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Don Heck

April 26, 2024

Donald L. Heck[1] (January 2, 1929 – February 23, 1995[2][3]) was an American comics artist best known for co-creating the Marvel Comics characters Iron Man, the Wasp, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Wonder Man and for his long run penciling the Marvel superhero-team series The Avengers during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books.

Don Heck
Don Heck in the 1960s
BornDonald L. Heck
(1929-01-02)January 2, 1929
Queens, New York City, U.S.
DiedFebruary 23, 1995(1995-02-23) (aged 66)
Centereach, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Penciller
Notable works
The Avengers
Iron Man
Ant-Man
Signature

Biography edit

Early life and career edit

 
One of Heck's earliest known comics credits: Weird Terror #1 (Sept. 1952): Cover, plus the story "Hitler's Head".

Heck was born in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York City, the son of Bertha and John Heck, of German descent.[4] Heck learned art through correspondence courses as well as at Woodrow Wilson Vocational High School in Jamaica and at a community college in Brooklyn.[5] He continued with an impromptu art education in December 1949[6] when at the recommendation of a college friend he landed a job at Harvey Comics. There he repurposed newspaper comic strip Photostats into comic-book form – including the work of Heck's idol, famed cartoonist Milton Caniff.

Heck remained at Harvey, where one co-worker in the production department was future comics artist Pete Morisi,[5] for two-and-a-half years. When a Harvey employee, Allen Hardy, broke off “to start his own line, Media Comics [sic; actually Comic Media], in 1952," Heck recalled in 1993, Hardy “called me up and asked me to join."[7] Heck's first known comics work appeared in two Comic Media titles both cover-dated September 1952: the war comic War Fury #1, for which he penciled and inked the cover and the eight-page story "The Unconquered", by an unknown writer; and the cover and the six-page story "Hitler's Head", also by an unknown writer, in the horror comic Weird Terror #1.[8] Heck's work continued to appear in those titles and in the horror anthology Horrific, for which he designed the logo;[9] the adventure-drama anthology Danger; the Western anthology Death Valley; and other titles through the company's demise in late 1954.[8]

Heck also did freelance assignments for Quality Comics, Hillman Comics, and Toby Press.[5] For publisher U.S. Pictorial in 1955, he drew the one-shot Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, a TV tie-in comic based on the 1955–57 syndicated, live-action kids' show of that name.[10]

Atlas Comics edit

Through his old Harvey Comics colleague Pete Morisi, Heck in 1954 met Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee, then editor-in-chief and art director of Marvel's 1950 predecessor, Atlas Comics. As Heck recalled,

Pete Morisi, who worked at Media at the same time [I did], had been to Stan Lee's office, and he had brought his [art portfolio]. One of my stories was in there. and Stan kept going back to my story, saying, 'This is the way you should have done it.' Pete said. 'Look, if you want Don Heck to come up here, he's looking for work, too. I'll tell him you're interested.' Stan said, 'Well, if he happened to walk up here, I might have a story for him.' So I went up there on a Wednesday afternoon. Stan never saw anybody on Wednesdays, and he never saw anybody in the afternoon. But he came out. He looked at the first two pages and said, 'Aw, hell, I know what your stuff looks like. Come on in. I got a story for you.'[7]

Heck became an Atlas staff artist on September 1, 1954;[11] his first known work for the company was the five-page horror story "Werewolf Beware" in Mystery Tales #25 (Jan. 1955),[8] though Heck in 1993 recalled, "The first job I did was about a whale breaking a ship apart. Then I did [the submarine-crew feature] 'Torpedo Taylor' for Navy Combat,"[7] drawing that five- or six-page feature in issues #1–14 and 16 (June 1955–Aug. 1957, Feb. 1958) and, oddly, doing one page of a five-page story finished by Joe Maneely in issue #19 (Aug. 1958).[8] Until Atlas' 1957 business retrenchment – when it let go of most of its staff and freelancers and Heck spent a year drawing model airplane views for Berkeley Models[12] – Heck contributed dozens of war comics stories and Westerns plus a smattering of jungle and science-fiction/fantasy tales.

