Product Code Database
Carl Burgos ( ; born Max Finkelstein ; April 18, 1916 – March 1984 Note: Gives only month and year of death.) was an American comic book and advertising artist best known for creating the original Human Torch in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939), during the period historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books.
He was inducted into comic books' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1996.
Burgos and others, including Centaur Publications writer-artist Bill Everett, then followed Centaur art director Lloyd Jacquet to Jacquet's own newly formed packager, Funnies, Inc. As Everett later described, "Lloyd... had an idea that he wanted to start his own art service — to start a small organization to supply artwork and editorial material to publishers. ... He asked me to join him. He also asked Carl Burgos. So we were the nucleus ..."Bill Everett interview, originally published in Alter Ego #11, 1978; reprinted in Alter Ego vol. 3, #46 (March 2005); p. 8 of the latter. He added, "I don't know how to explain it, but I was still on a freelance basis. That was the agreement we had. The artists, including myself, at Funnies, worked on a freelance basis".
Following an unsuccessful attempt at a promotional comic to be given away in movie theaters, Funnies, Inc.'s first sale was to publisher Martin Goodman's equally new Timely Comics, the predecessor of Marvel Comics, supplying the contents of Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939). That landmark issue included not only writer-artist Burgos' Human Torch but also Everett's hit character the Sub-Mariner. A painted cover by veteran science-fiction pulp magazine artist Frank R. Paul featured the Torch.
Burgos' character proved a hit, and quickly went on to headline one of comics' first single-character titles, The Human Torch (premiering fall 1940 with no cover date and as issue #2, having taken over the numbering from the single-issue Red Raven). The Human Torch at Don Markstein's Toonopedia He next created the superhero character the White Streak in Novelty Press' Target Comics #1 (Feb. 1940), and, with writer John Compton, the superhero the Thunderer in Timely's Daring Mystery Comics #7 (April 1941).
Burgos left for World War II military service in 1942, starting in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Carl Burgos at the Lambiek Comiclopedia.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archived from the original on July 27, 2018. Note: Gives erroneous birth year. for which he took infantry ranger training and was sent overseas as a rifleman before being transferred to the Signal Corps and then to an engineer division.
His most prominent comics work during this time came during Atlas' mid-1950s attempt at reviving the dormant superhero field with Timely stars the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America, with Burgos drawing the Human Torch stories in Young Men #25–28 (Feb.–June 1954), as well as the covers of Young Men #24–25 (Dec. 1953 – Feb. 1954) and of the short-lived relaunch Human Torch #36–38 (April–Aug. 1954); he also redrew at least the Human Torch figure in the first panel of artist Russ Heath's nine-page story "The Return Of The Human Torch" in Young Men #24. Burgos during the '50s also contributed to the Atlas humor comics Crazy, Wild, and Riot; the Western comic Annie Oakley; and science-fiction/horror fiction anthologies, including Astonishing, Journey Into Unknown Worlds, Strange Stories of Suspense and Strange Tales of the Unusual, “Haunted Thrills”, among many others. His last credited Atlas story was the five-page "Dateline - Iwo Jima" in Battle #70 (June 1960).
He did humor for Pierce Publishing's Frantic, Satire Publications' Loco, and Major Magazines' Cracked during 1958 and 1959, as well as layout art for the Archie Comics series The Adventures of The Fly and The Double Life of Private Strong. Burgos also provided illustrations for Marvel publisher Martin Goodman's 1950s pulp magazines, including Marvel Science Stories and Western Magazine; as well as covers for the reprint publisher I.W. Publications.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Burgos worked for the Pro-Art Company and later for the Belwin Company, where he drew covers for sheet-music books, sometimes assisted by Susan Burgos, one of his two daughters. He also worked for a greeting-card company.
Stan (referring to the Torch and the Thing): "There go the greatest guys in the world, Carl."
Carl: "Aw, you're just prejudiced, Stan."
Fellow Atlas/Marvel artist Stan Goldberg observed in 2005, "Carl and Stan never really got along, because their personalities clashed. When Atlas became Marvel, Carl never really got back into the company, or really into comics, either".
Marvel eventually revived Burgos' original Human Torch for present-day stories, starting with The Fantastic Four Annual #4 (Nov. 1966). That same year, Burgos created a short-lived character called Captain Marvel for Myron Fass' M. F. Enterprises as a result of Fawcett Comics losing its trademark. He was quickly ordered to cease by Marvel Comics. Captain Marvel at Don Markstein's Toonopedia His last recorded comics art was the cover of Captain Marvel #4 (Nov. 1966).
From 1971 to 1975, Burgos served as an editor for Fass' Eerie Publications line of black-and-white horror fiction-comic magazines, including Horror Tales, Weird, Tales from the Tomb, Tales of Voodoo, Terror Tales, Weird, and Witches Tales. Through 1984 he edited magazines for Harris Publications. At the time of his death from colon cancer, he lived in Nassau County, New York, on Long Island.
|
|
