Pete Morisi

Infobox Comics creator

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imagesize = 150
caption =
birthname = Peter A. Morisi
birthdate = January 17, 1928
location = Brooklyn, New York City
deathdate = October 12, 2003
deathplace = Staten Island, New York City
nationality = American
area = Writer, Illustrator
alias = PAM
notable works = Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt
awards =

Peter A. Morisi (born 7 January, 1928, Brooklyn, New York City; died 12 October, 2003, Staten Island, New York City), who sometimes went by the pseudonym PAM, is an American comic book writer and artist who also spent much of his professional life as a New York City Police Department officer. He is best-known as creator of the 1960s Charlton Comics series "Peter Cannon ... Thunderbolt", a thoughtful superhero comic that contained some of the earliest respectful invocations of Eastern mysticism in American pop culture.

Biography

Early life and career

Born and reared in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, Morisi was educated at the High School of Industrial Arts (since renamed the High School of Art and Design), and the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (now the School of Visual Arts), both in Manhattan. He broke into comics as an assistant on the comic strips "Dickie Dare" and "The Saint", and had just started at Fox Comics in 1948 when he was drafted and served as a private in the U.S. Army through 1950. (Note: Comics historian Mark Evanier has written that Morisi worked in the Harvey Comics production department alongside future comics artist Don Heck in 1949. [ [http://www.povonline.com/Don%20Heck.htm POV Online (column of March 24, 1995): "Don Heck"] (obituary), by Mark Evanier.] Stationed in Colorado, Morisi wrote for such Fox romance and crime comics as "Feature Presentations Magazine" and "Murder Incorporated".

On his return, Morisi freelanced for companies including Comic Media, Harvey Comics, Fiction House, Lev Gleason Publications, Nesbitt Publishers, Quality Comics, Toby Press and the Marvel Comics precursors Timely and Atlas, where his work appeared in titles including the Westerns "Arizona Kid", "Cowboy Romances" and "Texas Kid", and the horror/suspense anthologies "Astonishing", "Journey into Mystery", "Marvel Tales", "Strange Tales" and "Uncanny Tales". In 1954, when editor-in-chief Stan Lee expressed admiration for the cover artist of some Comic Media books, Morisi brought in the artist, his friend and future Silver Age star Heck.

Police force and Peter Cannon

In 1956, Morisi fulfilled a childhood dream of joining the police force, and became an NYPD cop stationed in Brooklyn and in lower Manhattan. To avoid the department knowing he was moonlighting, however legally, Morisi began signing his work only with his initials — the "M" rendered without connectors, as "|||". He retired from the force in 1976.

Morisi's character Thunderbolt debuted in "Peter Cannon ... Thunderbolt" #1 (Jan. 1966), part of Charlton editor Dick Giordano's "Action Heroes" superhero line. The series then took over the numbering of the defunct title "Son of Vulcan", and ran from issue #50-60 (March-April 1966 - Nov. 1967), by which time Morisi, time-pressed with police work, had turned it over to other hands. When DC Comics bought the rights to Charlton's superhero properties in 1983, Thunderbolt was one of characters originally planned for use in writer Alan Moore's miniseries "Watchmen"; when DC chose to save those characters for other uses, Moore adapted him into Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt).

DC published the 12-issue, slightly retitled miniseries "Peter Cannon — Thunderbolt" (Sept. 1992 - Aug. 1993) by writer-penciler Mike Collins and inker José Marzan Jr. Rights to the character later reverted to Morisi.

Later career

Morisi settled in the Dongan Hills section of Staten Island in 1973. There he drew illustrations for the column "Staten Island Stats" in the local newspaper "The Staten Island Advance". His wife of 53 years, the former Louise Massie, died in May 2003. They had three sons: Steven, Russ, and Val.

Footnotes

References

* Pete Morisi interview, "Comic Book Artist" #12 (March 2001), pp. 84-85
* [http://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/morisi_pete.htm Lambiek Comiclopedia: Pete Morisi]
* [http://www.sfwa.org/News/morisi.htm Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's "SF/F & Publishing News", October 14, 2003: Obituary]
* [http://www.ramonschenk.nl/charltoncomics/creators/petemorisi.htm Pete "PAM" Morisi Checklist]
* [http://www.ramonschenk.nl/charltoncomics/creators/morisi_obituary.html Obituary]
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/t-bolt.htm Don Markstein's Toonpedia: Peter Cannon...Thunderbolt]
* [http://www.povonline.com/Don%20Heck.htm "P.O.V. Online" (March 24, 1995): "Don Heck", by Mark Evanier]
* [http://www.comics.org Grand Comics Database]
* [http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/ Social Security Death Index]