| Sheldon Moldoff | |
|---|---|
 Moldoff at a convention in his later years. | |
| Born | Sheldon Douglas Moldoff April 14, 1920 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | February 29, 2012(2012-02-29) (aged 91) Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. |
| Area | Penciller |
| Pseudonym | Shelly |
Notable works | Batman,Poison Ivy,Mr. Freeze |
| Awards | Inkpot Award |
| Signature | |
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Sheldon "Shelly"Moldoff (/ˈmoʊldɒf/; April 14, 1920 – February 29, 2012)[1] was an Americancomics artist best known for his early work on theDC Comics charactersHawkman andHawkgirl, and as one ofBob Kane's primary "ghost artists" (uncredited collaborators) on thesuperheroBatman. He co-created the Batman supervillainsPoison Ivy,Mr. Freeze, the secondClayface, andBat-Mite, as well as the original heroesBat-Girl,Batwoman, andAce the Bat-Hound. Moldoff is the sole creator of theBlack Pirate.
Born inManhattan, New York City[2] but mostly raised inThe Bronx, he was introduced tocartooning by future comics artistBernard Baily, who lived in the same apartment house as Moldoff. "I was drawing in chalk on the sidewalk—Popeye andBetty Boop and other popular cartoons of the day—and he came by and looked at it and said, 'Hey, do you want to learn how to draw cartoons?' I said, 'Yes!' He said, 'Come on, I'll show you how to draw.'"[3] He was ofJewish background.[4]
Moldoff sold his first cartoon drawing at age 17. "My first work in comic books was doing filler pages forVincent Sullivan, who was the editor at National Periodicals",[5] one of the three companies, with Detective Comics Inc. andAll-American Publications, that eventually merged to form the modern-day DC Comics. Moldoff's debut was asports filler that appeared on the inside back cover of the landmarkAction Comics #1 (June 1938), the comic book that introducedSuperman.[6]
During the late-1930s and 1940sGolden Age of comic books, Moldoff became a prolific cover artist for the future DC Comics. His work includes the first cover of the Golden AgeGreen Lantern, on issue #16 (July 1940) of All-American's flagship titleAll-American Comics, featuring the debut of that character created by artistMartin Nodell.[6] Moldoff created the characterBlack Pirate (Jon Valor) inAction Comics #23 (April 1940),[6]and became one of the earliest artists for the characterHawkman (created byGardner Fox andDennis Neville,[6] though sometimes misattributed to Moldoff). Moldoff drew the first image of the formerly civilian character Shiera Sanders in costume asHawkgirl inAll Star Comics #5,[7] based on Neville's Hawkman costume design.
Beginning withFlash Comics #4 (April 1940), Moldoff became the regular Hawkman artist, following Neville's departure from the feature the issue before.[6] He drew the Hawkman portions of theJustice Society of America stories published inAll Star Comics as well.[8][9] Moldoff recalled in 2000 that All-American publisherMax Gaines
...took a shine to me. ... He's the one who said, 'We're going to put you on "Hawkman", and do whatever you want with it. Do a good job; I know you can do it." And that was it! ... But when I looked at 'Hawkman' and read a couple of stories, I said to myself, 'This has to be done in a[nAlex] Raymond style.' I could just feel it.... I [had] saved [RaymondFlash Gordon] Sunday [comic strip] pages and the daily papers for years! ... [Gaines] liked my style; he liked the realism. We were competing with the newspapers. When he picked up the Sunday papers, he sawFlash Gordon,Prince Valiant,Terry and the Pirates. When he picked up a comic book, there was a tremendous difference in the quality of the art. And then, all of a sudden, he saw me—an 18-year-old coming around, and I'm almost a student of Raymond, and by God, the stuff looks good—it looks like Raymond! We all leaned on these guys to learn—and we were very lucky, because while we were learning, we were selling the product... I spent a lot of time on it. I had books on anatomy and shadows and wrinkles; I studied, and I worked very hard on it, and I think it showed.[3]
Drafted intoWorld War II military service in 1944, Moldoff returned to civilian life in 1946, drawing for Standard, Fawcett, Marvel and Max Gaines'EC Comics. For EC he drewMoon Girl, continuing with that character forBill Gaines.[10]
When superhero comics went out of fashion in the postwar era, Moldoff became an early pioneer inhorror comics,packaging two such ready-to-print titles in 1948. He recalled in 2000 that, "I had shownThis Magazine Is Haunted andTales of the Supernatural to [Fawcett Comics'] Will Lieberson before I showed them to [EC Comics'] Bill Gaines, because I trusted Will Lieberson much more. He showed it to the big guys at Fawcett, and he said, 'Shelly, Fawcett doesn't want to get into horror now; they don't want to touch that'".[3]
Moldoff then did approach Gaines with the package, signing a contract stipulating that he would be paid a royalty percentage if the books were successful. Several months later, when EC'sTales From the Crypt hit the newsstands, Gaines reneged on the deal, Moldoff recalled in 2000, with EC attorney Dave Alterbaum threatening to blacklist Moldoff if he took legal action.[3] Afterward, said Moldoff, "Will Lieberson said, 'Let me bring it back to Fawcett again, and see if they'll take the title'. And so they did; they tookThis Magazine Is Haunted andWorlds of Fear and thenStrange Suspense Stories. What they did was pay me $100 for the title, and give me as much work as I wanted, and I also did the covers. So that went on that way".[3]
Moldoff, who received no royalty there, either, created the cadaverous host Doctor Death.
