As the decade shifted, Superboy's artistic mainstays continued to be John Sikela and Curt Swan. Other artists also occasionally contributed Superboy art including Wayne Boring and Al Plastino | Al Plastino (b. 1921) came to DC in 1948 and began drawing Superman immediately. Early on his sole contribution to Superboy was in covers. However beginning in late 1957 he began to draw stories also. One of his main contribution's to the Superman legend was drawing the very first appearance of the Legion of Super-Heroes in Adventure Comics 247 in April 1958. He continued drawing Superboy up until Mort Weisinger turned over the editing to Murray Boltinoff in 1968. |
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Win Mortimer (1919-97) .worked on several Superboy stories in the late 40's, as well as Superman and Batman. His primary contribution was as a cover artist, as well as drawing the Superman daily strip in the early fifties. |
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(yes, that's Lana's kid brother, Ronald) |
John Sikela 1907-98 continued to draw Superboy stories up to 1960. Of Shuster's original ghosts, only Wayne Boring outlasted him. I'm not quite sure when he and Ed Dobrotka stopped working together . Probably before 1955. | One thing is easily distinguishable, in the earlier stories, Superboy is much older and much taller than he is in the mid-to late fifties. All the classic stories Sikela did in the early Silver Age appear to have be self- inked. |
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George Papp (1916-89) was one of the earliest artists at DC, doing fillers and cartoons in some of the early Superman issues. He co-created Green Arrow with editor Mort Weisinger and worked on that strip continuously (except for the war) until he took over Superboy from John Sikela when he retired in 1958 and continued pencilling and inking stories up until 1967. He also did an occasional Jimmy Olsen story and may have inked a few of Curt Swan's Superboy stories. | Chic Stone (1923-2000) worked on Fawcett's Captain Marvel in 1940-41 and then moved through most of the major comic book companies. He inked many of Jack Kirby's seminal efforts in the Marvel Age of comics and also worked on ACG's Nemesis and Tower's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. He pencilled and inked one story in Superman 203 in 1968. He worked with George Papp for about a year in 1967-8, having been brought in to give the book more of a Marvel look. It's not clear to me whether Papp penciled and Stone inked or the other way around. He also ghosted Batman for Bob Kane about the same time for the same reason. Wally Harrington owns the original art for Superboy 141 and verified Stone's work on this issue. |
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George Papp from Superboy 90 "Pete Ross's Super- Secret by Robert Bernstein, 1961 | George Papp and Chic Stone from Superboy 141 "No Mercy for A Hero" by Leo Dorfman 1967 |
Things were getting pretty strange at DC in 1967. First Chic Stone started helping out George Papp, then Pete Costanza started inking Al Plastino, all in an effort to make the art look more like Marvel. | In Superboy 145, Frank Springer (b. 1929) took over the inking chores over George Papp's pencils, in a special turning point issue that also saw Ma and Pa Kent rejuvenated. Springer did a lot of work for Dell in the Sixties before coming to DC, where his main claim to fame was Secret Six. He also ghosted a number of newspaper strips, including On Stage and the Heart of Juliet Jones. |
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And then there's Superboy 149. Al Plastino started it, but had a falling out with new editor Murray Boltinoff and walked out. Who finished it? Inquiring minds want to know. | Pete Costanza worked on it, as did probably Bill Draut and maybe George Tuska. |
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