Don Perlin

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Don Perlin
Don Perlin in 2001
BornDonald Perlin
(1929-08-27) August 27, 1929 (age 94)
New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Writer, Penciller, Inker, Editor
Notable works
Werewolf by Night
Moon Knight
The Defenders
Ghost Rider
Bloodshot
AwardsNational Cartoonists Society Comic Books Award, 1997

Donald "Don" Perlin (/ˈpɜːrlɪn/; born August 27, 1929)[1] is an American comic book artist, writer, and editor. He is best known for Marvel Comics' Werewolf by Night, Moon Knight (a character he co-created), The Defenders, and Ghost Rider. In the 1990s, he worked for Valiant Comics, both as artist and editor, where he co-created Bloodshot.

Biography

Early life and career

Perlin was born in

Cartoonists and Illustrators School.[4]

He broke into the industry in the late 1940s, later recalling, "My first job was for a company called

ghost artist pencilling over Jules Feiffer's layouts on Will Eisner's newspaper-insert comics feature The Spirit
. As he recalled the experience,

I kind of say that I worked for Will Eisner. What happened was I walked into his office when the fellow that they had doing The Spirit left. I walked in with some samples and they brought them in to Eisner, he looked at them and hired me. At that time they had a publication that they were doing called PS magazine; it was a mechanical maintenance magazine for the Army. They gave me a drawing board in the corner of the office and left me alone. Jules Feiffer was writing it. He, at that time, was in the Army stationed at Governors Island ... and he’d come in on the weekend and write a story, lay it out roughly on the boards. I’d come in on the Monday and I’d pencil it. I never saw Eisner again after that first time. I mean, while working there.[3]

Around this time, Perlin, Morisi and

drafted into the United States Army.[3][4]

From 1955 to 1958, Perlin concentrated on war comics for Charlton Comics, while also turning in the occasional assignment for Atlas. His credited output slowed after that, and he took on work in technical illustrating and package design for several years.[6] He recalled,

I worked as a technical illustrator, taking blueprints and converting them to three-dimensional exploded views. I worked for a company that did the parts catalog for Boeing airliners. These were the books that the mechanics kept in the hangars so that they could order the parts. We drew every screw, washer, bolt and everything else in the planes. I got to the point where I thought I could go in there and take the plane apart with a screwdriver. ... I kind of enjoyed it. It was different. After that I went to work as a package designer for a manufacturer of paper boxes. I would do dummy artwork for the boxes and after they were approved I did the camera-ready art so that it could be printed. I worked there until one of the partners did some tricks with the books and the place went out of business.[7]

Doing comics in the evenings after work,

Fitzgerald Publications.[5]

Later career

In 1974 he began a long association with Marvel, where he was a full-time penciler until 1987. He earlier had freelanced, initially on a Dr. Strange story by writer Gardner Fox in Marvel Premiere #5 (Nov. 1972), inking Sam Kweskin (credited as "Irv Wesley"),[10] and co-penciling two issues of Thor with John Buscema in 1973, among other work, including a smattering for rival DC Comics' supernatural anthologies. He had continued in commercial art and package design as his primary employment all these years, Perlin recalled, when had an offer to return to comics full-time:

I was going for a job interview with another company to do paste-ups and mechanicals. This was before computers. I was going in on Monday morning and Sunday morning I got a call from [Marvel Comics editor-in-chief]

Morbius the Living Vampire" [in the comic Adventure into Fear]. When I went to Marvel and spoke to them I was told the Werewolf [comic] was a monthly and Morbius was [in] a bimonthly [comic], so I took the monthly book deciding that would be a great job.[7]

Perlin drew

Sub-Mariner.[5]

Perlin and writer Roger McKenzie developed the idea of Captain America running for the office of President of the United States.[11] Marvel originally rejected the idea but it would be used later by Roger Stern and John Byrne[12] in Captain America #250 (Oct. 1980).[13] McKenzie and Perlin received credit for the idea on the letters page at Stern's insistence.[14] McKenzie and Perlin would also receive credit in the follow-up story in What If? #26 (April 1981).[15]

In 1980, Perlin began working on

Transformers for nearly two years from early 1986 to late 1987,[5]
and then became Marvel's de facto managing art director, a role he served from 1987–1991:

[W]hile I was doing the Transformers, [editor-in-chief] Jim Shooter asked me to come up there and work as an art director. The senior art director at the time was John Romita, the executive art director. I was what you’d call the managing art director. [In that job, he would] take three budding young cartoonists, who were a smidgen away from being professionals, pay them minimum wage, no benefits whatsoever, no sick leave or holidays. When you worked, you got paid. They stayed for a year to do the changes and corrections in the artwork. The editors would bring the pages and things that they wanted changed, corrected or fixed or whatever, and it was up to me to see that was done. I was training these young guys and after about a year they were ready to go out and get work. That was the primary purpose of that job. I was a teacher more or less. I left there to go over to Shooter when he formed his new company, Valiant Comics.[3]

He joined Jim Shooter's Valiant Comics in 1991, pencilling the series

Magnus Robot Fighter. Shortly after Valiant's mid-1990s takeover by Acclaim Entertainment, Perlin went into semi-retirement.[3] His last known published comics work for quite some time was pencilling and inking the 12-page story "Caves of Castle Finn" in DC Comics' TV-animation tie-in Scooby-Doo #25 (Aug. 1999).[5] In 2012, Perlin pencilled a new Bloodshot story ("The Tablet") for the Bloodshoot: Blood of the Machine Hardcover, written by Kevin VanHook and inked by Bob Wiacek
, his original collaborators on the series.

Awards

Perlin won the 1997 National Cartoonists Society Comic Books Award.[19]

Personal life

Perlin is married to Becky Perlin. The couple has two daughters and three sons.[20]

Bibliography of series as regular artist

(as penciller if not noted otherwise)

Marvel Comics

  • Beauty and the Beast miniseries (Beast/Dazzler) #1–4 (1984)
  • Captain America (inker) #229–234, 236–240, 243; (penciller) #242, 244 (1978–1980)
  • Ghost Rider #26–34, 36–42, 45–60 (Oct. 1977 – Sept. 1981), #67 (April 1982), #71 (Aug. 1982), #76–77 (Jan.–Feb. 1983)
  • The Defenders (layouts, finished by others including Joe Sinnott, Jim Mooney, Pablo Marcos, and Bob Wiacek) #82–111 and 113; (penciller) #112, 114–118, 120–125, 129, 132, 134–145, 147, 149–152 (April 1980 – Feb. 1986)
  • Man-Thing Vol. 2 #4-8, 10 (May 1980–May 1981)
  • Transformers
    : #13–15, 17–19, 21–32, 35 (breakdowns only #31–32) (Feb. 1986 – Dec. 1987)
  • Transformers: The Movie (layouts only) #1–3 (Dec. 1986 – Feb. 1987)
  • Werewolf by Night #17–43 (May 1974 – March 1977)

Valiant Comics

  • Bad Eggs #1–8 (1996)
  • Bloodshot #1–3, 5–7, 9–17 (1992–1994)
  • Solar, Man of the Atom
     #1–4, 6–7, 9–10, 12–13, 18–19 (1991–1992)
  • Timewalker #1–4, 9, 12–13 (1994–1995)

References

  1. ^ Miller, John Jackson (June 10, 2005). "Comics Industry Birthdays". Comics Buyer's Guide (1485). Archived from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c Perlin in Cooke, Jon B. (May 2001). "Perlin's Wisdom". Comic Book Artist. No. 13. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 88. Pages 88–89 only online.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Don Perlin". (interview) Adelaide Comics and Books. 2003. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved March 11, 2009.
  4. ^ a b Perlin in Cooke, p. 89.
  5. ^ a b c d e Don Perlin at the Grand Comics Database.
  6. Lambiek Comiclopedia. Archived
    from the original on May 6, 2012.
  7. ^ a b c Perlin in Stroud, Bryan (2010). "Don Perlin". (Interview) WTV-Zone.com. Archived from the original on September 1, 2012. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
  8. ^ Jones, William B. Jr. (2002). Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, with Illustrations. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 161.
  9. ^ Jones, p. 225.
  10. ^ Marvel Premiere #5 at the Grand Comics Database.
  11. ^ Brady, Matt (November 28, 2002). "Looking Back: Stern & Byrne's Captain America". Newsarama.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009.
  12. ^ Cronin, Brian (May 10, 2010). "The Greatest Roger Stern Stories Ever Told!". ComicBookResources.com. Archived from the original on October 8, 2010.
  13. ^ Captain America #250 at the Grand Comics Database
  14. ^ Khoury, George. "The Roger Stern Interview: The Triumphs and Trials of the Writer". Marvel Masterworks Resource Page. Archived from the original on March 9, 2012. Retrieved February 20, 2012. I made sure that 1) Roger McK. and Don knew about it, and 2) they were credited with the idea on the letters page.
  15. ^ What If? #26 at the Grand Comics Database
  16. ^ Man Thing #4 at the Grand Comics Database
  17. ^ Man Thing #10 at the Grand Comics Database
  18. ^ DeAngelo, Daniel (July 2013). "The Not-Ready-For-Super-Team Players: A History of the Defenders". Back Issue! (65). TwoMorrows Publishing: 11.
  19. ^ "NCS Awards". National Cartoonists Society. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
  20. ^ Shooter, Jim (November 24, 2011). "Thanksgiving with Don Perlin's Father". JimShooter.com. Archived from the original on November 26, 2011. Retrieved November 25, 2011.

External links

Preceded by Werewolf by Night artist
1974–1977 		Succeeded by
N/A
Preceded by Ghost Rider artist
1977–1981 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Captain America inker
1979 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Man-Thing artist
1980-1981 		Succeeded by
Preceded by The Defenders artist
1980–1986 		Succeeded by
N/A
Preceded by
Transformers
 artist
1986–1987 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
N/A
Solar, Man of the Atom
 artist
1991–1992 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
N/A
 Bloodshot artist
1993–1994 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Don_Perlin&oldid=1220285543"