| Lee Elias | |
|---|---|
 Lee Elias (r.) withHarvey Comics publisher Alfred Harvey in 1947 | |
| Born | Leopold Elias (1920-05-21)May 21, 1920 Manchester, United Kingdom |
| Died | April 8, 1998(1998-04-08) (aged 77) |
| Area | Penciller,Inker |
Notable works | Beyond Mars Black Cat |
Lee Elias (May 21, 1920 – April 8, 1998)[1] was aBritish-Americancomics artist. He was best known for his work on theBlack Cat comic book published byHarvey Comics in the 1940s.
Emigrating to the United States fromManchester, England, when he was a boy, Elias studied art at theCooper Union and theArt Students League of New York. He started working in comics in 1943 atFiction House,[1] where his work included features such as "Captain Wings" inWing Comics, on which he succeededBob Lubbers, as well as the Western heroFirehair.[2]
After leaving Fiction House in 1946, he worked for several different comics companies, includingTimely Comics,Hillman Periodicals, andNational/DC where he worked on such characters as theFlash,Tommy Tomorrow,[3] andBlack Canary.[2] He drew three issues ofAll Star Comics in 1947[4] and co-created theFiddler and the originalStar Sapphire with writerRobert Kanigher inAll-Flash #32 (Dec. 1947).[5]
It was Elias's work onBlack Cat, a stuntwoman turned crimefighter, for Harvey Comics, that stood out in this period. The series was praised by comics historianTrina Robbins for its "logical" and "straightforward" approach,[6] in contrast to more fantasy-oriented titles likeWonder Woman. Elias worked both as a penciler and an inker in this series, with an art style largely influenced by artists such asMilton Caniff andNoel Sickles. Elias worked for a period as Caniff's assistant.[7] He used the same style for the comic book version ofTerry and the Pirates, Caniff's classiccomic strip in the same period. Lee Elias left comic books after the 1954 publication ofFredric Wertham's anti-comics bookSeduction of the Innocent, which used four of hisBlack Cat panels as examples of "depraved" comic art.
Elias' work oncomic strips included a two-year stint as an assistant toAl Capp onLi'l Abner. His best known comic strip wasBeyond Mars, which ran from 1952 to 1955 and was co-created by Elias andscience fiction writerJack Williamson.[7] The strip was exclusive to theNew York Daily News'Sunday paper in the United States[8] but was syndicated in Europe and Australia. It was the lastSunday strip to be color-engraved by hand, according to comic strip historianRick Marschall.
Elias drew the "Green Arrow" backup feature inAdventure Comics[9] andWorld's Finest Comics from 1959 to 1964.[2] He and writerBob Haney co-created thesupervillainEclipso inHouse of Secrets #61 (August 1963).[10][11] Elias only drew the first two appearances of the character and was succeeded on the feature byAlex Toth.[12] His other work for DC in the 1960s includedCave Carson andAdam Strange.[2] From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, Elias returned to his native England.[3] In 1972, Elias came back to American comic books, working mainly on DC's various horror titles and secondaryMarvel Comics titles includingPower Man andTheHuman Fly.[2] His last major project wasThe Rook series forWarren Publishing,[1] a black-and-white time travel series which played to his strengths as a Western and science fiction artist. With the cancellation ofThe Rook in 1982, Elias retired from comics, though he continued teaching at theSchool of Visual Arts andThe Kubert School.[1]
Although writer Robert Kanigher and artist Lee Elias introduced a pair of new villains toAll-Flash in this issue, the series couldn't stem the ebbing popularity of the super hero genre and issue #32 became its last.
They hired Hugo Award-winning novelist Jack Williamson to write the scripts, and Lee Elias, former assistant to Milton Caniff onTerry, as artist.Beyond Mars debuted on February 17, 1952
| Preceded by | "Green Arrow" feature inAdventure Comics artist 1959–1960 | Succeeded by n/a |
| Preceded by Jack Kirby | "Green Arrow" feature inWorld's Finest Comics artist 1959–1964 | Succeeded by n/a |
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