Gene Colan

Eugene Jules Colan (1926-2011) illustrated many war comics for both Timely/Atlas and DC Comics. He flourished after Atlas became Marvel, with notable stints plotting and drawing on Daredevil and Captain America in the 1960s, before co-authoring Howard The Duck with Steve Gerber and Tomb of Dracula with Marv Wolfman.

Syd Shores (1913-1973) was best known to Silver Age fans as a regular inker on Marvel titles, but he was also a Golden Age penciler who drew Marvel’s earliest superheroes. He began as an assistant to Mac Raboy in the Harry Chesler shop and drew his first story for Marvel/Timely’s Mystic Comics #5 in 1941. He was initially an inker on Captain America Comics but took over as penciler when Jack Kirby and Joe Simon left in 1942. He was a co-creator of Blonde Phantom. Shores drew a range of titles through the 1950s and 1960s, and his inking, whether for himself or other pencilers, had a gritty quality that also lent itself to Westerns (Red Wolf, Two-Gun Kid), war comics (Battle) and horror stories (Tower of Shadows). He was inducted into the Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2023.

Carl Burgos (1916-1984) After a brief period at the Harry Chesler studio in the late 1930s, the writer/artist joined the Funnies Inc. shop, which provided Timely with its first comic-book material. In Marvel Comics #1, in 1939, Burgos introduced the world to the Human Torch. He also drew the Torch for Atlas during the character’s brief revival in the 1950s. He continued to work at Atlas, and later Marvel, until the mid-1960s. He was inducted into the Harvey Awards’ Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2016.

John Buscema (1927 – 2002) was an American comic book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop-culture conglomerate.

Stan Lee (1922-2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher and producer for Timely/Marvel Comics and was the co-creator of many of the Marvel Comics iconic heroes, including Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Daredevil, Thor, Doctor Strange, Nick Fury, and the X-Men.

Dr. Michael J. Vassallo is a noted historian on Marvel’s early pulp, Timely and Atlas periods. A Manhattan dentist, he spends his free time attempting to bring recognition to artistic creators of the 1940’s and 1950’s. He has also written introductions to 20 Timely and Atlas Masterworks volumes, dissecting the credits for posterity and providing historical context, as well as writing the detailed captions to the first 210 pages of Taschen’s 75 Years of Marvel coffee table book. He lives in Westchester County, New York.