Sol Brodsky

Sol Brodsky (born April 22, 1923, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States; died June 4, 1984) was an American comic book artist who, as Marvel Comics' Silver Age production manager, was one of the key architects of the small company's expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate. He later rose to vice president, operations and vice president, special projects. "Sol was really my right-hand man for years", described Marvel editor and company patriarch Stan Lee. [Daniels, Les, "Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics" (Harry N. Abrams, 1991), p. 105]

Brodsky worked primarily behind the scenes, uncredited. His accomplishments include co-creating, with letterer Artie Simek, the long-familiar logo of "The Amazing Spider-Man", [Per [http://www.alaph.com/spiderman/back_issues/asm001.html The Back-Issue Bin: "The Amazing Spider-Man" #1] and [http://www.alaph.com/spiderman/back_issues/asm002.html "The Amazing Spider-Man" #2] , the logo was lettered by Simek from a sketch by Brodsky for issue #1. It was modified slightly with #2, and drop-shadow was added with #7. This logo continued to be used into the 21st century. Brodsky also designed the original "Fantastic Four" and "The Avengers" logos.] as well as other Marvel logos still in use in the mid-2000s. He was belatedly credited after decades as the inker of the legendary Jack Kirby's pencil art for "The Fantastic Four" #3-4 (March-May 1962) and many other landmark comics. When the famed but troubled artist Bill Everett turned in "Daredevil" #1 (April 1964) extremely late, Brodsky and Spider-Man artist Steve Ditko inked "a lot of backgrounds and secondary figures on the fly [and] cobbled the cover and the splash page together from Kirby's original concept drawing", per Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. [ [http://www.newsarama.com/JoeFridays/JoeFridays4.htm "Newsarama": Joe Fridays (column): "Joe Fridays 4"] (no date, c. May 2005), by Joe Quesada]

So integral was Brodsky to the Marvel phenomenon, and so well-liked, that even after leaving to co-found a rival company, Skywald Publications, he was welcomed back after some months at that eventually defunct firm.

Biography

Early life and career

The son of Abraham and Dora Brodsky, Sol Brodsky was the eldest among siblings Leonard, Ted, and Faye. Determined early in life to pursue cartooning, he took a job sweeping floors at Archie Comics in order to break into the industry. A 1985 tribute feature in the Marvel promotional magazine "Marvel Age" (pictured above) cites his comic-art debut at age 17 in 1940 "in the comic "V-Man" (sic; the comic was actually titled "V •••—", using Morse Code, and in any event, the two issues of that Fox Comics title starring the superhero V-Man were cover-dated January and March 1942). Brodsky's earliest confirmed comics credit is inking a six-page Volton story in Holyoke Publishing's "Cat-Man Comics" vol. 3, #2, a.k.a. #12 (July 1942).

That year Brodsky began his long, if initially intermittent, association with Marvel, writing and drawing four one-page "Inky Dinky" gag strips in "Mystic Comics" #10 (Aug. 1942) and an additional one in "Comedy Comics" #11 (Sept. 1952), for the company's 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics. His earliest known cover art is for Fox Comics' "Blue Beetle" #17 (Dec. 1942).

Brodsky served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, advancing to the rank of corporal. The "Marvel Age" article reports he was stationed on the USS "Fairfax", but that destroyer was decommissioned to become the British Royal Navy ship HMS "Richmond" on November 26 1940, more than a year before the US entered the war.

Upon his return from military service, Brodsky created the feature "Red Cross" in Holyoke's aviation series "Captain Aero Comics", where it ran as a backup from issues #21-25 (Dec. 1944 - Feb. 1946).

Brodsky married Selma Cohen on November 28, 1948. Their first child, Janice, was born August 7, 1952, and son Gary on March 18, 1957.

Atlas Comics

Never a star and generally describedFact|date=October 2007 as a "journeyman" penciler without an immediately recognizable style, Brodsky in late 1950 or early 1951 — the exact date uncertain due to his work often going unsigned, in the manner of the times — began penciling and inking for Marvel's 1950s forerunner, Atlas Comics. He is tentatively credited as cover artist of "Marvel Boy" #1-2 (Dec. 1950 - Feb.1951), and confirmably credited through the '50s for covers and occasional stories in issues of Atlas' horror/suspense titles "Adventures into Weird Worlds", "Strange Tales", and "Uncanny Tales"; the Westerns "Kid Colt, Outlaw", "Gunsmoke Western", "Western Outlaws", and "Wild Western"; the satiric "Crazy"; and such miscellaneous genre titles as "Sports Action" and "Spy Fighters".