 
Tales of Suspense #1 (Jan. 1959). Cover art by Heck.

Atlas began revamping in late 1958 with the arrival of artist Jack Kirby, a comics legend whose career was also in need of revamping, and who threw himself into the anthological science fiction, supernatural mystery, and giant-monster stories of what would become known as "pre-superhero Marvel." Heck returned alongside other soon-to-be-famous names of Marvel Comics' 1960s emergence as a pop culture phenomenon,[13] making his first splash with the cover of Tales of Suspense #1 (Jan. 1959), one of the very few Atlas/Marvel covers of that time not drawn by Kirby. In the years immediately preceding the arrival of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the other popular heroes of Marvel's ascendancy, Heck gave atmospheric rendering to numerous science fiction / fantasy stories in that comic as well as in sister publications Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, Strange Worlds, World of Fantasy, and Journey into Mystery. Heck also contributed to such Atlas/Marvel romance comics as Love Romances and My Own Romance.[8]

Comics artist Jerry Ordway, describing this era of Heck's work, called the artist "truly under-appreciated ... His Atlas work (pre-Marvel) was terrific, with a clean sharp style, and an ink line that wouldn't quit."[5]

Silver Age edit

During the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books, Iron Man premiered in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963) as a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Lee, scriptwriter Larry Lieber, story-artist Heck, and Kirby, who provided the cover pencils and designed the first Iron Man armor.[14] Kirby "designed the costume," Heck recalled, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts."[15] Comics historian and former Kirby assistant Mark Evanier, investigating claims of Kirby's involvement in the creation of both Iron Man and Daredevil, interviewed Kirby and Heck on the subject, years before their deaths, and concluded that Kirby

...definitely did not do full breakdowns as has been erroneously reported about ... the first 'Iron Man'. [In the early 1970s], Jack claimed to have laid out those stories, and I repeated his claim in print – though not before checking with Heck, who said, in effect, 'Oh, yeah. I remember that. Jack did the layouts'. We all later realized he was mistaken. ... Both also believed that Jack had contributed to the plots of those debut appearances – recollections that do not match those of Stan Lee. (Larry Lieber did the script for the first Iron Man story from a plot that Stan gave him.) Also, in both cases, Jack had already drawn the covers of those issues and done some amount of design work. He came up with the initial look of Iron Man's armor ...[16]

Heck himself recalled in 1985 that while some sources claimed then "that Jack Kirby did breakdowns,"

...that's not true. I did it all. They just didn't bother to call me up and find out when they wrote up the credits. It doesn't really matter. Jack Kirby created the costume, and he did the cover for the issue. In fact the second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish.[9]

Heck was the artist co-creator of several new characters in the "Iron Man" feature. The Mandarin debuted in Tales of Suspense #50 (Feb. 1964) and would become one of Iron Man's major enemies.[17] Hawkeye, Marvel's archer supreme, first appeared in Tales of Suspense #57 (Sept. 1964),[18] following the introduction of femme fatale Communist spy and future superheroine and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964).[19] He drew the feature "Iron Man" through issue #46 (Oct. 1963), after which Spider-Man artist Steve Ditko introduced the familiar red-and-gold Iron Man armor and drew three issues. Heck returned with #50 and continued through #72 (Dec. 1965).

Concurrent with drawing Iron Man, Heck succeeded Jack Kirby as penciler on the superhero team series The Avengers with issue #9 (Oct. 1964), the introduction of Wonder Man.[20] The Count Nefaria character was introduced by Lee and Heck four issues later.[21] Heck, who inked his own pencils for many years, transitioned to the "Marvel method" of doing comics — in which the penciler plotted and paced the details of a story based on a synopsis or plot outline from the writer, who would afterward add dialog — and was assigned the help of an inker for the first time. He successfully made this adjustment, and went on to make The Avengers, which he drew through issue #40 (May 1967), plus the 1967 annual, one of his signature series. He inked his own pencil work in issues #32–37. Heck would return to The Avengers one final time to co-plot and pencil issue #45, with inks by Vince Colletta.

