- Al Plastino
Infobox Comics creator
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birthdate = 1921
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nationality = American
area = Penciller, Inker, Writer, Editor, Letter, Colorist
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awards =Al Plastino (1921- ) is an American
comic book artist best known as one of the most prolificSuperman artists of the 1950s, along with hisDC Comics colleagueWayne Boring . Plastino also worked as a comicswriter , editor,letterer , andcolorist .Biography
Early life and career
Interested in art since grade school, Plastino won several prizes hosted by "Youth Today" magazine, which hired Plastino when he was 17. Plastino later did work for
Funnies Inc. , where he "helped out"Fact|date=February 2007Bill Everett with Sub-Mariner. His earliest known credited comic-book work is aspenciler -inker of the cover ofNovelty Press ' "Blue Bolt Comics" Vol. 3, #9 (Feb. 1943).In 1941, Plastino designed an
airplane that resembled thespace shuttle , and eventually showed a model of it andblueprints toGrummond Aircraft executives.Fact|date=February 2007 Drafted shortly afterward, he spent much ofWorld War II assigned to thegraphic arts office inThe Pentagon , drawing war posters and producing them in silkscreen. He was next assigned to theAdjutant General 's Office, working on illustrations forU.S. Army training manuals. He continued working on these after the war, while withSteinberg Studios . He also began taking on comic book art and commercial graphics.Comics
While working out of a studio in
New York City with two othercartoonist s in 1948, Plastino showed sample art of Superman to DC Comics, which offered him $35 a page. Plastino, who had heard that Superman artists were receiving $55 a page negotiated a $50 rate, high for a beginning comics artist at the time.Now settled in the comic book field, he largely dropped other commercial work for two decades. Early on at DC, Plastino was forced to copy
Wayne Boring 's style, until the editors got comfortable with his own style. He ended up doing 48 Superman covers as well as countless stories during his career there.Plastino worked on several titles within the Superman family of comics, including "
Superboy " and "Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane ". With writerOtto Binder , he co-createdSupergirl in "Action Comics " #252 (May 1959). Plastino also drew the Superboy story in "Adventure Comics " #247 (April 1958) and also co-created theLegion of Super-Heroes , a teen superhero team from the future that would eventually become one of DC's most popular features.Comic strips
Plastino drew the syndicated "
Batman " comic strip from 1966-72, and the "Superman" strip in the late 1960s. In 1968, when he and other older creators were ousted from DC Comics, Plastino, who continued to work on the DC comic strips, additionally took over the syndicated strip "Ferd'nand ", which he drew until his retirement in 1989.Plastino also worked on Sunday episodes of "
Nancy " in 1983 afterErnie Bushmiller died,Fact|date=July 2007 and was commissioned by theUnited Media newspaper syndicate to write and draw a year's worth of "Peanuts " strips in the early 1980s in caseCharles Schulz became ill.Fact|date=July 2007Later life and career
Since retiring, Plastino has focused on painting.
References
* [http://www.alplastino.com Al Plastino official site]
* [http://www.comics.org/search.lasso?query=al+plastino&type=penciller&sort=chrono&Submit=Search Grand Comics Database: Al Plastino]
*Cadigan, Glen. "The Legion Companion" (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2003)
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