| Gray Morrow | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Dwight Graydon Morrow (1934-03-07)March 7, 1934 Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | November 6, 2001(2001-11-06) (aged 67) Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Area | Penciller,Inker |
Notable works | Tarzan,Buck Rogers,Flash Gordon,The Illustrated Roger Zelazny |
| Awards | Nominated forHugo Award in 1966, 1967, and 1968 |
Dwight Graydon "Gray"Morrow[1] (March 7, 1934 – November 6, 2001)[2] was anAmerican illustrator ofcomics, magazine covers andpaperback books. He is co-creator of theMarvel Comics muck-monster theMan-Thing and ofDC ComicsOld West vigilanteEl Diablo.
Morrow was born March 7, 1934, inFort Wayne, Indiana,[3][4] and he attendedNorth Side High School.[5] He recalled in 1973 that, "Comic art was certainly the first artform I remember being impressed with ... [T]hose gorgeous gory newsstand spreads ..."[5] After serving as editor of his high-school yearbook, for which he did cartoons and illustration,[6] and working a number of odd jobs including "soda jerk, street repairman, tie designer, exercise boy on the race track circuit, etc.," he enrolled in theChicago Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago, Illinois, in late summer 1954, studying two nights a week for three months under Jerry Warshaw for "the total of my entire formal art training."[5] His first formal commission "was something like a bank ad or a tie design when I was still in my teens."[7] He joined the city's Feldkamp-Malloy art studio, later being fired. Feeling encouraged by a meeting withcomic-strip artistAllen Saunders, Morrow submitted strip samples to various syndicates with no luck.[5]
Undaunted, he moved to New York City in winter 1955 and by the following spring had met fellow young comics artistsAl Williamson,Angelo Torres, andWally Wood. He sold his firstcomic-book story, aromance tale, toToby Press, which went out of business before it could be published. Morrow next did two stories for another company — aWestern with original characters and an adaptation ofpulp-fiction writerRobert E. Howard's "The Tower of the Elephant", but this company, too, went defunct. He then worked for Williamson and Wood[5] doing backgrounds and layouts, and through Williamson began contributing toAtlas Comics, the 1950s iteration ofMarvel Comics,[8] drawing severalsupernatural-fantasy stories plus at least four Westerns and onewar story on titlescover-dated July 1956 to June 1957.[9]
Morrow illustrated several stories forEC Comics in the 1950s, including horror, suspense and science fiction. He later did covers and stories for the company's New Trend comics and Picto-Fiction magazines.[9]
In late 1956, Morrow was drafted[8] into theU.S. Army.[10] Stationed atIncheon andWolmido Island, South Korea, with Fox Company, he did "illustrations and paintings for the officers' club, day rooms, insignias on helmets for their parades ... you know, anything and everything. That was my official duty."[8] After being discharged in 1958, "My friend Angelo Torres took me around to a couple of his clients, one being 'Classics' [i.e., theGilberton Company, publisher of theClassics Illustrated comic-book series of literary adaptations], and I was given a script. One thing led to another and I was soon working on a regular basis.[10]
Prior to his Gilberton stint, Morrow contributed to one of the first black-and-whitehorror-comics magazines, theJoe Simon-editedEerie Tales #1 (Nov. 1959) from Hastings Associates,penciling andinking two four-page stories by an unknown writer, "The Stalker" and "Burn!"[9]
In the early 1960s, Morrow anonymously[4] illustrated three literary adaptations forClassics Illustrated:The Octopus byFrank Norris (#159, Nov. 1960);Master of the World byJules Verne (#163, July 1961); andThe Queen's Necklace byAlexandre Dumas (#165, Jan. 1962),[11] which he said he penciled and inked at the rate of "eight pages a day ... as fast as I've ever been able to go" since "I'd moved to California and needed those checks badly."[12] Morrow also supplied drawings for chapters inClassics Illustrated Special Issue #159A,Rockets, Jets and Missiles (Dec. 1960), and in 13World Around Us issues ranging fromPrehistoric Animals (Nov. 1959) toFamous Teens (May 1961).[13] One of those, #W28,Whaling (Dec. 1960), resulted in unexpected controversy when he accurately depictedAfrican-Americanwhalers:
[T]he page rate [at Gilberton in general] wasn't much for the accuracy and authenticity they expected, but it was a challenge to 'do it right.' Roberta and Len Cole were demanding but genial editors. One job I do remember ... something about whaling, got me in dutch [i.e. trouble] with Roberta. My research indicated that many of the whalers were black — so that's what I drew. She had a fit and insisted they all be redrawn to 'avoid controversy.'[10]
In the end, the problematic chapter, "The Long Voyage", retained what one comics historian called "a respectable number of African-American whalemen."[10] Morrow, however, recalled, "[T]hey had me make them all white. I had to change their features."[8]
Concurrently, Morrow also illustrated entries in theBobbs-Merrill juvenile book series "Childhood of Famous Americans", continuing with that publisher after Gilberton ceased production of new titles. Morrow's art appears inHenry Clay: Young Kentucky Orator (1963),Douglas MacArthur: Young Protector and other entries.[12] Some, includingCrispus Attucks, Black Leader of Colonial Patriots,[14]Teddy Roosevelt, YoungRough Rider,[15] andAbner Doubleday: Young Baseball Pioneer,[16] were reprinted by successor publishers in the 1980s and 1990s.
Morrow next began a three-year association withWarren Publishing's line of black-and-white horror-comics magazines in 1964, starting with the six-page story "Bewitched!," written byLarry Ivie, inCreepy #1, and contributed over a dozen stories to that magazine and its sister publicationEerie, as well as to thewar-comics magazineBlazing Combat, through 1967.[9] He also painted four horror covers for Warren. For competitorSkywald Publications, he drew the eight-page "The Skin And Bones Syndrome" forPsycho #1 (Jan. 1971), and co-created the muck-monsterMan-Thing, with writersRoy Thomas andGerry Conway, inMarvel Comics' first entry into the adult-oriented comics-magazine market, the black-and-whiteSavage Tales #1 (May 1971).[17]
By 1970, Morrow was married to Betty Morrow, who wrote a story he drew, "The Journey", in the earlyindependent comicwitzend #7 (1970).[18] That same year he returned to color comics, drawing several supernatural-fantasy stories forDC Comics'Witching Hour,House of Secrets andHouse of Mystery, as well as a smattering of romance and superhero tales.[9] He also drew Western stories, and with writerRobert Kanigher co-created theOld West vigilanteEl Diablo inAll-Star Western #2 (Oct. 1970).[19] He did a small amount of work for Marvel during this time, with the cover and a romance story forMy Love #14 (Nov. 1971), a Man-Thing cover and story inAdventure into Fear #10 (Oct. 1972), two "Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars" stories inCreatures on the Loose #20-21 (Nov. 1972 - Jan. 1973), and virtually his only Marvel superhero story, a 10-pageFalcon feature inCaptain America #144 (Dec. 1971).[9]
By 1973, Morrow had served as an uncreditedghost artist[7] or art assistant[4] on the syndicated comic stripsRip Kirby byJohn Prentice,Secret Agent X-9 byAl Williamson andBig Ben Bolt byJohn Cullen Murphy. He took over theBuck Rogers strip in 1979 and theTarzan Sunday strip from 1983 to 2001.[4] He recalled trying out forPrince Valiant, saying he provided a sample "when [strip creator]Hal Foster decided to go into semi-retirement. It was done in August and published in October or November of '71. It was done as a sample when Foster interviewed [me] and a couple of others (Wally Wood and John Cullen Murphy) to take over."[20]
Through 1974 and early 1975, he edited and frequently drew stories forArchie Comics'imprint of non-teen-humor titles,Red Circle Comics, includingChilling Adventures in Sorcery, its successorRed Circle Sorcery, and the single-issueThe Super Cops, based on two real-lifeNew York City Police Department detectives.[9] Following this, he specialized in covers and stories for such black-and-white Marvel magazines asMasters of Terror,Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction andMarvel Preview. Afterward, through 1976, he wasart director ofCharlton Comics' black-and-white magazineSpace: 1999, based on theTV series of that name.[9] Active in the early independent comics of the 1970s, Morrow contributed mostly spot illustrations, covers and pinups rather than stories to titles including publisher David Jablin'sImagination #1 (1971); Mark Feldman'sI'll Be Damned #4 (1971); John Carbonaro'sPhase #1 (Sept. 1971); Doug Murray & Richard GarrisonHeritage #1A and 1B (1972); and Gary Berman & Adam Malin'sInfinity #2, 3B, 4-5 (1970?-1973).[21]
In 1978, he began publishing, inHeavy Metal magazine, a series of stories that would be collected in 2012 as chapters of thesword and sorcerygraphic novelOrion.[22][23][24] Likewise, hisPlayboy feature "Amora", which he both wrote and drew,[1] was collected asHeritage presents ... Amora, from theForest Park,Georgia publisher Heritage in 1971.[25] He illustrated and colored each of the severalRoger Zelazny stories that the author self-adapted for the 96-page graphic short-story collectionThe Illustrated Roger Zelazny, produced byByron Preiss Enterprizes and published by Baronet Publishing in February 1979.[9]
In addition to comics, Morrow in the 1960s and 1970s was an illustrator for manyscience-fiction magazines, with examples of his work gracing most of the covers of the American version of thePerry Rhodanpaperback-book series.[7] He did regular interior artwork forGalaxy Science Fiction from 1964 to 1968 including the illustrations for the original Galaxy Science Fiction publication of theHugo-winning novellaSoldier, Ask Not byGordon R. Dickson.[citation needed] Additionally, he drew forsatirical-humor magazineNational Lampoon[7]
In the 1980s, he wrote and drewPacific Comics' three-issueEdge of Chaos (July 1983 - Jan. 1984), a science-fiction retelling of the story of theGreek gods. Through the decade he did sporadic but diverse work for Marvel and DC, ranging from stories ofLois Lane[26] to those ofMark Hazzard: Merc, as well as horror and science-fiction stories forEclipse Comics;satirical humor forCracked; "The Sex Vampires from Outer Space" and other stories for the same publisher's black-and-white comics magazineMonsters Attack; andMarvel Graphic Novel: Dreamwalker (1989), a 63-pagesuperhero/espionage thriller written by actorsMiguel Ferrer andBill Mumy.[9] He drew the comics adaptations of theSheena andSupergirl[27] movies in 1984. Morrow briefly drew DC'sSpectre series in 1988.[28]
The following decade, continuing his trend of wide-ranging work, he drew the superhero feature "Powerline", by writersD. G. Chichester and Margaret Clark, in several issues of the Marvel/Epic Comics anthologyA Shadowline Saga: Critical Mass; inkedMichael Davis on writerMike Grell's DC Comics miniseriesShado: Song of the Dragon #1-4; contributed to DC's "The Big Book of ..."trade paperback line of non-fiction vignettes on a variety of topics; drew the Historical Souvenir Co.'s 40-page, non-fictionEpic Battles of the Civil War #2 - Shiloh (1998); drew children'sMighty Morphin Power Rangers adventurers forHamilton Comics and adult-oriented stories forPenthouse Comix; and did work for suchindependent comics publishers asAardwolf Publishing,Dark Horse Comics andNBM, and theunderground comix publisherRip Off Press. His last new work was his posthumously published contribution, with four other artists, to the 10-page story "Letters From a Broken Apple", written by Neil Kleid, in Alternative Comics' benefitone-shot9-11 Emergency Relief (Jan. 2002).[9]
Morrow worked intelevision animation, including on aSpider-Man TV series,[7] and was a member ofThe Animation Guild, I.A.T.S.E. Local 839.[29]
He painted or drew the theatricalone-sheet for theAl Adamson horror filmFive Bloody Graves (1970), and drew theKing Kong cover of the premiere issue ofThe Monster Times.[30]
By 1973, when he was living in Brooklyn,[8] Morrow was married with a family that included adopted children.[31]
He was living inKunkletown, Pennsylvania, and suffering fromParkinson's disease[23] when he died November 6, 2001,[3][2] from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.[4] He was survived by his later wife, Pocho Morrow.[23]
Morrow was nominated for theHugo Award forbest professional artist in 1966,[32] 1967,[33] and 1968.[34] In 2005, he was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Cartoonists Associates Hall of Fame inPauls Valley, Oklahoma, located in theToy and Action Figure Museum.[35][36]
Savage Tales ... was more notable for the debut of Marvel's mindless swamp monster, the Man-Thing, in an origin story written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Gray Morrow.
When theSupergirl movie made its US premiere on November 21, 1984, the only comic book on the stands in support of it was a one-shot adaptation written by Joey Cavalieri and drawn by Gray Morrow.
