for EC Comics includes "Lost in Space", illustrated by Al Williamson, in Weird Science-Fantasy #28. In 1948, Binder began working for DC Comics known as National Periodical Publications, swiftly creating Merry, Girl of 1,000 Gimmicks, in the feature "Star-Spangled Kid", whose place Merry soon took in Star-Spangled Comics.
He moved on to his best-known DC work, the Superman group of titles, including launching the Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen series in 1954. Binder and artist Al Plastino collaborated on the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #247 that introduced the Legion of Super-Heroes, a teen superhero team from the future that became one of DC's most popular features. Binder and Plastino debuted the supervillain Brainiac and the Bottle City of Kandor in Action Comics #242 and co-created Supergirl in Action Comics #252. With various artist collaborators, he co-created Krypto the Super Dog, the Phantom Zone, the supporting characters Lucy Lane, Beppo the Super Monkey, Titano the Super Ape. In the first issue of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, he introduced Jimmy Olsen's signal-watch, in #31, Jimmy's Elastic Lad identity, he wrote the Lois Lane feature in Showcase #9 which served as a tryout for the character's own series. DC writer-editor E. Nelson Bridwell credits Binder as creating the first "Imaginary Tale, for Lois Lane," and of writing "most of the early" Bizarro stories, including at least the first "Tale
Alex Raymond
Alexander Gillespie Raymond was an American cartoonist, best known for creating the Flash Gordon comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into many other media, from three movie serials to a 1970s television series and a 1980 feature film. Raymond's father encouraged his son to draw from an early age. In the early 1930s, this led Raymond to become an assistant illustrator on strips such as Tillie the Toiler and Tim Tyler's Luck. Towards the end of 1933, Raymond created the epic Flash Gordon science-fiction comic strip to compete with the popular Buck Rogers comic strip and before long, Flash was the more popular strip. Raymond worked on the jungle adventure saga Jungle Jim and spy adventure Secret Agent X-9 concurrently with Flash, though his increasing workload caused him to leave Secret Agent X-9 to another artist by 1935, he left the strips in 1944 to join the Marines, saw combat in the Pacific Ocean theater in 1945 and was demobilized in 1946. Upon his return from serving during World War II, Raymond created and illustrated the much-heralded Rip Kirby, a private detective comic strip.
In 1956, Raymond was killed in a car crash at the age of 46. He became known as "the artist's artist" and his much-imitated style can be seen on the many strips that he illustrated. Raymond worked from live models furnished by Manhattan's Walter Thornton Agency, as indicated in "Modern Jules Verne," a profile of Raymond published in the Dell Four-Color Flash Gordon #10, showing how Thornton model Patricia Quinn posed as a character in the strip. Numerous artists have cited Raymond as an inspiration for their work, including comic artists Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, Russ Manning, Al Williamson. George Lucas cited Raymond as a major influence for Star Wars, he was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996. Maurice Horn stated that Raymond unquestionably possessed "the most versatile talent" of all the comic strip creators, he has described his style as "precise and incisive." Carl Barks described Raymond as a man "who could combine craftsmanship with emotions and all the gimmicks that went into a good adventure strip."
Raymond's influence on other cartoonists was considerable during his lifetime and did not diminish after his death. Raymond was born in 1909 New Rochelle, New York, the son of Beatrice W. and Alexander Gillespie Raymond. He was raised in the Roman Catholic faith, his father was a civil engineer and road builder who encouraged his son's love of drawing from an early age "covering one wall of his office in the Woolworth Building" with his young son's work. After the death of his father when he was 12, he felt that there was not as viable a future in art as he had hoped and attended Iona Prep on an athletic scholarship, where he played fullback on coach "Turk" Smith's 1926 football team. Raymond's first job was as "an order clerk in Wall Street". In the wake of the 1929 economic crisis, he "enrolled in the Grand Central School of Art in New York City" and began working as a solicitor for a mortgage broker. Approaching former neighbor Russ Westover, Raymond soon quit his job and by 1930 was assisting on Westover's Tillie the Toiler, through which Raymond was "introduced to King Features Syndicate", where he became a staff artist and for which he would produce his greatest work.