During this run, Heck co-created characters including the supervillain and eventual hero the Swordsman, in #19 (Aug. 1965);[22] the supervillain Power Man, who years later became the hero Atlas, in #21 (Oct. 1965);[23] the cosmic entity the Collector in #28 (May 1966);[24] the supporting character Bill Foster, who much later became the superhero Black Goliath, in #32 (Sept. 1966); and the supervillain the Living Laser in #34 (Nov. 1966).[25] During the next comics era, the Bronze Age, he co-created another cosmic entity, Mantis, in issue #112 (May 1973).[26]

Elsewhere during the 1960s, Heck penciled The X-Men #38–42 (Nov. 1967–March 1968) and introduced the new X-Men Lorna Dane in issue #49 (Oct. 1968)[27] and Havok in #54 (March 1969).[28] Heck drew, over John Romita layouts, The Amazing Spider-Man #57–64 and 66 (Feb.–Sept and Nov. 1968). Heck would also draw issues of Captain Marvel and Iron Man, the World War II war comic Captain Savage and his Battlefield Raiders, horror stories in Chamber of Darkness and Tower of Shadows, and, once more, love stories, in the romance comics Our Love Story and My Love.[8]

From 1966 to 1971, Heck was an uncredited "ghost artist" on Lee Falk’s The Phantom daily newspaper comic strip,[2] and later on the Terry and the Pirates daily strip.[citation needed]

Move to DC edit

By 1970, however, Marvel work became less frequent, and Heck obtained assignments from rival DC Comics, beginning with a short story in the supernatural anthology House of Secrets #85 (May 1970). He did his first DC superhero work with The Flash #198 (June 1970), illustrating a backup story of the super-speedster, and eventually garnered additional work including romance comics, and the backup features "Batgirl" and "Jason Bard"[29] in Detective Comics, and "Rose and the Thorn" in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane.[30] He began a short run on Wonder Woman with issue #204 (Feb. 1973), in which the character's powers and traditional costume were restored after several years,[31] and he also freelanced for the short-lived publisher Skywald Comics.[8]

Heck still occasionally worked at Marvel, penciling the odd issue of Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Ghost Rider, The Avengers and others in the mid-1970s. He drew Giant-Size Avengers #4 which featured the wedding of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch.[32] Writer Tony Isabella and Heck launched the new superhero team book The Champions in October 1975.[33][34][35] But in 1977, he began working almost exclusively for DC. Heck explained in 1985, "I left Marvel for a change of pace. I kept getting all the new inkers. Everyone who walked in, I got them. A bad inker can kill artwork. I once got some pages back from inking and I just tore them up, that's how bad they were."[9]

With writer Gerry Conway, Heck co-created the DC cyborg hero Steel, the Indestructible Man in the premiere issue (March 1978) of the titular comic.[36] After that series' cancellation, Heck became regular artist on The Flash, and in 1982 reunited with Conway to draw the Justice League of America, including that year's crossover with the All-Star Squadron.[37] Heck then returned to Wonder Woman and drew the title until its cancellation in 1986.[8] Later that same year, he was one of the contributors to the DC Challenge limited series.[38]

Later career edit

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Heck returned to Marvel, where his work included features for the superhero anthologies Marvel Comics Presents and Marvel Fanfare. The artist even returned to two signature characters: he inked Hawkeye stories in Solo Avengers #17–20 and the subsequent Avengers Spotlight #21–22 (April–Sept. 1989) – both penciling and inking a second Hawkeye story in that last issue – and he drew Iron Man, inking penciler Mark Bright's eight-page "The Other Way Our" in Marvel Comics Presents #51 (June 1990), and both penciling and inking the one-page featurette "Tony Stark, The Invincible Iron Man" in Iron Man Annual #12 (Sept. 1991) and a pinup in Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 2 #13 (April 1993).

Heck also did a smattering of work for such independent comics as Topps Comics' NightGlider,[39] Hero Comics' Mr. Fixit, Vortex's NASCAR Adventures, and Millennium Publications' H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu: The Whisperer in Darkness. His final DC work was penciling and inking over Joe Quesada's layouts for Spelljammer #11 (July 1991), and his last known comics work was the 10-page "The Theft of Thor's Hammer", by writer Bill Mantlo, in Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 2 #15 (Oct. 1993).[8]

Marvel one-time editor-in-chief Roy Thomas said of the artist,

Don was unlucky enough, I think, to be a non-superhero artist who, starting in the sixties, had to find his niche in a world dominated by superheroes. Fortunately, as he proved first with Iron Man and then with the Avengers, Don could rise to the occasion because he had real talent and a good grounding in the fundamentals. He amalgamated into his own style certain aspects of Jack Kirby's style, and carved out a place for himself as one of a handful of artists who were of real importance during the very early days of Marvel".[5]

Heck died of lung cancer in 1995.[5] He was living in Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island, at the time of his death.[40]

Bibliography edit

DC Comics edit

Marvel Comics edit

References edit

  1. ^ Donald L. Heck at the Social Security Death Index. Retrieved on September 23, 2012. from the original on September 23, 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Don Heck". Lambiek Comiclopedia. December 5, 2008. from the original on May 18, 2012.
  3. ^ Miller, John Jackson (June 10, 2005). . Comics Buyer's Guide. Iola, Wisconsin. Archived from the original on February 18, 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2010. In print issue #1650 (February 2009), p. 107
  4. ^ Coates, John (2014). "Formative Years". Don Heck: A Work of Art. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 978-1605490588.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Evanier, Mark (March 24, 1995). . (Obituary) P.O.V. Online. Archived from the original on November 24, 2002. Retrieved March 15, 2006.
  6. ^ Heck in Murray, Will (September 1993). "Iron Man: Almost 44 Years Later, Don Heck Is Still Drawing Comics, Part One". Comics Scene. No. 37. Starlog Group Inc. pp. 54–55.
  7. ^ a b c Heck, Comics Scene #37, p. 55
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Don Heck at the Grand Comics Database
  9. ^ a b c Heck, quoted in Peel, John (March–April 1985). "A Signing Session with Don Heck". Comics Feature. No. 34. p. 18. I started on Horrific and Danger.... I did the covers, and they also let me do the lettering on Horrific – like the logo.
  10. ^ Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion at the Grand Comics Database.
  11. ^ Heck, Comics Scene #37, p. 58: Sidebar, "Artistic Conversations"
  12. ^ Murray, Comics Scene #37, p. 55
  13. ^ Brevoort, Tom; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2008). "1950s". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 72. ISBN 978-0756641238. Editor Stan Lee had assembled a small but steady pool of creative talent to produce the company's output, in addition to himself. This group of artists included Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, Paul Reinman, Stan Goldberg, Al Hartley, and Dick Ayers. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ DeFalco, Tom "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 91
  15. ^ Daniels, Les (1991). Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics. New York City: Harry N. Abrams. p. 99. ISBN 0-8109-3821-9.
  16. ^ Evanier, Mark (n.d.). . P.O.V. Online. Archived from the original on December 28, 2009.
  17. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 99: "Following the tradition of Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu and Atlas' own Yellow Claw, the Mandarin first appeared in Tales of Suspense #50 in a story written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Don Heck."
  18. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 101: "A case of mistaken identity led the police to assume {Hawkeye] was part of [a criminal] gang. The Black Widow saved him from capture but also tricked him into fighting Iron Man"
  19. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 100: "The Black Widow was a Russian spy assigned to capture American industrialist Tony Stark...Her story was plotted by Stan Lee, written by...Don Rico, and drawn by Don Heck."
  20. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 102
  21. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 106: "Europe's wealthiest nobleman, Count Nefaria, had a terrible secret: he was also the most powerful crimelord on Earth. Created by Stan Lee and Don Heck, Nefaria secretly ran the worldwide criminal organization called the Maggia."