In 1953, Moldoff became one of the primary Batman ghost artists who, along withWin Mortimer andDick Sprang, drew stories credited to Bob Kane, following Kane's style and under Kane's supervision. While Sprang ghosted as a DC employee, Moldoff, in a 1994 interview given while Kane was alive, described his own secret arrangement:
I worked for Bob Kane as a ghost from '53 to '67. DC didn't know that I was involved; that was the handshake agreement I had with Bob: 'You do the work don't say anything, Shelly, and you've got steady work'. No, he didn't pay great, but it was steady work, it was security. I knew that we had to do a minimum of 350 to 360 pages a year. Also, I was doing other work at the same time for [editors]Jack Schiff andMurray Boltinoff at DC. They didn't know I was working on Batman for Bob. ... So I was busy. Between the two, I never had a dull year, which is the compensation I got for being Bob's ghost, for keeping myself anonymous.[5]
Moldoff and various writers created several new characters for the Batman franchise including theBatmen of All Nations,[11]Ace the Bat-Hound,[12] the originalBatwoman,[13] theCalendar Man,[14]Mr. Freeze,[15]Bat-Mite,[16] the originalBat-Girl,[17] and the secondClayface.[18] Most of these characters were phased out in 1964 after a change in editors.Gardner Fox and Moldoff revived theRiddler inBatman #171 (May 1965).[19] Other Batman foes introduced by Moldoff includePoison Ivy[20] and theSpellbinder.[21]
Moldoff was let go by DC in 1967, along with many other prominent writers and artists who had made demands for health and retirement benefits.[22] His final Batman stories were published inBatman #199 andDetective Comics #372 (both cover dated February 1968).[6] He turned toanimation, doingstoryboards for suchanimated TV series asCourageous Cat and Minute Mouse, and wrote and drew promotional comic books given away to children at theBurger King,Big Boy,Red Lobster, andCaptain D's[23] restaurant and fast-food chains, as well as through theAtlanta BravesMajor League Baseball team.[24] When Moldoff illustrated a chapter of theEvan Dorkin projectSuperman and Batman: World's Funnest in 2000, it was his first work for DC Comics in over 30 years.[6]
Moldoff retired to Florida with his wife Shirley.[24] His family included sons Richard Moldoff and Kenneth Moldoff and daughter Ellen Moldoff Stein.[1] He died at age 91 on February 29, 2012, following kidney failure. He was the last surviving contributor toAction Comics #1.[25]
Sheldon Moldoff received anInkpot Award in 1991.[26]
Writer Edmond Hamilton and artist Sheldon Moldoff created an international club of sorts for super heroes from other nations.
Shelly Moldoff was one of the artists who worked on the historicAction Comics #1 (1938) which featured the first appearance of Superman. He didn't work on the Superman material in that issue but he did have artwork in what some call the most important comic book ever published. And he was the last surviving person who did.
| Preceded by | Detective Comics penciller 1953–1968 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Dick Sprang | Batman penciller 1954–1968 | Succeeded by Chic Stone |
| Preceded by | World's Finest Comics inker 1959–1966 | Succeeded by |
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