Raymond was influenced by a variety of strip cartoonists and magazine illustrators, including Matt Clark, Franklin Booth and John La Gatta. From late 1931 to 1933, Raymond assisted Lyman Young on Tim Tyler's Luck becoming the ghost artist in "1932 and 1933... both the daily strip and the Sunday page", turning it "into one of the most eye-catching strips of the time". Concurrently, Raymond assisted Chic Young on Blondie. In 1933, King Features assigned him to do the art for an espionage action-adventure strip, Secret Agent X-9, scripted by novelist Dashiell Hammett, Raymond's illustrative approach to that strip made him King Features' leading talent. Towards the end of 1933, King Features asked him to create a Sunday page that could compete with Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, a popular science fiction adventure strip that had debuted in 1929 and spawned the rival Brick Bradford in 1933. According to King Features, syndicate president Joe Connolly "gave Raymond an idea... based on fantastic adventures similar to those of Jules Verne".
Alongside ghostwriter Don Moore, a pulp-fiction veteran, Raymond created the visually sumptuous science fiction epic comic strip Flash Gordon. The duo created the "complementary strip, Jungle Jim, an adventurous saga set in South-East Asia", a topper which ran above Flash in some papers Raymond was concurrently illustrating Secret Agent X-9, which premiered January 22, 1934, two weeks after the two other strips, it was Flash Gordon that would outlast the others "develop an audience far surpassing" that of Buck Rogers. Flash Gordon, wrote Stephen Becker, "was wittier and moved faster," so "Buck's position as America's favorite sci-fi hero", wrote historian Bill Crouch, Jr. "went down in flames to the artistic lash and spectacle of Alex Raymond's virtuoso artwork." Alex Raymond has stated, "I decided that comic art is an art form in itself. It reflects the life and times more and is more artistic than magazine illustration—since it is creative. An illustrator works with camera and models. A. E. Mendez has stated that "Raymond’s achievements are chopped into bite-sized pieces by the comic art cognoscenti.
Lost in the worthwhile effort to distinguish comics as an art form, th
Don Newton
Don Newton was an American comics artist. During his career, he worked for a number of comic book publishers including Charlton Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, he is best known for his work on The Phantom and Batman. Newton drew several Captain Marvel/Marvel Family stories and was a fan of the character having studied under Captain Marvel co-creator C. C. Beck. Newton was born in St. Charles, but after being diagnosed with asthma at the age of four, the Newton family moved to Arizona. Newton began drawing at a young age, with comic books being a major influence on his early artwork, he was a big fan of Batman and Daredevil, an bigger Captain Marvel fan. By the mid–1960s, Newton was teaching art in Phoenix and worked part-time as a student art reviewer for the mail order "Master Artist's Painting Course." Newton discovered comic book fandom, while searching for a source to purchase old comics. Newton became involved with the Science Fiction and Comics Association and became an artistic staple in the organization's publications.
Between 1968 and 1973 he produced two dozen covers for the Rocket's Blast Comicollector. Newton did not limit himself to the publications of the SFCA. In all Newton’s work appeared in over one hundred fanzines. Newton did one major strip during this time, which ran for more than a year in the RBCC called "The Savage Earth". Over a period stretching from 1968 to 1970 the science fiction strip appeared in issues 60–70 of the RBCC. Issue #65 of the RBCC sported a Newton "Savage Earth" painting as its cover. Newton tried for years to leverage his connections in fandom into work at DC Comics or Marvel Comics, but he was at a distinct disadvantage living in Arizona. Marvel in particular wanted their artists close at hand. Newton set his sights a little lower and sent some sample pages to Nicola Cuti at Charlton Comics where his first professional comic book work was published. Newton's first work for Charlton appeared in Ghost Manor #18 and would work on Charlton horror books for the next year and half.
Besides drawing for the Charlton horror comics, Newton began painting covers for their horror and romance books. In October 1975 Newton's first issue of The Phantom, #67, was published. Newton would pencil and ink all of his Phantom work and would supply a cover painting for every issue he drew. Newton’s short run on the book featured two classic Newton pieces at Charlton. Issue #70 of The Phantom stars Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Claude Rains and is a mixture of Casablanca, The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Newton’s final issue of The Phantom features the Phantom of 1776 meeting Benjamin Franklin, it has a Phantom cover, the Phantom of 1776, sword in one hand, flintlock pistol in the other in front of a smoky background of the Declaration of Independence and a tattered 13-star American flag. Newton had always seen Charlton as a stepping-stone to Marvel Comics. While still working for Charlton, Newton worked on an issue of Giant-Size Defenders, did some small uncredited inking on a few issues of the Deadly Hands of Kung Fu magazine over Mike Vosburg's penciled artwork, a frontispiece for the Savage Sword of Conan and a single painting for Roy Thomas, which years became a cover for Thomas' magazine Alter Ego. Newton inked an issue of Ghost Rider over Don Heck's pencils and produced a cover for Marvel's Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction Annual.
Newton began his career at DC with DC Special #28. Newton contributed the pencils on an Aquaman strip inked by his old friend Dan Adkins. Newton would draw Aquaman on for the next three years; that same month saw the release of Newton's first series at DC, The New Gods #12. Dan Adkins inked most of his work on the New Gods, it was during his tenure on this strip that Newton left his job as a junior high school art teacher to go work full-time as an artist. In the middle of Newton's run on The New Gods, he and David Michelinie co-created the Star Hunters for DC but Newton dropped the feature after drawing two stories. One of Newton’s lifelong ambitions was to draw Captain Marvel and he fulfilled this desire in 1978 when he was signed as the new penciler for the Shazam! title. He would draw this strip through October 1982. Newton began drawing the Batman character beginning with Batman #305, would draw 79 stories featuring Batman or members of the Batman family during his tenure at DC. Newton and writer Dennis O'Neil co-created the Maxie Zeus character in Detective Comics #483.
O'Neil and Newton produced the story "The Vengeance Vow" in Detective Comics #485 in which the original Batwoman is killed by the League of Assassins. In 1979 Newton returned to Marvel, he wanted to draw Captain America, but that title was unavailable at the time and The Avengers was the closest Marvel could do to fulfilling that request. Newton took the assignment. Newton finished the pencils for only two issues before returning to DC; those two issues of The Avengers became Avengers Annual #9, half of, inked by Rubinstein, half by Jack Abel. In 1981 Don Newton again left DC for Marvel; as was the case the first time, better money was one of the factors. Marvel had other artists, such as Val Mayerik, call Don to entice him into working at Marvel again. Unlike the previous time, Joe Rubinstein was not part of the deal; the Avengers #204 featured inks by Dan Green. During the time that Newton was drawing this second attempt at The Avengers book, he was contacted by Paul Levitz who promi
Penciller
A penciller is a collaboration artist who works in creation of comic books, graphic novels, similar visual art forms, with focus on primary pencil illustrations, hence the term "penciller". In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form, may require several steps of feedback with the writer; these artists are concerned with layout to showcase steps in the plot. A penciller works in pencil. Beyond this basic description, different artists choose to use a wide variety of different tools. While many artists use traditional wood pencils, others prefer mechanical drafting leads. Pencillers may use any lead hardness they wish, although many artists use a harder lead to make light lines for initial sketches turn to a softer lead for finishing phases of the drawing. Still other artists do their initial layouts using a light-blue colored pencil because that color tends to disappear during photocopying. Most US comic book pages are drawn oversized on large sheets of paper Bristol board.
The customary size of comic book pages in the mainstream American comics industry is 11 by 17 inches. The inker works directly over the penciller's pencil marks, though pages are inked on translucent paper, such as drafting vellum, preserving the original pencils; the artwork is photographically reduced in size during the printing process. With the advent of digital illustration programs such as Photoshop and more artwork is produced digitally, either in part or entirely. Jack KirbyFrom 1949 until his retirement, Jack Kirby worked out of a ten-foot-wide basement studio dubbed "The Dungeon" by his family; when starting with clean piece of Bristol board, he would first draw his panel lines with a T-square. Arthur AdamsArthur Adams begins drawing thumbnail layouts from the script he's given, either at home or in a public place; the thumbnails range in size from 2 inches x 3 inches to half the size of the printed comic book. He or an assistant will enlarge the thumbnails and trace them onto illustration board with a non-photo blue pencil, sometimes using a Prismacolor light-blue pencil, because it is not too waxy, erases easily.