  22. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 109: "Created by Stan Lee and artist Don Heck, the Swordsman tried to join Earth's mightiest heroes, but after being refused, he began working for the criminal mastermind, the Mandarin."
  23. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 110: "[Stan Lee] and Don Heck brought back the machine responsible for creating Wonder Man to produce a brand new super-villain in The Avengers #21."
  24. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 116
  25. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 119
  26. ^ Sanderson, Peter "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 159: "Writer Steve Englehart and artist Don Heck introduced Mantis, a mistress of the martial arts."
  27. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 132: "Lorna Dane's green hair marked her as a mutant...in The X-Men #49, an issue written by Arnold Drake and illustrated by Don Heck and Werner Roth."
  28. ^ DeFalco "1960s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 135: "Alex [Summers] was the younger brother of the X-Man Scott 'Cyclops' Summers. He appeared in The X-Men #54, by writer Arnold Drake and artist Don Heck."
  29. ^ Wells, John (May 2013). "The Master Crime-File of Jason Bard". Back Issue! (64). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 39–43.
  30. ^ Cassell, Dewey (May 2013). "A Rose By Any Other Name...Would Be Thorn". Back Issue! (64). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 28–32.
  31. ^ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1970s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. After nearly five years of Diana Prince's non-powered super-heroics, writer-editor Robert Kanigher and artist Don Heck restored Wonder Woman's. . .well, wonder. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  32. ^ Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 169: "Writer Steve Englehart and veteran Avengers artist Don Heck presented the grand finale of the long-running 'Celestial Madonna' saga ... Immortus presided over the double wedding of Mantis to the resurrected Swordsman, and the android Vision to the Scarlet Witch."
  33. ^ Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 171: "Created by writer Tony Isabella and artist Don Heck, the Champions consisted of Angel, Iceman, Hercules, the Black Widow, and Ghost Rider."
  34. ^ Markstein, Don (2009). "The Champions". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 14, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2013.
  35. ^ Walker, Karen (July 2013). "'We'll Keep on Fighting 'Til the End': The Story of the Champions". Back Issue! (65). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 17–23.
  36. ^ McAvennie "1970s" in Dolan, p. 177
  37. ^ Thomas, Roy (2000). "The Justice League-Justice Society Team-Ups". The All-Star Companion. Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing. pp. 191–192. ISBN 1-893905-05-5. Justice League of America #207–209 (Oct.–Dec. 1982) and All-Star Squadron #14–15 (Oct.–Nov. 1982)
  38. ^ Greenberger, Robert (August 2017). "It Sounded Like a Good Idea at the Time: A Look at the DC Challenge!". Back Issue! (98). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 41.
  39. ^ Sources disagree on its spelling, sometimes even within the same source: The cover of the single issue itself appears to spell it "NightGlider". The cover of Victory #1 likewise spells it as one word, though in an all-caps typeface. The Grand Comics Database entry spells it as both "Nightglider" and "Night Glider". The . Archived from the original on March 3, 2009. Retrieved 2012-09-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) at the Jack Kirby Museum site spells it "Night Glider"
  40. ^ "Donald L. Heck". United States Social Security Death Index. Retrieved February 2, 2018 – via FamilySearch.org.

External links edit

  • Best, Daniel (May 10, 2011). "Original Art Stories: Don Heck - In His Own Words". 20th Century Danny Boy. from the original on September 14, 2012. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
  • The American Artist Bluebook: Don Heck
  • "DC Profiles #73: Don Heck" at the Grand Comics Database
  • Don Heck at IMDb
  • Don Heck 2018-08-12 at the Wayback Machine at Mike's Amazing World of Comics
  • Don Heck at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
Preceded by
n/a
 "Iron Man" feature
in Tales of Suspense artist
1963–1965 		Succeeded by
Preceded by The Avengers penciller
1964–1967 		Succeeded by
Preceded by The Flash penciller
1979–1981 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Justice League of America penciller
1982–1983 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Gene Colan
 Wonder Woman penciller
1983–1986 		Succeeded by
n/a

