| Al Plastino | |
|---|---|
 Al Plastino in 2007 | |
| Born | Alfred John Plastino (1921-12-15)December 15, 1921 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | November 25, 2013(2013-11-25) (aged 91) Patchogue, New York, U.S. |
| Area | Writer,Penciller,Inker, Editor,Letterer,Colourist |
Notable works | Action Comics Adventure Comics Superboy Superman |
| Awards | Inkpot Award (2008) |
Alfred John Plastino[1] (December 15, 1921 – November 25, 2013) was an Americancomics artist best known as one of the most prolificSuperman artists of the 1950s, along with hisDC Comics colleagueWayne Boring. Plastino also worked as a comics writer, editor,letterer, andcolorist.
With writerOtto Binder, he co-created the DC charactersSupergirl andBrainiac, as well as the teenage team theLegion of Super-Heroes.
Born atSaint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center inManhattan, New York City, on December 15, 1921,[2] and raised inThe Bronx, Plastino was interested in art since grade school.[3] He attended theSchool of Industrial Art in New York City,[3] and afterward began illustrating forYouth Today magazine. He was accepted into the collegeCooper Union but chose to continue working as a freelance artist.[4] His earliest known credited comic-book work is aspenciler-inker of theDynamic Man and Major Victory superhero features and Green Knight medieval-adventure story inDynamic Publications'Dynamic Comics #2 (cover-dated Dec. 1941).[5] Before the war, Plastino inked some issues ofCaptain America Comics.[6]
With the outbreak ofWorld War II, Plastino and his brothers were drafted, and he served in theU.S. Army. There, a sketch he had made for a model airplane he had designed[4] caught an officer's attention, leading to his being assigned toGrumman Aerospace Corporation, theNational Inventors Council, and thenThe Pentagon.[3] He was assigned there to theAdjutant General's office,[4] where he designed war posters and field manuals.[3] After his discharge he began working for Steinberg Studios, drawing Army posters.[3]
While working out of a studio in New York City with two other cartoonists in 1948, Plastino showed sample art of Superman to DC Comics, which offered him work at $35 a page. Plastino, who had heard that Superman artists were receiving $55 a page, negotiated a $50 rate.[7] Now settled in the comic book field, he largely dropped other commercial work for two decades. Early on at DC, Plastino was forced to copyWayne Boring's style but gradually began using his own style.[8] He did 48[5]Superman covers as well as countless DC stories. Plastino and writerBill Finger produced the story forSuperman #61 (Nov. 1949) in whichkryptonite, which had originated onThe Adventures of Superman radio program, made its way into the comic books.[9] He drew the Lois Lane feature inShowcase #9 (Aug. 1957) which served as a tryout for the character's own series.[10]
Plastino worked on several titles within the Superman family of comics, includingSuperboy andSuperman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane. Plastino drew the Superboy story inAdventure Comics #247 (April 1958) that introduced theLegion of Super-Heroes, a teen superhero team from the future that eventually became one of DC's most popular features;[11] with writerOtto Binder, Plastino co-created the first Legion characters,Cosmic Boy,Lightning Lad (as Lightning Boy) andSaturn Girl.[5] Binder and Plastino debuted the villainBrainiac and the Bottle City ofKandor inAction Comics #242 (July 1958).[12] The two men co-createdSupergirl inAction Comics #252 (May 1959).[5][13] Plastino drew the first appearance of the supervillain theParasite inAction Comics #340 (Aug. 1966).[14]
Plastino's "greatest pride"'[1] was a story he drew forSuperman #168 (April 1964, scheduled for publication Feb. 1964), titled "Superman's Mission for President Kennedy."[15] The piece was done in collaboration with theKennedy administration to help promote the president's national physical fitness program. In the story, Superman visits theWhite House, and trusts PresidentJohn F. Kennedy with his secret identity. The story was produced shortly beforeKennedy was assassinated, which led to the cancellation of its publication. At the behest of PresidentLyndon B. Johnson, it was published two months later, inSuperman #170 (June 1964),[15] with Plastino adding a title page showing a ghostly figure of Kennedy looking down from the heavens at Superman flying over Washington, D.C.[16] Plastino had always believed the artwork had been donated to theJohn F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, but the artwork was placed on auction by a private entity in late 2013.[16][17] DC Entertainment subsequently purchased the art and donated it to the Library.[18]
In the early 1970s, DC Comics, fearingJack Kirby's versions of Superman andJimmy Olsen were too different from their established representations, assigned Plastino (among other artists) to redraw those characters' heads in Kirby's various titles.[19] In 1996, Plastino was one of the many artists who contributed to theSuperman: The Wedding Album one-shot wherein the title character marriedLois Lane.[20]
Plastino drew thesyndicatedBatman with Robin the Boy Wonder comic strip[21] from March 17, 1968, to January 1, 1972[22] and was the uncreditedghost artist on theSuperman strip from 1960 to 1966.[23] In 1970, he took over the syndicated stripFerd'nand, which he drew until his retirement in 1989.[24]
Plastino also worked on Sunday episodes ofNancy from 1982 to 1983 afterErnie Bushmiller died.[24] Plastino's official website says the artist was commissioned by theUnited Media newspaper syndicate to ghostPeanuts whenCharles Schulz underwent heart surgery in 1983,[4] butDavid Michaelis, author ofSchulz and Peanuts: A Biography, revealed that syndicate president William C. Payette had hired Plastino to draw a backlog ofPeanuts strips during contract negotiations with Schulz in the 1970s. When Schulz and the syndicate reached a successful agreement, United Media stored these unpublished strips, the existence of which eventually became public.[25]
Al Plastino received anInkpot Award in 2008.[26]
Plastino lived for many years inShirley, New York, onLong Island.[2] At the time of his death on November 25, 2013,[27] at Brookhaven Hospital inPatchogue, New York,[1][28] he had been suffering fromGuillain–Barré syndrome. He and his wife AnnMarie were married for 55 years. They had four children: Fred, Janice, Arlene, and the eldest, MaryAnn,[2] who managed his business affairs.[16]
When asked why he broke from following Boring's lead, Plastino said, 'No one said change it. Wayne's work was really clean cut and professional, though the characters were a little stiff. It almost hurt me to draw like him. I tried to keep the look consistent, but it gradually did change.'
Kryptonite finally appeared in comics following its introduction inThe Adventures of Superman radio show back in 1943. In a story by writer Bill Finger and artist Al Plastino...the Man of Steel determined that the cause of his weakness was a piece of meteorite rock.
...Plastino's daughter, MaryAnn Plastino Charles, 55, told The Post. 'He is 91, he has prostate cancer, and this is not helping him at all,' she said of her dad....
Plastino drew new Superman figures and Olsen heads in roughly the same poses and positions, and these were pasted into the artwork.
...who died this afternoon.
| Preceded by | Action Comics penciller 1948–1968 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Win Mortimer | Superman penciller 1948–1968 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by John Sikela | Superboy penciller 1957–1968 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