When working on the final illustration board, he does so on a large drawing board when in his basement studio, a lapboard when sitting on his living room couch. After tracing the thumbnails, he will clarify details with another light-blue pencil, finalize the details with a Number 2 pencil, he drew the first three chapters of "Jonni Future" at twice the printed comic size, drew the fifth chapter, "The Garden of the Sklin", at a size larger than standard, in order to render more detail than usual in those stories. For a large poster image with a multitude of characters, he will go over the figure outlines with a marker in order to emphasize them, he will use photographic reference when appropriate, as when he draws things that he is not accustomed to. Because a significant portion of his income is derived from selling his original artwork, he is reluctant to learn how to produce his work digitally. Jim LeeArtist Jim Lee is known to use F lead for his pencil work. J. Scott CampbellArtist J. Scott Campbell does his pencil with a lead holder, Sanford Turquoise H lead, which he uses for its softness and darkness, for its ability to provide a "sketchy" feel, with a minimal amount of powdery lead smearing.
He uses this lead because it strikes a balance between too hard, therefore not dark enough on the page, too soft, therefore prone to smearing and crumbling. Campbell avoids its closest competitor. Campbell has used HB lead and F lead, he maintains sharpness of the lead with a Berol Turquoise sharpener, changing them every four to six months, which he finds is the duration of their grinding ability. Campbell uses a combination of Magic Rub erasers, eraser sticks, since he began to ink his work digitally, a Sakura electric eraser, he sharpens the eraser to a cornered edge in order to render fine detailed work. Travis CharestArtist Travis Charest uses 2H lead to avoid smearing, sometimes HB lead, he illustrated on regular illustration board provided by publishers, though he disliked the non-photo blue lines printed on them. By 2000, he switched to Crescent board for all his work, because it does not warp when wet, produces sharper illustrations, are more suitable for framing because they lack the non-photo blue lines.
Charest prefers not to employ preliminary sketching practices, such as layouts, thumbnails or lightboxing, in part due to impatience, in part because he enjoys the serendipitous nature in which artwork develops when produced with greater spontaneity. He prefers to use reference only when rendering objects that require a degree of real-life accuracy, such as guns, vehicles or characters of licensed properties that must resemble actors with whom they are identified, as when he illustrated the cover to Star Trek: The Next Generation: Embrace the Wolf in 2000. Adam HughesThe penciling process that artist Adam Hughes employs for his cover work is the same he uses when doing sketches for fans at conventions, with the main difference being that he does cover work in his sketchbook, before transferring the drawing to virgin art board with a lightbox, whereas he does convention drawings on 11 x 14 Strathmore bristol, as he prefers penciling on the rougher, vellum surface rather than smooth paper, preferring smoother paper only for brush inking.
He does preliminary undersketches with a lead holder, because he feels regular pencils get worn down to the nub too quickly. As he explained during a sketch demonstration at a comic book
Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
Captain Marvel known as Shazam, is a comic book superhero appearing in publications by American publisher DC Comics. Artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker created the character in 1939. Captain Marvel first appeared in Whiz Comics #2, published by Fawcett Comics, he is the alter ego of Billy Batson, a boy who, by speaking the magic word "SHAZAM!", can transform himself into a costumed adult with the powers of superhuman strength, speed and other abilities. The character battles an extensive rogues' gallery archenemies Dr. Sivana, Mister Mind, Black Adam. Based on book sales, the character was the most popular superhero of the 1940s, outselling Superman. Fawcett expanded the franchise to include other "Marvels" Marvel Family associates Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. who can harness Billy's powers as well. Captain Marvel was the first comic book superhero to be adapted into film, in a 1941 Republic Pictures serial, Adventures of Captain Marvel, with Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel and Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy Batson.
Fawcett ceased publishing Captain Marvel-related comics in 1953 because of a copyright infringement suit from DC Comics alleging that Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman. In 1972, Fawcett sold the character rights to DC, which by 1991 had acquired all rights to the entire family of characters. DC has since integrated Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family into their DC Universe and has attempted to revive the property several times, with mixed success. Due to trademark conflicts over other characters named "Captain Marvel" owned by Marvel Comics, DC has branded and marketed the character using the trademark Shazam! since his 1972 reintroduction. This led many to assume that "Shazam!" was the character's name, DC renamed the character "Shazam!" when relaunching its comic book properties in 2011, with his associates known as the "Shazam Family". The character has been featured in two television series adaptations by Filmation: one live action 1970s series with actors Jackson Bostwick and John Davey portraying the character, one animated 1980s series.
The 2019 New Line Cinema/Warner Bros. film Shazam! is part of the DC Extended Universe, with Zachary Levi portraying the title role and Asher Angel as Billy Batson. The character was ranked as the 55th greatest comic book character of all time by Wizard magazine. IGN ranked Captain Marvel as the 50th greatest comic book hero of all time, stating that the character will always be an enduring reminder of a simpler time. UGO Networks ranked him as one of the top heroes of entertainment, saying, "At his best, Shazam has always been compared to Superman with a sense of crazy, goofy fun." After the success of National Comics' new superhero characters Superman and Batman, Fawcett Publications started its own comics division in 1939, recruiting writer Bill Parker to create several hero characters for the first title in their line, tentatively titled Flash Comics. Besides penning stories featuring Ibis the Invincible, Spy Smasher, Golden Arrow, Lance O'Casey, Scoop Smith, Dan Dare for the new book, Parker wrote a story about a team of six superheroes, each possessing a special power granted to them by a mythological figure.
Fawcett Comics' executive director Ralph Daigh decided it would be best to combine the team of six into one hero who would embody all six powers. Parker responded by creating a character he called "Captain Thunder". Staff artist Charles Clarence "C. C." Beck was recruited to design and illustrate Parker's story, rendering it in a direct, somewhat cartoony style that became his trademark. "When Bill Parker and I went to work on Fawcett’s first comic book in late 1939, we both saw how poorly written and illustrated the superhero comic books were," Beck told an interviewer. "We decided to give our reader a real comic book, drawn in comic-strip style and telling an imaginative story, based not on the hackneyed formulas of the pulp magazine, but going back to the old folk-tales and myths of classic times". The first issue of the comic book, printed as both Flash Comics #1 and Thrill Comics #1, had a low-print run in the fall of 1939 as an ashcan copy created for advertising and trademark purposes.
Shortly after its printing, Fawcett found it could not trademark "Captain Thunder", "Flash Comics", or "Thrill Comics", because all three names were in use. The book was renamed Whiz Comics, Fawcett artist Pete Costanza suggested changing Captain Thunder's name to "Captain Marvelous", which the editors shortened to "Captain Marvel"; the word balloons in the story were re-lettered to label the hero of the main story as "Captain Marvel". Whiz Comics #2 was published in late 1939; the comic's lead feature introduced audiences to Billy Batson, an orphaned 12-year-old boy who, by speaking the name of the ancient wizard Shazam, is struck by a magic lightning bolt and transformed into the adult superhero Captain Marvel. Shazam's name was an acronym derived from the six immortal elders who grant Captain Marvel his superpowers: Solomon, Atlas, Zeus and Mercury. In addition to introducing the main character, his alter ego, his mentor, Captain Marvel's first adventure in Whiz Comics #2 introduced his archenemy, the evil Doctor Sivana, found Billy Batson talking his way into a job as an on-air radio reporter with station WHIZ.
Captain Marvel was an instant success, with Whiz Comics #2 selling over 500,000 copies. By 1941, he had his own solo series, Captain Marvel Adventures, the premiere issue of, written and drawn by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. Captain Marvel continued to appear in Whiz Comics, as well as periodic appearances in other Fa
Jerry Ordway
Jeremiah Ordway is an American writer, penciller and painter of comic books. He is known for his inking work on a wide variety of DC Comics titles, including the continuity-redefining Crisis on Infinite Earths, his long run working on the Superman titles from 1986–1993, for writing and painting the Captain Marvel original graphic novel The Power of Shazam!, writing the ongoing monthly series from 1995–1999. He has provided inks for artists such as Curt Swan, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Steve Ditko, John Byrne, George Perez and others. Jerry Ordway was inspired in his childhood by Marvel Comics, dreamed of drawing Daredevil, Spider-Man, the Avengers. To date he has only worked on the latter. Among the artists he considers influential are Curt Swan, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Steve Ditko, all of whose pencils he would ink over, he cites Wally Wood, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster and Roy Crane as early inspirations. He names contemporaries such as Lee Weeks, John Romita Jr. Ron Garney, Mike Weiringo and Alan Davis, inkers such as Joe Sinnott, Dick Giordano, Tom Palmer and Klaus Janson.
Ordway attended Milwaukee Technical High School, where he took a three-year commercial art course, before joining a commercial art studio as a typographer in 1976. He subsequently worked his way "from the ground floor up at the art studio" between 1978 and 1981. Before beginning his professional career as an inker, Jerry Ordway entered the comics industry as an artist and publisher for small-press comics fanzines. Ordway discovered Marvel comics in "June of 1967," and wrote in 1975 that he had "been drawing superheroes since." His first published work, a story entitled "The Messenger", appeared in Tim Corrigan's Superhero Comics No. 4, his own self-published fanzine Okay Comix followed in May–June, 1975. Okay Comix featured stories by Ordway and his friend Dave Koula, art predominantly by Ordway himself. Ordway's own hero "Proton" headlined the'zine, which featured a pin-up of a character "called Acrobat", "the first superhero created, his birth was Dec. 1969."Spending the late 1970s working as a painter in a commercial art studio in Milwaukee, between 1978 and 1979, he provided illustrations for a number of fanzines and pro-zines, including Omniverse and The Comics Journal.
His first professional work was for Western Publishing's Golden Books on young-reader Marvel books, the Superheroes Golden Beginning Stampbook'79. Having produced comics-related artwork for fanzines and licensed publishers, Ordway attended "a talent search at the 1980 Chicago Comicon," held by DC Comics. After showing them his "DC related artwork from the Golden Books," he "walked away with a promise of work." This work began in the summer of 1980 for "DC's anthology comics," in which he "inked Carmine Infantino, Trevor Von Eeden, as well as Joe Staton, Dave Cockrum." After continuing to work at the art studio for a further six months, inking comics for DC by night, Ordway began "freelancing full time in February 1981." During the mid-1980s, he "shared a studio with other artists, including Machlan, Pat Broderick, Al Vey."At DC, he would illustrate All-Star Squadron, a series which he helped launch in an insert preview in Justice League of America No. 193. With writer Roy Thomas, he co-created Infinity, Inc. in All-Star Squadron No. 25 and the new team was launched in its own series in March 1984.
Ordway inked DC Comics Presents Annual No. 4 over artist Eduardo Barreto's pencils, was one of several artists on Batman Annual No. 9, inked George Pérez's pencils on the epic crossover miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985 and Superman artist Wayne Boring's pencils for a retelling of the definitive Golden Age Superman origin story written by Roy Thomas in Secret Origins No. 1, which he considers a particular favorite. Ordway was the penciller and inker for the DC Comics adaptation of the 1989 Batman film, published as a "movie special". Ordway has noted that "Inking is a weird job, because as much as you put into it, the page still belongs to the penciler." In 1986, along with writer/artist John Byrne and writer Marv Wolfman, Ordway revamped Superman, in the wake of the Ordway-inked continuity-redefining maxiseries Crisis on Infinite Earths. Launching, with a revised origin and new continuity, in Byrne's miniseries, The Man of Steel, Superman soon returned to featuring in a number of titles.
After the titular title Superman was cancelled and replaced with The Man of Steel, it was relaunched as The Adventures of Superman, continuing the numbering of the original Superman series, with Wolfman as writer and Ordway as artist. When Wolfman departed the title with issue #435, Byrne took over script writing duties before Ordway assumed the mantle of writer-artist and took over the series with issue #445, making his writing debut two issues earlier with #443. Ordway had served as co-plotter on a few issues during both Wolfman and Bryne's writing tenures. Switching from The Adventures of Superman, Ordway became the writer-artist on the companion title Superman vol. 2 between #34 and #55, before returning to Adventures of Superman as writer and sometimes as cover artist from issues #480 to #500. Ordway was the writer and primary artist for the story. While writing for the Superman family of titles, Ordway cowrote such storylines as "Panic in the Sky" and "The Death of Superman" storyline in 1992.
After seven years working on the character, Ordway left the Superman titles in 1993, altho
Captain Nazi
Captain Nazi is a Fawcett Comics and DC Comics supervillain, a rival of Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. Baron Krieger made his live appearance on the second season of DC's Legends of Tomorrow played by André Eriksen. Captain Nazi first was created by William Woolfolk and Mac Raboy; the super-strong Captain Nazi was genetically altered by his scientist father, developed into the "perfect specimen" in order to fight for Adolf Hitler and the Axis Powers during World War II. He is given superhuman strength and stamina, a special flying gas allows him to fly, he is sent to battle American superheroes by the Nazis after his power is demonstrated to them by Adolf Hitler, some of the heroes are shown. Nazi first appeared in opposition to both Captain Marvel and Bulletman. During the second half of his battle with Marvel in Whiz Comics #25, Nazi attacks two innocent bystanders who happened to be fishing near the scene of the battle, after they pull him out of the lake, he escapes in their boat. One of them, an old man named Jacob Freeman, is killed, but the old man's teenage grandson, Freddy Freeman, is saved by Captain Marvel although he is crippled and his back broken with a hit from an oar while Nazi escapes in the boat, but due to Captain Marvel bestowing part of his power to him, Freddy becomes Captain Marvel Jr.