April 26, 2024
heck, donald, heck, january, 1929, february, 1995, american, comics, artist, best, known, creating, marvel, comics, characters, iron, wasp, black, widow, hawkeye, wonder, long, penciling, marvel, superhero, team, series, avengers, during, 1960s, silver, comic,. Donald L Heck 1 January 2 1929 February 23 1995 2 3 was an American comics artist best known for co creating the Marvel Comics characters Iron Man the Wasp Black Widow Hawkeye and Wonder Man and for his long run penciling the Marvel superhero team series The Avengers during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books Don HeckDon Heck in the 1960sBornDonald L Heck 1929 01 02 January 2 1929Queens New York City U S DiedFebruary 23 1995 1995 02 23 aged 66 Centereach New York U S NationalityAmericanArea s PencillerNotable worksThe AvengersIron ManAnt ManSignature Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early life and career 1 2 Atlas Comics 1 3 Silver Age 1 4 Move to DC 1 5 Later career 2 Bibliography 2 1 DC Comics 2 2 Marvel Comics 3 References 4 External linksBiography editEarly life and career edit nbsp One of Heck s earliest known comics credits Weird Terror 1 Sept 1952 Cover plus the story Hitler s Head Heck was born in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens New York City the son of Bertha and John Heck of German descent 4 Heck learned art through correspondence courses as well as at Woodrow Wilson Vocational High School in Jamaica and at a community college in Brooklyn 5 He continued with an impromptu art education in December 1949 6 when at the recommendation of a college friend he landed a job at Harvey Comics There he repurposed newspaper comic strip Photostats into comic book form including the work of Heck s idol famed cartoonist Milton Caniff Heck remained at Harvey where one co worker in the production department was future comics artist Pete Morisi 5 for two and a half years When a Harvey employee Allen Hardy broke off to start his own line Media Comics sic actually Comic Media in 1952 Heck recalled in 1993 Hardy called me up and asked me to join 7 Heck s first known comics work appeared in two Comic Media titles both cover dated September 1952 the war comic War Fury 1 for which he penciled and inked the cover and the eight page story The Unconquered by an unknown writer and the cover and the six page story Hitler s Head also by an unknown writer in the horror comic Weird Terror 1 8 Heck s work continued to appear in those titles and in the horror anthology Horrific for which he designed the logo 9 the adventure drama anthology Danger the Western anthology Death Valley and other titles through the company s demise in late 1954 8 Heck also did freelance assignments for Quality Comics Hillman Comics and Toby Press 5 For publisher U S Pictorial in 1955 he drew the one shot Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion a TV tie in comic based on the 1955 57 syndicated live action kids show of that name 10 Atlas Comics edit Through his old Harvey Comics colleague Pete Morisi Heck in 1954 met Marvel Comics Stan Lee then editor in chief and art director of Marvel s 1950 predecessor Atlas Comics As Heck recalled Pete Morisi who worked at Media at the same time I did had been to Stan Lee s office and he had brought his art portfolio One of my stories was in there and Stan kept going back to my story saying This is the way you should have done it Pete said Look if you want Don Heck to come up here he s looking for work too I ll tell him you re interested Stan said Well if he happened to walk up here I might have a story for him So I went up there on a Wednesday afternoon Stan never saw anybody on Wednesdays and he never saw anybody in the afternoon But he came out He looked at the first two pages and said Aw hell I know what your stuff looks like Come on in I got a story for you 7 Heck became an Atlas staff artist on September 1 1954 11 his first known work for the company was the five page horror story Werewolf Beware in Mystery Tales 25 Jan 1955 8 though Heck in 1993 recalled The first job I did was about a whale breaking a ship apart Then I did the submarine crew feature Torpedo Taylor for Navy Combat 7 drawing that five or six page feature in issues 1 14 and 16 June 1955 Aug 1957 Feb 1958 and oddly doing one page of a five page story finished by Joe Maneely in issue 19 Aug 1958 8 Until Atlas 1957 business retrenchment when it let go of most of its staff and freelancers and Heck spent a year drawing model airplane views for Berkeley Models 12 Heck contributed dozens of war comics stories and Westerns plus a smattering of jungle and science fiction fantasy tales nbsp Tales of Suspense 1 Jan 1959 Cover art by Heck Atlas began revamping in late 1958 with the arrival of artist Jack Kirby a comics legend whose career was also in need of revamping and who threw himself into the anthological science fiction supernatural mystery and giant monster stories of what would become known as pre superhero Marvel Heck returned alongside other soon to be famous names of Marvel Comics 1960s emergence as a pop culture phenomenon 13 making his first splash with the cover of Tales of Suspense 1 Jan 1959 one of the very few Atlas Marvel covers of that time not drawn by Kirby In the years immediately preceding the arrival of the Fantastic Four Spider Man and the other popular heroes of Marvel s ascendancy Heck gave atmospheric rendering to numerous science fiction fantasy stories in that comic as well as in sister publications Strange Tales Tales to Astonish Strange Worlds World of Fantasy and Journey into Mystery Heck also contributed to such Atlas Marvel romance comics as Love Romances and My Own Romance 8 Comics artist Jerry Ordway describing this era of Heck s work called the artist truly under appreciated His Atlas work pre Marvel was terrific with a clean sharp style and an ink line that wouldn t quit 5 Silver Age edit During the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books Iron Man premiered in Tales of Suspense 39 March 1963 as a collaboration among editor and story plotter Lee scriptwriter Larry Lieber story artist Heck and Kirby who provided the cover pencils and designed the first Iron Man armor 14 Kirby designed the costume Heck recalled because he was doing the cover The covers were always done first But I created the look of the characters like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts 15 Comics historian and former Kirby assistant Mark Evanier investigating claims of Kirby s involvement in the creation of both Iron Man and Daredevil interviewed Kirby and Heck on the subject years before their deaths and concluded that Kirby definitely did not do full breakdowns as has been erroneously reported about the first Iron Man In the early 1970s Jack claimed to have laid out those stories and I repeated his claim in print though not before checking with Heck who said in effect Oh yeah I remember that Jack did the layouts We all later realized he was mistaken Both also believed that Jack had contributed to the plots of those debut appearances recollections that do not match those of Stan Lee Larry Lieber did the script for the first Iron Man story from a plot that Stan gave him Also in both cases Jack had already drawn the covers of those issues and done some amount of design work He came up with the initial look of Iron Man s armor 16 Heck himself recalled in 1985 that while some sources claimed then that Jack Kirby did breakdowns that s not true I did it all They just didn t bother to call me up and find out when they wrote up the credits It doesn t really matter Jack Kirby created the costume and he did the cover for the issue In fact the second costume the red and yellow one was designed by Steve Ditko I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing The earlier design the robot looking one was more Kirbyish 9 Heck was the artist co creator of several new characters in the Iron Man feature The Mandarin debuted in Tales of Suspense 50 Feb 1964 and would become one of Iron Man s major enemies 17 Hawkeye Marvel s archer supreme first appeared in Tales of Suspense 57 Sept 1964 18 following the introduction of femme fatale Communist spy and future superheroine and S H I E L D agent the Black Widow in 52 April 1964 19 He drew the feature Iron Man through issue 46 Oct 1963 after which Spider Man artist Steve Ditko introduced the familiar red and gold Iron Man armor and drew three issues Heck returned with 50 and continued through 72 Dec 1965 Concurrent with drawing Iron Man Heck succeeded Jack Kirby as penciler on the superhero team series The Avengers with issue 9 Oct 1964 the introduction of Wonder Man 20 The Count Nefaria character was introduced by Lee and Heck four issues later 21 Heck who inked his own pencils for many years transitioned to the Marvel method of doing comics in which the penciler