| Win Mortimer | |
|---|---|
Mortimer at his drawing board |
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| Born | James Winslow Mortimer May 1, 1919 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | January 11, 1998 |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Area(s) | Penciller |
| Notable works | Action Comics Adventure Comics Star Spangled Comics Superman Family |
James Winslow "Win" Mortimer (May 1, 1919 – January 11, 1998)[1] was a comic book and comic strip artist best known as one of the major illustrators of the DC Comics superhero Superman. He additionally drew for Marvel Comics, Gold Key, and other publishers.
He was a 2006 inductee into Canadian comics' creators Joe Shuster Hall of Fame.
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Win Mortimer was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.[1] Trained as an artist by his father, who worked for a lithography company, and at the Art Students League of New York, Mortimer found work as an illustrator after a short stint in the Canadian Army during World War II. Discharged in 1943, Mortimer found work designing posters.[1]
Mortimer began working for DC Comics in 1945,[1] and quickly became a cover artist for comics featuring Superman, Superboy and Batman. His first known comics work is as the penciler and inker of the 12-page lead Batman story, "The Batman Goes Broke"m by writer Don Cameron, in Detective Comics #105 (Nov. 1945); contractually credited to Bob Kane, it is also signed "Mortimer."[2]
He succeeded Wayne Boring on the Superman newspaper strip in 1949, leaving it in 1956 to create the adventure strip David Crane for the Prentice-Hall Syndicate. Following his run on that series, Mortimer produced the Larry Bannon strip for the Toronto Star beginning 1960,[1]
During the same period, Mortimer returned to DC and worked on a large variety of comics, ranging from humor (Stanley and His Monster, Scooter, Fat Albert) to superhero (features starring The Legion of Super-Heroes and Supergirl).[2]
By the early 1970s, Mortimer was also freelancing for other publishers, including Marvel, for which he drew virtually every story in the TV tie-in children's comic Spidey Super Stories, starring Spider-Man, for its entire, 57-issue run (Oct. 1974 - March 1982); and Gold Key (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, The Twilight Zone).[2] He left comics in 1983 to do advertising and commercial art for Neal Adams' studio, Continuity Associates.[1]
Mortimer's last superhero art was the four-issue DC miniseries World of Metropolis (Aug.-Nov. 1988), plus some character drawings for the reference Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #7 (Nov. 1988). His final comics work was pencil layout for Triad Comics' The Honeymooners #11 (June 1989). He had previously drawn issues #3-9 (late-1987 to July 1988) of that series based on the 1950s TV comedy.[2]
Mortimer is a 2006 inductee into Canadian comics' creators Joe Shuster Hall of Fame.[3]
Comics work (interior pencil art) includes: