- Tom Sutton
Tom Sutton, aka "Sean Todd" (
April 15 ,1937 ,North Adams, Massachusetts - May 2002,Amesbury ,Massachusetts ) was an Americancomic book artist best known for his work atMarvel Comics and onWarren Publishing 's line of black-and-white horror-comics magazines , particularly as the first story-artist of the popular characterVampirella . He is not [http://www.tomsutton.com/ the designer Tom Sutton] .Biography
Early life and career
Sutton was raised in North Adams, Massachusetts, where father Harry was a
plumbing , heating andair conditioning shopkeeper, and a machinest andgunsmith forGeneral Electric and others. Influenced by thecomic strip art ofphotorealist draftsmanMilt Caniff and the illustrativeAlex Raymond andHal Foster , as well as by the EC line of 1950s horror comics, Sutton began drawing nudie schoolyard art for paying classmates.He enlisted in the
U.S. Air Force after graduating fromhigh school in 1955, and worked on art projects while stationed atFort Francis E. Warren , nearLaramie, Wyoming . Later, stationed atItami base in northernJapan , Sutton created the Caniff-style adventure strip "F.E.A.F Dragon" for a base publication. Sutton's first professional comics work, it led to a long-hoped-for placement on the military's "Stars and Stripes" newspaper.At its
Tokyo office of "Stars and Stripes", he drew the comic strip "Johnny Craig", a character name inspired by the EC artistJohnny Craig . Sutton recalled that he worked on this strip "for two years and some odd months. I did it seven days a week, I think. It was all stupid. It was a kind of cheap version of[ Frank Robbins'] "Johnny Hazard", I think it was". [ [http://www.tcj.com/3_online/t_sutton.html Trimmings: Tom Sutton (Online additions to interview published in "The Comics Journal" #230] ]On his return, Sutton attended the
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on a scholarship, and began working as a freelancecommercial artist . At one point, living and working inSan Francisco , he became acquainted with the work ofRobert Crumb and later expressed a desire for the kind of creative freedom he saw inunderground comics .Sutton became an
art director at AVP, a company that producedfilm strips formarketing , and he was a director ofanimation forTransradio Productions . By the mid-1960s, he was married with two sons; his first marriage lasted five years, and he remarried in the 1970s. During the late 1960s, he was living in Boston's North End, and in 1970 he moved toNewburyport, Massachusetts .Warren and Marvel
Sutton's first two comic-book stories appeared the same month. His first sale, "The Monster from One Billion B.C.", was published in Warren's "
Eerie " #11 (Sept. 1967), though it was originally commissioned for "Famous Monsters of Filmland " (where it was reprinted four months later). He also illustrated the five-page anthological Western story "The Wild Ones", written bySol Brodsky , in Marvel's "Kid Colt, Outlaw" #137 (Sept. 1967). It was one of many Westerns he would draw for the company, including the introduction of the short-lived feature "Renegades" — "The Fugitive " times four, in the Old West — in "Western Gunfighters " #1 (Aug. 1970).Sutton soon developed a trademark frantic, cartoony style that, when juxtaposed on dramatic narratives, gave his work a vibrant, quirky dynamism. That distinctive style helped establish the popular supernatural character Vampirella from her first story, "Vampirella of Draculona" by
Forrest J. Ackerman in "Vampirella" #1 (Sept. 1969). Later, with writer Archie Goodwin, Sutton helped transition Vampi from cheeky horror hostess to serious dramatic character in the 21-page story "Who Serves the Cause of Chaos?" in issue #8 (Nov. 1970, reprinted in color in Harris Comics' 1995 "Vampirella Classics" series).Though well-suited to horror stories, Sutton was also admired for his work on such
