| Sy Barry | |
|---|---|
 Sy Barry at the drawing table | |
| Born | Seymour Barry (1928-03-12)March 12, 1928 (age 97) |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | penciller, inker |
Notable works | The Phantom Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story |
| Awards | Inkpot Award (2005)[1] |
Seymour "Sy"Barry (born March 12, 1928)[2] is an Americancomic-book andcomic-stripartist, best known for being the artist of the stripThe Phantom for more than three decades.
Sy Barry was born in New York City in 1928, and is the brother of comics artistDan Barry, who drew theFlash Gordon comic strip. Sy Barry attended high school at theSchool of Industrial Art inManhattan, New York City beginning in 1943.[3] His first job as an artist was working on the comic bookFamous Funnies.[3] Barry began his professional career as his brother's art assistant, and by the late 1940s was working on his own as a freelancecomic-book artist, primarily as aninker for publishers includingLev Gleason, theMarvel Comics precursorTimely Comics, and theDC Comics precursor National Comics. At National, he worked on features including Romance Comics,Mystery in Space, Detective Comics,Superboy, Johnny Peril,World's Finest Adventure Comics, Rex the Wonder Dog, and ThePhantom Stranger.[2]
By the early 1950s Sy Barry was very much in demand as an inker, and he was one of the best. He also assisted his brother Dan on theTarzan comic strip forUnited Feature Syndicate and theFlash Gordon comic strip fromKing Features Syndicate. He was hired byCapp Studio to drawMartin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, a comics pamphlet published in 1957. Barry's signature was visible on the cover of the pamphlet's first edition, but a text box covered it in later printings.[4]The Montgomery Story, written byAlfred Hassler and Benton Resnik and distributed by theFellowship of Reconciliation, "taught young people not just about the event itself but also about nonviolence as a tool for social change." Many decades later, the comic inspired theMarch trilogy byGeorgia CongressmanJohn Lewis.[5]
In 1961, upon the death ofThe Phantom artistWilson McCoy, who had succeeded artistRay Moore, King Features hired Barry to take over that strip. Within three years the Phantom’s readership increased to over 900 newspapers becoming the most popular Phantom artist ever,His Phantom added a sense of realism and style to the character that has never been seen before. Barry remained on it for more than 30 years until his retirement in 1994.[2] Barry frequently used pencil artists on the strip, working primarily as aninker, though he often drew entire stories when time permitted.
Barry's first Phantom daily strip was published on August 21, 1961 and his last on September 3, 1994.
He replaced Bill Lignante on the Sundays. His first Phantom Sunday page was published on May 20, 1962 and his last on September 18, 1994.[6]
So I've done it for 33 years now. ... I began drawing it in 1961.
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
