Posted in: Comics | Tagged: al plastino, Comics, jkf, superman

Al Plastino Passes, Age 91

Published Tue, 26 Nov 2013 04:45:47 -0600

Last updated Tue, 26 Nov 2013 11:38:18 -0600

As some of you may have heard, veteran comic book artist Al Plastino has been locked in a messy squabble lately regarding the ownership of the original art he drew in 1964 for a Superman story about President John F. Kennedy. The battle has come to a sad ending for Mr. Plastino, who died this afternoon. He was 91 and had been battling prostate cancer for some time.

Plastino was, I believe, the only person alive who drew Superman comics professionally before about 1967. He started in 1948. His earliest known comic book work was in 1941 for a little-known company called Dynamic Comics. After serving in World War II, he freelanced in and out of comics until connecting in '48 with DC, where he worked until the early seventies. For most of that time, he was the second-string Superman artist. Wayne Boring was the main guy through the fifties, then it was Curt Swan. The stories they didn't have time to do were done by Plastino. He drew some memorable stories for the Superman line of comics, including the first stories of Supergirl and also of The Legion of Super-Heroes.

The full obituary is here. Last heard the auction site was investigating the provenance of the Superman pages that were being contested. It's another sadness that this wasn't to have been cleared up in Plastino's lifetime.

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