After an Atlas reorganization circa 1954, publisher Martin Goodman eliminated all his comics-division staff except for editor-in-chief Stan Lee. Freelance cartoonist and later longtime Marvel colorist and "Millie the Model" artist Stan Goldberg recalled:

Lee elaborated:

Circa 1957, with economic conditions and distribution woes prompting what fans and historians call "the Atlas implosion", Goodman again fired the staff. Brodsky teamed with friend and fellow comic artist Mike Esposito to attempt launching a publishing company. Neither Brodsky's magazine prototypes, which included a rock and roll fan magazine, nor his travel kits for children, containing things to draw, play, and stay amused with during trips, found an investor.

Brodsky had much more success with a series of promotional comic books he created and produced for the Big Boy restaurant chain. Lee would script the majority of these. Brodsky also produced promotional comics for Bird's Eye frozen foods, featuring talking vegetables. In 1958, Brodsky became founding editor of the satirical magazine "Cracked" — "Mad" magazine's only serious rival — leaving it in 1964 to become Marvel's production manager.

Marvel Comics

Brodsky concurrently freelanced for Marvel, by now something of his second home, inking "The Fantastic Four" #3 (the issue that introduced the team's costumes and other mythos "sui generis") and #4 (the return of the Golden Age antihero the Sub-Mariner), among other covers/interiors. As Marvel began to expand with the success of "Fantastic Four", "The Amazing Spider-Man" and other titles, Brodsky's organizational skills and easygoing manner led Lee, by now a friend for several years, to offer him the newly created, formal position of production manager in 1964.

Some Marvel humor comics with art credited to Brodsky may not have been his work. As comics historian Mark Evanier notes:Except for a few months away from Marvel in the early in the 1970s, when he and Israel Waldman co-founded Skywald Publications (the company name comprised of truncated versions of their last names), he remained as Marvel grew from its original three-person staff (himself, Lee, and secretary/receptionist Flo Steinberg). Sometime before May 19, 1978 — the date of a letter, put up for auction years later, that he had sent to a Marvel fan [ [http://users.erols.com/pmerolle/35centletter.jpgErols.com: Brodsky letter] (dead link as of at least Oct. 6, 2007] — his title had become vice president, operations. Later, as vice president, special projects, he oversaw Marvel UK, Marvel Books, and other brand expansions.

A fictionalized Brodsky is among the beachgoers gathered 'round the unconscious Namor in penciler Marie Severin's splash page for "The Sub-Mariner" #19 (Nov. 1969). As an in-joke, Severin had drawn the Marvel staff (as well as three personal friends) as onlookers. Brodsky is the man in the Hawaiian shirt at lower right, gesturing to the police (and standing in front of a cigar-smoking Mike Esposito)."Comic Book Artist" #7 (Feb. 2000), p. 10-11] A fictionalized Brodsky also appeared alongside Lee, Kirby and Steinberg — all transformed into a Marvel Bullpen version of the Fantastic Four — in the alternate-reality comic "What If" Vol. 1, #11 (Oct. 1978). Written and drawn by Kirby, the odd tale featured Brodsky as the Human Torch.

Misc.

Brodsky's son Gary founded the short-lived, 1980s independent-comics company Solson Publications, which published an issue of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents update "T.H.U.N.D.E.R.", by writer Michael Sawyer and artist James E. Lyle, plus the short-lived "super-president" spoof series "Reagan's Raiders". Brodsky's daughter, Janice Cohen, has been a Marvel colorist.

Occasional 1970s Marvel writer Allyn Brodsky is no relation.

Audio

* [http://209.51.142.186/~dogatco/mmms/mmms65.mp3 Audio of Merry Marvel Marching Society record] , including voice of Sol Brodsky

Quotes

Stan Lee:

Allen Bellman, Timely/Atlas artist:

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/18thomas.html "The Jack Kirby Collector" #18 (Jan. 1998): Roy Thomas interview]
* [http://www.deniskitchen.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BP_FC.08&Category_Code= Famous Cartoonist Series Buttons — 008: Sol Brodsky]
* [http://povonline.com/iaq/IAQ05.htm POV Online: "Why did some artists working for Marvel in the sixties use phony names?" by Mark Evanier]
* [http://www.comics.org/ The Grand Comic Book Database]
* [http://www.comicartistsdirect.com/lyle/80s.html Comic Artists Direct: James E. Lyle]
* [http://hometown.aol.com/hulkcollector/severin.html Marie Severin Sketchagraphs]
* [http://www.newsarama.com/JoeFridays/JoeFridays4.htm "Newsarama": "Joe Fridays 4"] (Joe Quesada interview series)
* "The Comics Journal" #92 (Aug. 1984): "Marvel Vice President/Administration Sol Brodsky Dies at Age of 61" p. 18
* "Marvel Age" #22 (Jan. 1985): "Sol Brodsky Remembered", by Dwight Jon Zimmerman, pp. 12-25 (offline)