Author: Aaron Rosenberg

Happy Birthday: Dave Sim

Happy Birthday: Dave Sim

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1956, David Victor “Dave” Sim dropped out of high school to pursue a career in comic books.

In the 1970s he worked on a fanzine, The Now and Then Times (Now and Then Books was the comic book store Sim had worked at for his first job) and then another called Comic Art News and Reviews. He worked for several other fanzines, wrote a newspaper strip, and produced several small-press comics.

In 1977, Sim began self-publishing Cerebus, a black-and-white comic about a dark medieval world and a cynical and violent aardvark (originally parodied on Conan the Barbarian). In 2004 Sim completed his planned 300-issue run of Cerebus.

In 2006, he began an online comic biography of the Canadian actress Siu Ta. He is now working on two new projects, a Holocaust book called Judenhass and a women’s fashion comic book called glamorpuss.

Sim won an Eisner Award in 1994, a Harvey Award in 1992, a Kirby in 1985 and 1987, and several other accolades. He is considered by many to be the king of independent comics, having produced the longest-running independent comic of all time.

Happy Birthday: Insect Queen

Happy Birthday: Insect Queen

Lana Lang was one of teenaged Clark Kent’s closest friends, and Superboy’s biggest fan—he was romantically interested in her as well, and she was sometimes referred to as “Superboy’s girlfriend.”

Lana was a normal human girl with no powers of her own—until one May 16th when she rescued an insectoid alien from a fallen tree. The grateful alien gave Lana a biogenetic ring that allowed her to gain the power and partial form of any insect or arachnid, though she could only duplicate a particular form once a day.

The newly empowered Lana decided to try her hand at superheroism and donned a costume to become Insect Queen.

Lana eventually became a reserve member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, but got tired of her double life and began using her ring more sparingly.

Happy Birthday: Garry Leach

Happy Birthday: Garry Leach

Born in 1957, Garry Leach studied Graphic Design at St. Martin’s School of Art. His first work in comics was on 2000 A.D., but he quickly became known for his art on the series The VCs.

In 1981, Leach joined Quality Communications as art director. He was also the first artist on Alan Moore’s revival of Marvelman (better known in the U.S. as Miracleman). Leach and Moore then created Warpsmith. In 1988 Leach and Dave Elliot set up Atomeka Press—the first title was the anthology AI, which included another Moore/Leach Warpsmith story.

Leach left comics briefly in the mid-’90s after Atomeka closed but returned to ink Hitman a few years later. He also drew the first issue of Warren Ellis’ Global Frequency and contributed more work to 2000 A.D.

In 2004, Leach and Elliot restarted Atomeka Press.

Happy Birthday: Brad Anderson

Happy Birthday: Brad Anderson

Born in Jamestown, New York in 1924, Brad Anderson started cartooning as a child. He attended Brocton Central School for high school, and while there sold his first cartoons (to an aviation magazine).

Anderson served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, then attended Syracuse University’s School of Fine Arts. After graduating college, Anderson focused on advertising for a few years, but in 1953 decided to turn his full attention back to cartoons.

A year later, he created the cartoon strip Marmaduke. He still draws the strip today. In 1976, Anderson received the National Cartoonist Society Award for Best Panel, and in 1999 Syracuse University honored him with the George Arents Pioneer Medal.

Happy Birthday: Marv Wolfman

Happy Birthday: Marv Wolfman

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946, Marvin A. “Marv” Wolfman got his start in comic book fandom before joining DC in 1968. In 1972, he moved to Marvel Comics under editor Roy Thomas.

After Thomas left, Wolfman’s friend Len Wein became editor-in-chief, but  a year later he passed the position on to Wolfman. Wolfman missed writing, however, and chose to step down as editor-in-chief a few years later so he could return to creating the comics himself.

While at Marvel, Wolfman wrote for Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Doctor Strange, but he is possibly best known for his work on Tomb of Dracula, including the creation of the vampire-hunter Blade.

In 1980, Wolfman returned to DC and created The New Teen Titans. He worked on Superman and Night Force, revived Dial H for Hero, and then launched the pivotal Crisis on Infinite Earths.

During the ’90s, Wolfman focused more on animation and television, and in the 2000s he has written a novel based on Crisis on Infinite Earths, the novelization of Superman Returns, and an animated movie, Condor, for Stan Lee’s Pow Entertainment. Wolfman recently took over the writing for DC’s Nightwing series.

In 2007, he wrote a nonfiction book, Homeland: The Illustrated History of the State of Israel, which won the National Jewish Book Award and the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award, among other honors.

Happy Birthday: Tony Strobl

Happy Birthday: Tony Strobl

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1915, Anthony Joseph “Tony” Strobl graduated from the Cleveland School of Art in 1937 (along with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—Strobl helped them fine-tune a character concept they were working on, which they called "Superman") and began working for Disney a year later.

His first project was doing “in-between” art (the frames between the ones the main animators drew) on Fantasia. Strobl also worked on Pinocchio and Dumbo before joining the Army during World War II.

After the war, he decided to switch from animation to comics, and in 1947 he went to work for Western Publishing. Western produced comics starring characters from Disney, Warner Brothers, and Walter Lantz, and Strobl did a lot of art on Disney’s “Duck” books.

After 1954, he was responsible for the monthly Donald Duck comic. In the mid-’60s Strobl began drawing Disney comics for the international market, and from 1986 to 1987 he drew a daily Donald Duck comic strip for them as well. Strobl died on December 29, 1991.

Happy Birthday: Sandy Carruthers

Happy Birthday: Sandy Carruthers

Born on May 11, 1962 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Sandy Carruthers remembers watching the Batman television series when he was only a toddler. He began drawing soon after that, and hasn’t stopped since.

Carruthers attended Holland College from 1979 to 1981, training in its Commercial Design (now Graphic Design) program, then studied illustration at Sheridan College in Ontario. His first job in comics was at Malibu Graphics and included Captain Canuck and what is still his best-known work, the comic book series The Men in Black (later made into the films Men in Black and Men in Black 2).

In 2004, Carruthers began the web comic Canadiana, which took a break but resumed in 2007. He has also done several graphic novels for Graphic Universe, illustrated several books, done a cartoon strip for the Guardian newspaper, and teaches at his old alma mater, Holland College.

Happy Birthday: Vincent T. Hamlin

Happy Birthday: Vincent T. Hamlin

Vincent T. Hamlin was born in 1900 and grew up during tumultuous times—he enlisted in the Army at age 17 and served in France during World War I.

After returning home, he studied journalism and art at the University of Missouri, but was kicked out of art class because his teacher told him he was too fine an artist to waste his time as a cartoonist. After graduating Hamlin moved to Des Moines and became a reporter.

Next he went to Fort Worth, Texas, where he got occasional work as a reporter, a photographer, and a cartoonist. In 1927 he got a job creating maps and posters for the oil fields. It was during that time that Hamlin came up with the idea of a cartoon about a prehistoric caveman, and in 1929 he moved back to Iowa to work on the idea. It took him several years to get it right, but Alley Oop finally appeared a daily strip in 1932.

The strip became so popular that the first fan-based comics award, the Alleys, was named after it. Hamlin continued Alley Oop until his retirement in 1971, when he handed the reins over to his assistant, Dave Graue. Hamlin died in 1993.

Happy Birthday: Barbara Slate

Happy Birthday: Barbara Slate

Born in 1947, Barbara Slate started out in greeting cards before moving to comics. In 1974, she met with a greeting card buyer from Bloomingdales and showed him 24 feminist greeting cards she had designed. Thus, the "Ms. Liz" line was born.

Ms. Liz then became a comic strip in Cosmopolitan, and then an animated feature on The Today Show. Next, Slate spoke to Jenette Kahn of DC Comics, who hired her to create Angel Love. From there, Slate moved to Marvel to create Yuppies from Hell and Sweet XVI (which won a Forbie Award in 1991), and then began working on Barbie and Barbie Fashion (which won the Parent’s Choice Award in 1992 and 1993).

Slate has also written for Disney Comics (Pocahontas and Beauty and the Beast) and Archie Comics, among others. Currently Slate writes for Archie Comics, teaches graphic novel and sequential art workshops, and has a syndicated column called “You Can Do A Graphic Novel.”

Happy Birthday: The Creeper

Happy Birthday: The Creeper

Jack Ryder’s parentage certainly predicted his future—his father was the publisher of a successful union dispatch, while his mother suffered paranoid schizophrenia and died in an institution while Jack was still a child.

Growing up, Ryder followed in his father’s footsteps and became a television news reporter. Unfortunately, Ryder had a big mouth. Normally that would be an asset, but Ryder didn’t know when to shut up, and it cost him his job.

The network didn’t fire him, but they did demote him to working network security, a job Ryder found beneath him. He got his chance to prove himself again when mobsters kidnapped a scientist named Dr. Emil Yatz. Ryder guessed that Yatz would be held at the mob boss’ mansion. The boss was holding a masquerade party that night, so Ryder cobbled together a bizarre costume and snuck in.

He found Yatz, but was seriously injured in the process, and to save him Yatz injected Ryder with the serum he’d created. The scientist also hid the device the mobsters were after by concealing half of it inside Ryder’s wound, which then healed thanks to the serum’s effects.

The device can make matter appear and disappear instantly, allowing a soldier to walk into a place in civilian clothes and then have a uniform and full weapons with the touch of a button. In Ryder’s case it let him make his strange new costume appear and disappear. Ryder used his bizarre appearance, the strength and agility the serum granted him, his unhinged disregard for personal safety, and a disquieting laugh to bring the mobsters to justice.

They dubbed him "The Creeper," and so a new—and truly bizarre—superhero was born.