| Jay Scott Pike | |
|---|---|
Jay Scott Pike, photographed in 2009. |
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| Born | 1924 (age 87–88) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Penciller, Inker |
| Pseudonym(s) | Jim Pike |
| Notable works | Dolphin Jann of the Jungle |
Jay Scott Pike (born 1924,[1] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is an American comic book artist and commercial illustrator known for his 1950s and 1960s work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, advertising art, and as a Playboy-affiliated good girl artist. He created the DC character Dolphin and co-created the Marvel character Jann of the Jungle.
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Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jay Scott Pike enrolled at the Art Students League in Manhattan, New York City at the age of 16.[2] After military service in the United States Marines, he went on to study at the Parsons School of Design, Syracuse University, and the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida.[2]
His earliest confirmed comic book art is the five-page story "The Living Dead", by an unknown writer, in Adventures into Terror #3 (April 1951), from Atlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel Comics. Tentative earlier credits exist,[3][4] but because it was not standard practice during this period to list complete writer/artist comic-book credits, confirmation is difficult.
Pike quickly became a regular Atlas Comics contributor, drawing in a variety of genres for such titles as the Westerns Black Rider, Red Warrior, Texas Kid, and Wild Western;[3] such crime comics as All True Crime Cases Comics, Amazing Detective Cases, Crime Must Lose, and Justice;[4] romance comics, including Girl Confessions, Love Romances, Love Tales, My Own Romance, Secret Story Romance, and True Secrets;[4] war comics such as Battle, Battlefield, Battlefront, Combat Casey, Men's Adventures, Men in Action, and War Action;[3] and horror comics including Adventures into Weird Worlds, Journey into Mystery, Mystic, and Uncanny Tales;[3] and jungle adventure such as Jungle Tales, and Lorna, the Jungle Girl,[3][4] among other comics. With writer Don Rico, he co-created the character Jann of the Jungle in Jungle Tales #1 (Sept. 1954),[5] and drew her adventures in numerous issues of that title and her own series. His final Atlas/Marvel works were the six-page story "When a Romance Ends" in Love Romances #87 (May 1960), and the five-page "Love Or Infatuation?", written by Stan Lee,[6] years later in issue #105 (May 1963).[3] (Many of Pike's 1950s Atlas stories were reprinted by Marvel Comics in the 1970s.)[3]
Pike began drawing for rival DC Comics in the mid-1960s, beginning with the 12-page story "In the Name of Love", starring Wendy Winthrop, Television Model, by an unknown writer, in Girls' Romances #99 (March 1964). He primarily drew for the publisher's romance comics, including Heart Throbs, Our Love Story, Secret Hearts, and Young Love.[3] For Heart Throbs, Pike and inker Russ Jones illustrated the long-running feature "3 Girls—Their Lives—Their Loves," which ran from 1966–1970.
In addition to his DC romance work, Pike as both writer and artist created the undersea superheroine Dolphin in Showcase #79 (Dec. 1968).[7] His stories continued to appear in DC Comics through Girls' Love Stories #180 (Dec. 1973).[3]
By the early 1960s, Pike was drawing covers for such magazines as True Detective.[8]
His good girl art pinup work included succeeding Art Frahm on the "panties-falling-down" series for the A. Fox calendar company. The last in this series, featuring a brunette and her dog outside a construction site, is entitled "Dog Tied".[9]
As an advertising artist, he worked on campaigns for clients including Borden, Ford Motor Company, General Mills, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, and Trans World Airlines.[2] Near the end of his commercial career, Pike began painting fine art canvases of nudes, as well as pencil drawings of nudes that appeared in Playboy clubs before being published.[2]
After a long hiatus from comic books, Pike returned in 1993 to draw layouts for two issues and then do full penciling for an issue on the DC Comics series Scarlett #12-14 (Dec. 1993 - Feb. 1994).[3] He also penciled the 58-page story "All Good Things" in DC's one-shot comic Star Trek: The Next Generation The Series Finale (1994)[3]
Pike is now retired and living in Florida, where he still paints every day.