Al Plastino
Al Plastino (born December 15, 1921 in New York City , † November 25, 2013 ) was an American comic artist . Plastino was best known as a co-creator of the cartoon character Supergirl .
Life and work
Plastino started working for the American magazine Youth Today at the age of 17. This was followed by a few drawing jobs for the publisher Funnies Inc. , for which he worked on the comics about the heroic sea creatures Sub-Mariner.
During the Second World War, Plastino first worked in the Graphic Arts division of the United States Department of Defense , where he designed and drawn propaganda posters. In the later years of the war he illustrated army training manuals published by the Adjutant General's Office. After the war, he initially continued his work at the Pentagon, but at the same time also produced advertising posters and other graphic material for private clients.
In 1948 Plastino was hired by the New York publishing house DC-Comics as a draftsman for the comic series about the fictional hero Superman. In the following twenty years, Plastino figured alongside Wayne Boring as the main illustrator of the Superman comics and illustrated hundreds of Superman stories for the series Superman , Action Comics , Superboy , Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane and World's Finest . Together with the science fiction writer Otto Binder , Plastino introduced the character of the Supergirl into the Superman comics in May 1959: In Action Comics # 252, Binder and Plastino presented them as Superman's cousin from the planet Krypton, who because of their extraterrestrial physiology, are under the rays of the yellow sun of the earth has the same superpowers as the hero. Within a few years, the character became one of the most popular owned by DC-Verlag and has since been the focus of several comic series and a movie from 1984, among others. Another successful series, whose origins lay in the collaboration between Plastino and Binder on the Superman comics, was the Legion of Super Heroes , which the two introduced into the fictional world of the DC universe in Adventure Comics # 247 from April 1958.
After Plastino illustrated the daily comic strips about Superman and Batman , which were published in numerous American newspapers between 1966 and 1972 , he began to concentrate more on this activity in the 1970s and 80s: in the early 1980s he was joined by United Media Syndicate commissioned to write and draw stories for the period of one year for the comic strip Peanuts as a precaution , in case the Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz should be absent due to illness.
After Plastino retired in 1989, he devoted himself mainly to painting.
Web links
- Al Plastino in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Plastino, Al |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American comic artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 15, 1921 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 25, 2013 |