- Mike Sekowsky
-
Mike Sekowsky 
Sekowsky with model Joyce Miller (1969)
DC Comics publicity photo promoting Wonder WomanBorn Michael Sekowsky
November 19, 1923
Lancaster, PennsylvaniaDied March 30, 1989 (aged 65)
Los Angeles, CaliforniaNationality American Area(s) Writer, Penciller Awards Alley Award, 1963
Inkpot Award, 1981Michael Sekowsky (November 19, 1923 - March 30, 1989)[1] was a Jewish[2] American comic book artist best known as the exclusive penciler for DC Comics' Justice League of America during most of the 1960s, and as the regular writer and artist on Wonder Woman during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Contents
Biography
Early life and career
Mike Sekowsky began working in the comics medium in 1941, as an artist at Marvel Comics' predecessor, Timely Comics, in New York City. There he worked as both a cartoonist on such humor features as "Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal", and a superhero artist on such star characters as Captain America and the Sub-Mariner in issues of All Winners Comics, Daring Comics, Marvel Mystery Comics, USA Comics, and Young Allies Comics. Sekowsky developed a reputation as one of the fastest artist in the comics field.[3]
During the 1940s, Sekowsky married his first wife, Joanne Latta.[4] Concurrently, he began a complicated relationship with artist Valerie (a.k.a. Violet) Barclay, who was working at the Manhattan restaurant Cafe Rouge. As Barclay recalled in a 2004 interview, "I was 17, and ... was making $18 a week as a hostess. Mike said, 'I'll get you a job making $35 a week as a [staff] inker, and you can [additionally] freelance over the weekend. I'll let you ink my stuff'. He went to editor Stan Lee and got me the job. I didn't know anything about inking. [Staff artist] Dave Gantz taught me — just by watching him".[5] Sekowsky bestowed expensive gifts on her even after his marriage to Latta,[6] causing friction in the Timely bullpen, which she left in 1949. As she later described the office environment,
Mike was a very good human being. Everybody at Timely liked Mike. Nobody like me because they thought I was doing a number on him. Which was true. World War II was on and there were no men around, so I just killed time with him. Everybody, Dave Gantz especially, picked up on that. ... [Mike] once tried to get me fired over my fling with [Timely artist] George Klein. Mike went to Stan Lee and said, 'Stan, I want her fired, and if she doesn't get fired, I'm going to quit'. Well, you couldn't ever tell Stan Lee what to do. Stan said, 'Well, Mike, it's been nice knowing you'.[6]
Sekowsky, one of the nascent Marvel Comics' mainstays, chose to remain and "make George's life hell".[7] Barclay said in 2004, "I was married before I met Mike, but my husband's divorce was not final. ... [I] had to go to court and get an annulment. Mike paid for it and it cost $350".[8] Sekowsky continued drawing for Timely in multiple genres through the 1940s and into the 1950s, on such Western characters as the Apache Kid, the Black Rider, and Kid Colt for Marvel's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics. He later freelanced for other companies, drawing the TV-series spin-offs Gunsmoke and Buffalo Bill Jr. for Dell Comics; romance comics (for Crestwood, Fawcett Comics, Nedor, Quality Comics, and St. John Publications); the jungle adventure Ramar of the Jungle for (Charlton Comics); war, including Ziff-Davis' G.I. Joe, and others. He continued to draw for Dell in particular through the early 1960s.
DC Comics
In 1952, Sekowsky began working at DC Comics, where he drew romance comics and science fiction titles under the editorship of Julius Schwartz. In 1960, Sekowsky began working on his most noted effort, Justice League of America, staying on the title for 63 issues. He would later return to pencil the 23-page flashback tale "The Future Ain't What It Used to Be" in issue #240 (July 1985), which featured the League from his era.[9]
Sekowsky married his second wife, Josephine, called Pat, in October 1967.[10]
In 1968, Sekowsky became the penciler of Metal Men, taking over from Gil Kane, who had succeeded Ross Andru. The following year, Sekowsky also became the writer and changed the direction of the series by having the Metal Men assume human identities. The series was canceled six issues later.
At roughly the same time, Sekowsky began working on Wonder Woman with issue #178 (Sept.-Oct. 1968),[11] first as artist and then as writer and editor, until issue #198. His run on the series included a variety of themes, from espionage to mythological adventure. He contributed a story about Wonder Woman and Batman to The Brave and the Bold.
Sekowsky wrote and drew features for the series-tryout comic-book series Showcase during the last three years of its run, including "Jason's Quest", an adventure series about a young man on a motorcycle searching for his family, in Showcase #88-90 (Feb.-May 1970).
Later career
Upon leaving DC, Sekowsky returned to Marvel, where he had gotten his start in the 1940s. From 1971 to 1975, he sporadically provided penciling for stories in Amazing Adventures vol. 2, featuring the Inhumans; and Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up.
For the last decade of his life, Sekowsky lived in Los Angeles, California and worked primarily on Hanna-Barbera animated television series, including Scooby-Doo. After hospitalization with health problems stemming from diabetes, he began freelancing for publisher Daerrick Gross, who was developing a line of skateboard and ninja comics. Sekowsky died before he could complete the assignment.[12]
Awards
Sekowsky won a 1963 Alley Award for Favorite Novel ("Crisis on Earths 1 and 2" in Justice League of America #21 and #22 with Gardner Fox) and a 1981 Inkpot Award.
Footnotes
- ^ Social Security Death Index
- ^ Oirich, Alan E. "Spider-Jew", Aish.com, June 01, 2002: "The vast majority of the writers, artists and publishers who created this industry out of near-nothingness were Jews. The roster of comic book pioneers reads like a shul mailing list: Schuster, Siegel, Gillman, Eisner, Binder, Klein, Fine, Schomburg, Blum, Simon, Meskin, Sekowsky".
- ^ Lee, Stan. Secrets Behind the Comics (Famous Enterprises, 1947), p. 58.
- ^ "Viva Valerie" (Valerie Barclay interview), Alter Ego #33, February 2004, pp. 2-16
- ^ Barclay interview, Alter Ego, pp. 4-5
- ^ a b Barclay interview, Alter Ego, p. 3
- ^ Barclay interview, Alter Ego, p. 4
- ^ Barclay interview, Alter Ego, p. 11
- ^ Grand Comics Database: Justice League of America #240
- ^ Alter Ego #33, interview with wife Pat Sekowsky, p. 9
- ^ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1960s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. "Carmine Infantino wanted to rejuvenate what had been perceived as a tired Wonder Woman, so he assigned writer Denny O'Neil and artist Mike Sekowsky to convert the Amazon Princess into a secret agent. Wonder Woman was made over into an Emma Peel type and what followed was arguably the most controversial period in the hero's history."
- ^ Paragraph information per Alter Ego Pat Sekowsky interview, pp. 5-7
References
- Mike Sekowsky at the Lambiek Comiclopedia
- Evanier, Mark. "Mike Sekowsky and the Silver Age Justice League of America". Comic Art #3 (2003)
- Bubnis, Bernie. "Chicken Scratchings: A 1964 Meeting of Mike Sekowsky and a Comics Fan", Alter Ego #33, February 2004, pp. 3–4
Categories:- 1923 births
- 1989 deaths
- American comics artists
- American comics writers
- American cartoonists
- Golden Age comics creators
- Jewish artists
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