science fiction series as Marvel's "Planet of the Apes" magazine andFirst Comics ' "GrimJack " and "Squalor", and for thehumor title "Not Brand Ecch ", on which he appeared in nearly every issue with parodies of Marvel's own characters. He was not especially equipped to dosuperhero es, either by art style or temperament, once calling them "fascist." While he lent a hand very occasionally, Sutton stayed mostly on Marvel's supernatural heroes:Werewolf by Night , Ghost Rider,Doctor Strange (in the 1970s series, plusBaron Mordo backup stories in the 1980s "Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme"). With writerSteve Englehart , penciler Sutton introduced the new furrily transformed "X-Men " character the Beast, who starred in a superhero/horror feature in "Amazing Adventures " #11-15 (March-Sept. 1972).For the horror-oriented Warren, Sutton drew dozens of stories early in his career. He moonlighted for Warren competitor
Skywald Publications , drawing the "Frankenstein "-novel sequel "Frankenstein, Book II" (serialized in "Psycho" magazine #3-6, May, 1971 - May, 1972) — using the pseudonym "Sean Todd" (writer -penciler Sutton andinkers Dan Adkins ,Jack Abel and Sutton himself), to avoid the wrath of publisher James Warren. A separate story in "Psycho" #4, written by Sutton and drawn by him andSyd Shores , was credited as "Larry Todd" (writer) and "David Cook" (art). This was the result of someone having inadvertently inserted the name of real-life writer Larry Todd rather than usual pseudonym Sean Todd.For Skywald's short-lived line of color comics, Sutton wrote and drew stories under his own name for the Western title "Butch Cassidy" and the horror title "The Heap" (no relation to the 1940s-50sHillman Periodicals character later revived byEclipse Comics ). Sutton would draw Marvel's similar muck-monsterMan-Thing as eight-page installments in the omnibus series "Marvel Comics Presents " in the late 1980s.Later career
He wrote and drew horror stories for such
Charlton Comics titles as "Ghost Manor", "Midnight Tales", "Monster Hunters" and "The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves " in the mid-1970s to early 1980s, and he produced painted covers for the company. In the mid-1980s, Sutton drew suspense stories forDC Comics ' "House of Mystery " and "House of Secrets ", and he penciled virtually all 56 issues of DC'slicensed series "Star Trek ". He also penciled theHarlan Ellison -scripted "Croatoan" in "Heavy Metal" volume two, #5 (Sept. 1978).Near the end of his life, Sutton did commercial art for
New England ad agencies, and, under the pseudonym "Dementia", he drew forFantagraphics 'Eros Comix line ofpornographic comics.Sutton was also a painter who had gallery showings of his bar-scene canvases. A limited edition portfolio of fantasy prints, "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", was produced by Another World, Ltd., in 1978.
Police found Sutton dead in his apartment onMay 3 ,2002 ; it is unclear whether amedical examiner 's determination of time or date of death was reported. News accounts did say he had died of a heart attack at his drawing board, during production of the book "Graphic Classics: H.P. Lovecraft", which the publisher posthumously dedicated to him. Eros' "Dementia's Dirty Girls" #1 (May 2002) included a tribute byBill Pearson .Quotes
"The Comics Reporter":
Footnotes
References
*"
Comic Book Artist " #12 (March 2001): Tom Sutton interview, pp. 62-69
* [http://lambiek.net/artists/s/sutton_tom.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia: Tom Sutton]
* [http://www.sfwa.org/News/sutton.htm Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America Publishing News: "Tom Sutton (1937-2002)"]
* [http://www.graphicclassics.com/pgs/sutton.htm Graphic Classics: Tom Sutton]
* [http://www.maelmill-insi.de/UHBMCC/ The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators]
* [http://www.comics.org/ The Grand Comic Book Database]
* [http://enjolrasworld.com/Richard%20Arndt/The%20Warren%20Magazines.htm "The Warren Magazines", by Richard J. Arndt] (History, bibliography, interviews)
* [http://www.enjolrasworld.com/Richard%20Arndt/The%20Complete%20Skywald%20Checklist.htm The Complete Skywald Checklist]
* "Charlton Spotlight" #3: "Tom Sutton Tribute", by Jim Amash
* "Alter Ego" #16, July 2002: "Tom Sutton (1937-2002)"External links
* [http://www.ramonschenk.nl/charltoncomics/creators/tomsutton.htm Tom Sutton Charlton Checklist]
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