Mort Meskin
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| Mort Meskin | |
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| Born | May 30, 1916 Brooklyn, New York City |
| Died | April 1995 |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Penciller, Inker |
Morton "Mort" Meskin (born May 30, 1916, Brooklyn, New York City; died April 1995) was a prolific American comic book artist best-known for his work in the 1940s Golden Age of comic books, well into the late-1950s and 1960s Silver Age.
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[edit] Early life
Mort Meskin was born to parents Max and Rose Meskin on May 30, 1916 in Brooklyn, New York. He was a childhood fan of pulp magazines, especially The Shadow, and his interests led him to become the art editor of his high school newspaper, and later to attend the Art Students League of New York and Brooklyn's Pratt Institute, from which he graduated in 1938.
[edit] Comics work
After finishing school, Meskin went to work for Eisner & Iger, one of the most prominent "packagers" who supplied complete comic books to publishers testing the waters of the emerging medium. There he did pencils for Fiction House's "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle" in Jumbo Comics. In late 1939, he also worked for the packager Harry "A" Chesler, producing material for the MLJ/Archie Comics characters as Ty-Gor son of Tiger, The Press Guardian, Bob Phantom, Mr. Satan, The Shield, Wizard, and Dick Storm Between 1939 and 1942.
In 1941, Meskin started at National Comics, drawing stories for the characters Vigilante, Wildcat, Starman and Johnny Quick. He told comics historian and artist Jim Steranko that during this period his art style was heavily influenced by film: "Citizen Kane (1941) influenced us a great deal, all of us. We were very excited about it and spent quite a bit of time discussing it, employing its elements in our work. There was a contest as to who saw it the most times".[1]
During his time at National, Meskin also did work for Marvel Comics, Gleason and Nedor Comics, Spark, and other publishers. At Nedor he worked on the Black Terror as well as on the Fighting Yank together with Jerry Robinson. Meskin and Robinson also worked together on other projects for different publishers like Golden Lad and Atoman.
In 1949 he left National for Prize Comics, where he worked on a variety of titles. He returned to National in 1956, where he created the feature "Mark Merlin" and also worked on a large number of war, science fiction and romance titles.
In 1965, Meskin became a commercial illustrator and art director in the advertising industry, and gradually did less comics work.
[edit] Quotes
Steve Ditko: "Meskin was fabulous, I couldn't believe the easy with which he drew: strong compositions, loose pencils, yet complete; detail without clutter. I loved his stuff".[2]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Steranko, Jim, The Steranko History of Comics
- ^ Theakston, Greg. The Steve Ditko Reader (Pure Imagination, Brooklyn, NY, 2002; ISBN 1-56685-011-8), p. 3 (unnumbered)
