| Nick Cuti | |
|---|---|
| Born | Nicola Cuti October 29, 1944 New York City, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer, Artist, Inker, Editor |
| Notable works | E-Man, Moonchild, Captain Cosmos, Moonie |
| Awards | Ray Bradbury Award (twice) Inkpot Award, 2009 |
Nicola Cuti (b. October 29, 1944), known as Nick Cuti, is an artist and comic book writer-editor, notable for his creation of E-Man and Moonchild. He has also worked as an animation background designer, magazine illustrator and screenwriter.
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Cuti grew up in Brooklyn, where he immersed himself in Golden Age comic books of the pre-Comics Code era and the early space opera TV series, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and Captain Video.
In the mid-1960s, while serving with the Air Force in Europe, Cuti encountered the Warren horror and science-fiction magazines, which prompted him to write and submit a script, "Grub", which was published in Warren's Creepy. Cuti also drew a simple six-panel comic strip for a French friend's fledgling art magazine.
Returning home, Cuti began attending the New York Comic Art Convention, initiated by Phil Seuling, and determined to make his future in comics. He associated with other young comics artists, such as Vaughn Bodé, Trina Robbins and Bill Pearson. While employed at the Ralph Bakshi animation studio, he continued to produce scripts for the Warren magazines.
In 1973 Cuti met Charlene Veselsky while flying to Florida to visit his parents. They fell in love and married and had a daughter, Jaymee Rose. They divorced in 1995.
Starting in 1968, he self-published three underground comix featuring his first original character, Moonchild, a big-eyed, buxom innocent waif who had the ability to live in outer space without any life support systems. Moonchild Comics sold well in the head shops of that era, and are now collectors’ items. She was also featured in Mark Estren's book A History of the Underground Comics, in the first underground comic in full color, Weird Fantasies and in several issues of Cheri magazine. She was then published as a three issue mini-series, under the name Moonie, Moonchild the Starbabe, by MU Press with covers, writing, editing, pencils by Cuti and inks and lettering by the late Dave Simons.
Cuti had long admired the work of legendary comic artist Wally Wood and phoned him asking permission to show him his portfolio. Wood saw promise in the naive drawings, and was especially interested in Moonchild. Cuti did a single page comic strip featuring her but it was never published in Wood's magazine Witzend,however, Cuti eventually became Wood's studio assistant at the Wood Studio in Valley Stream, Long Island. He worked on the strips Cannon and Sally Forth for Wood.[1]
In 1972, when he was hired as the assistant to George Wildman, editor of the Charlton Comics in Derby, Connecticut. Charlton was a low-paying outfit that nonetheless produced a variety of comic book genres from 1946 until its demise in 1986, even after most publishers had long since turned to a steady diet of superhero titles.
Cuti began turning out scripts for Charlton's horror and fantasy titles, working with artists such as Steve Ditko, Don Newton, Wayne Howard and Tom Sutton. He recruited younger artists such as John Byrne and Mike Zeck, who began freelancing for Charlton and illustrated some of Cuti's stories. In less than three years, Cuti produced well over 200 story scripts and text features for Charlton.
In 1973, he teamed with Joe Staton, who collaborated with him in the creation of E-Man, a naive alien superhero who became a cult favorite. The character epitomized Cuti's disdain for the melodramatic, cape-wearing superheroes of other publishers. Cuti and Staton also co-created Michael Mauser, a grubby and uncouth private investigator, who began as an extra in E-Man but was quickly spun off into a series of his own. Both characters survived the implosion of Charlton and continue to the present, with Cuti and Staton collaborating on one-shots and series of new E-Man and Michael Mauser comics and stories.
Cuti left Charlton in 1976 and went back to work for Warren, producing more than 100 story scripts for Warren's horror and fantasy magazines, until that company's demise in the early 1980s. At various times he held the positions of contributing editor, assistant editor and consulting editor.
During the same period, he taught himself the medium of scratchboard, emulating an artist he admired, Frank Kelly Freas. Cuti developed a realistic scratchboard style in contrast to his inked cartoon style and began selling illustrations to mainstream magazines such as Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Analog, Amazing Stories and Heavy Metal.
After he left Warren, Cuti became an assistant editor and then digest editor[2] at DC Comics, handling various superhero and children's titles and scripting his own six-part space opera, Spanner's Galaxy, illustrated by Tom Mandrake.
Cuti moved to California in 1986 to begin work for animated TV series, producing background and prop designs for a dozen different studios, including Disney, Sony Pictures and Universal Studios. At the same time, he continued write comic book scripts and create magazine and book art in both scratchboard and paint.
Captain Cosmos, Cuti's homage to the TV space operas of his childhood, appeared in a series of comic books created in collaboration with Staton and also in Cuti's novel, Spin a Web of Death, three radio dramas and three short TV films. Moonchild returned to print in a three-part comic series in 1992 as Moonie, Moonchild the Starbabe and as novels in 2003.
In 2003, Cuti moved to Florida, where he has scripted for independent films—some adapted from his Charlton and Warren scripts—and consolidated his Captain Cosmos TV series into a full-length feature film, Captain Cosmos and the Gray Ghosts. Films produced and written by Cuti include Grub, Shock House, Tagged! and The Lady Without Substance.
Cuti has written and illustrated three text novels with his character "Moonie" as the heroine, Moonie and the Spider Queen (2009) (inks by Dave Simons), Moonie in the Slave Market of Opuul (2010) (inks by Mark Stegbauer) and Moonie in Too Many Moons (2010) (inks by Mark Stegbauer).[3]
Cuti was twice awarded Warren’s Ray Bradbury Award for writing. In 2009, Cuti was awarded the Inkpot Award for career achievement at the San Diego Comic-Con International.[1]