| Al Plastino | |
|---|---|
Al Plastino in 2007 |
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| Born | December 15, 1921 |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer, Penciller, Inker, Editor, Letterer, Colorist |
| Notable works | Action Comics Adventure Comics Superboy Superman |
Al Plastino (born December 15, 1921)[1] is an American comic book artist best known as one of the most prolific Superman artists of the 1950s, along with his DC Comics colleague Wayne Boring. Plastino also worked as a comics writer, editor, letterer, and colorist.
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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" Bill Everett with Sub-Mariner. His earliest known credited comic-book work is as penciler-inker of the cover of Novelty Press' Blue Bolt Comics vol. 3, #9 (Feb. 1943). Before the war, Plastino also inked some issues of Captain America.[2]
In 1941, Plastino designed an airplane that resembled the space shuttle, and eventually showed a model of it and blueprints to Grumman Aircraft executives. Drafted shortly afterward, he spent much of World War II assigned to the graphic arts office in The Pentagon, drawing war posters and producing them in silkscreen. He was next assigned to the Adjutant General's Office, working on illustrations for U.S. Army training manuals.[2] He continued working on these after the war, while with Steinberg Studios. He also began taking on comic book art and commercial graphics.
While working out of a studio in New York City with two other cartoonists 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 became comfortable with his own style. He did 48 Superman covers as well as countless DC stories.
Plastino worked on several titles within the Superman family of comics, including Superboy and Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane. With writer Otto Binder, he co-created Supergirl in Action Comics #252 (May 1959).[2] Plastino also drew the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) and also co-created the Legion of Super-Heroes,[2] a teen superhero team from the future that eventually became one of DC's most popular features. In the early 1970s, DC assigned Plastino to retouch Jack Kirby's renditions of Superman and Jimmy Olsen, fearing that Kirby's versions were too different from the established images of the characters.[3]
Plastino drew the syndicated Batman comic strip from 1966–72, and the Superman strip in the late 1960s. Plastino drew the first appearance of the Superman villain The Parasite in Action Comics #340 (August 1966).[4] In 1968, when he and other older creators were ousted from DC Comics, Plastino, who continued to work on the DC comic strips. In 1970, he took over the syndicated strip Ferd'nand, which he drew until his retirement in 1989.
Plastino also worked on Sunday episodes of Nancy in 1982-83 after Ernie Bushmiller died.[1] During this period, David Letterman showed on TV a Nancy panel with a close shot of Plastino's signature and then made a joke about Plastino as a superhero name. (The writers for Letterman were apparently unaware that Plastino was known for his superheroes.) That same year, he was also commissioned by the United Media newspaper syndicate to ghost Peanuts when Charles Schulz underwent heart surgery in 1983.[1] These strips were never published, and were subsequently destroyed.
Since retiring from comics, Plastino has focused on painting.
Comics work (interior pencil art) includes: