Today in Comics History, July 13: Happy birthday, Ernie Colón!

Born on this day in 1931: Ernie Colón, comics artist (penciller, inker, colorist, and letterer! Editor, too!) for over forty years, including a huge number of titles at Harvey Comics plus work for Archie, Gold Key, Malibu, Marvel, Atlas/Seaboard, Eclipse, Skywald, Valiant, and even Wham-O Comics! Titles include Richie Rich, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Jackie Jokers, Hot Stuff, Wendy the Good Little Witch, Mighty Mouse, Doctor Solar, The Black Comic Book, Battlestar Galactica, Black Widow: The Coldest War, Star Wars: Droids, Bullwinkle and Rocky, Magnus: Robot Fighter, The Medusa Chain, Ax, Last Kiss, SpyCat, and — in completely honesty — a whole lot more. Whew! He co-created Damage Control, Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld and Arak: Son of Thunder,


from "Star Signals" in Marvel/Star Comics cover-dated July 1988




In more recent years, Ernie devoted his energy towards several well-received non-fiction graphic novels including The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography, Che: A Graphic Biography, Three-Fifths a Man, and others. Here's an autobiographical page from his adaptation of the suspense/thriller radio series Inner Sanctum, which is well-worth reading for its indictment of the mainstream comics industry:


from Inner Sanctum: Tales of Mystery, Horror & Suspense (NBM, February 2012), written and drawn by Ernie Colón
I'm guilty of thinking of Ernie as primarily a "bigfoot" artist, but I'm rediscovering his older Marvel and DC work (I've always been a huge fan of Damage Control) and branching off into enjoying his non-fiction work.


A very happy birthday, Ernie!


self-portrait from Marvel Graphic Novel: Ax (Marvel, 1988), by Ernie Colón