He is sent to defeat Captain Nazi by Captain Marvel. Junior, crippled in his Freddy Freeman form by the attack, continues to hold a vendetta against Nazi, the two battle one another. Nazi serves as a member of Mister Mind's Monster Society of Evil, one of the most powerful organisations of villains in the world which included Adolf Hitler, assists their first plan to steal magic fortune-telling pearls from a princess, leading Captain Marvel to their hideout, revealing their existence, during the World War II years, before making his final Fawcett Comics appearance in Captain Marvel, Jr. #14 in 1944. Captain Nazi appeared only sporadically in DC Comics' 1970s/1980s revival of the Marvel Family characters under the title Shazam!, save for reprints of the original Fawcett stories. Nazi's first appearance in a new DC Comics story was in Shazam! #34. Following writer Roy Thomas and artist Tom Mandrake's new interpretation of the Captain Marvel mythos in the 1987 four-issue miniseries Shazam!: The New Beginning, Captain Nazi was re-introduced in a 1988 four-part story in Action Comics Weekly issues #623-626.
Captain Nazi himself, only appeared in #624-626. The story was written with art by Rick Stasi and Rick Magyar; the new Captain Nazi is a young Neo-Nazi named Lester Abernathy. Abernathy is given his "Captain Nazi" powers and codename by a Neo-Nazi organization called the Sons of Valhalla and battles Captain Marvel; this version of the character made no further appearances and was subsequently retconned out of existence by the 1994 The Power of Shazam! Graphic novel, which again altered Captain Marvel's background and continuity. Captain Nazi was introduced into the modern DC Universe in Jerry Ordway's The Power of Shazam! Series in 1995. In the modern series, Nazi had been active during the 1940s, battling World War II-era heroes such as Bulletman, Minute-Man, Spy Smasher, but placed himself in suspended animation in a chamber so that he could emerge in modern society and revive the Third Reich, he believed Hitler's body to be held in a similar chamber. Nazi's brother, scientist Wolf Krieger, his granddaughter, a super-powered villainess named Madame Libertine who possesses mind-controlling powers, carry on Nazi's legacy in the 1990s and resurrect their hero from his suspended animation chamber in Power of Shazam!
#5. Issues #6–8 of the Power of Shazam series retell the story of Nazi's murder of Freddy's grandfather by throwing him a great distance with his superhuman strength, his crippling of Freddy, Freddy's emergence as Marvel, Jr. and attempted revenge on Nazi. His life was saved by Freddy who believed the figure who fell into the lake was Captain Marvel, who had just knocked him into the lake. After the Marvel Family captures and defeats Nazi, he is sent to Europe to be tried for war crimes committed during World War II. Captain Nazi joins Lex Luthor's new Secret Society of Super Villains as seen in the miniseries Villains United, where he works with them to torture the Secret Six, he is blinded during the escape of the Secret Six. Captain Nazi meets his apparent end in Batman # 647 while fighting the Red Hood; the Captain, now sporting cybernetic eyes following his injury in Villains United, has been lent out to the villain Black Mask to assassinate the Red Hood alongside fellow Society members Deathstroke, Count Vertigo, the Hyena.
During the fight, the Red Hood kills Captain Nazi by jamming a taser-like weapon into his cybernetic eyes. In Villains United Special # 1 however, it is revealed. At the behest of the Society, Nazi appeared in Kahndaq to release all of the captives in its prisons and fights Khandaq's ruler and former Secret Society member, Black Adam. During the battle, Black Adam confronts Nazi about how he survived being killed, at which time Captain Nazi cryptically proclaims that previous origins about him were wrong and that the villain is not human. Captain Nazi was able to stalemate Black Adam in the battle afterwards, he has since appeared as leader of a Nazi-themed team in Justice Society of America named "The Fourth Reich" afte