plotted and paced the details of a story based on a synopsis or plot outline from the writer who would afterward add dialog and was assigned the help of an inker for the first time He successfully made this adjustment and went on to make The Avengers which he drew through issue 40 May 1967 plus the 1967 annual one of his signature series He inked his own pencil work in issues 32 37 Heck would return to The Avengers one final time to co plot and pencil issue 45 with inks by Vince Colletta During this run Heck co created characters including the supervillain and eventual hero the Swordsman in 19 Aug 1965 22 the supervillain Power Man who years later became the hero Atlas in 21 Oct 1965 23 the cosmic entity the Collector in 28 May 1966 24 the supporting character Bill Foster who much later became the superhero Black Goliath in 32 Sept 1966 and the supervillain the Living Laser in 34 Nov 1966 25 During the next comics era the Bronze Age he co created another cosmic entity Mantis in issue 112 May 1973 26 Elsewhere during the 1960s Heck penciled The X Men 38 42 Nov 1967 March 1968 and introduced the new X Men Lorna Dane in issue 49 Oct 1968 27 and Havok in 54 March 1969 28 Heck drew over John Romita layouts The Amazing Spider Man 57 64 and 66 Feb Sept and Nov 1968 Heck would also draw issues of Captain Marvel and Iron Man the World War II war comic Captain Savage and his Battlefield Raiders horror stories in Chamber of Darkness and Tower of Shadows and once more love stories in the romance comics Our Love Story and My Love 8 From 1966 to 1971 Heck was an uncredited ghost artist on Lee Falk s The Phantom daily newspaper comic strip 2 and later on the Terry and the Pirates daily strip citation needed Move to DC edit By 1970 however Marvel work became less frequent and Heck obtained assignments from rival DC Comics beginning with a short story in the supernatural anthology House of Secrets 85 May 1970 He did his first DC superhero work with The Flash 198 June 1970 illustrating a backup story of the super speedster and eventually garnered additional work including romance comics and the backup features Batgirl and Jason Bard 29 in Detective Comics and Rose and the Thorn in Superman s Girl Friend Lois Lane 30 He began a short run on Wonder Woman with issue 204 Feb 1973 in which the character s powers and traditional costume were restored after several years 31 and he also freelanced for the short lived publisher Skywald Comics 8 Heck still occasionally worked at Marvel penciling the odd issue of Daredevil Sub Mariner Ghost Rider The Avengers and others in the mid 1970s He drew Giant Size Avengers 4 which featured the wedding of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch 32 Writer Tony Isabella and Heck launched the new superhero team book The Champions in October 1975 33 34 35 But in 1977 he began working almost exclusively for DC Heck explained in 1985 I left Marvel for a change of pace I kept getting all the new inkers Everyone who walked in I got them A bad inker can kill artwork I once got some pages back from inking and I just tore them up that s how bad they were 9 With writer Gerry Conway Heck co created the DC cyborg hero Steel the Indestructible Man in the premiere issue March 1978 of the titular comic 36 After that series cancellation Heck became regular artist on The Flash and in 1982 reunited with Conway to draw the Justice League of America including that year s crossover with the All Star Squadron 37 Heck then returned to Wonder Woman and drew the title until its cancellation in 1986 8 Later that same year he was one of the contributors to the DC Challenge limited series 38 Later career edit In the late 1980s and early 1990s Heck returned to Marvel where his work included features for the superhero anthologies Marvel Comics Presents and Marvel Fanfare The artist even returned to two signature characters he inked Hawkeye stories in Solo Avengers 17 20 and the subsequent Avengers Spotlight 21 22 April Sept 1989 both penciling and inking a second Hawkeye story in that last issue and he drew Iron Man inking penciler Mark Bright s eight page The Other Way Our in Marvel Comics Presents 51 June 1990 and both penciling and inking the one page featurette Tony Stark The Invincible Iron Man in Iron Man Annual 12 Sept 1991 and a pinup in Marvel Super Heroes vol 2 13 April 1993 Heck also did a smattering of work for such independent comics as Topps Comics NightGlider 39 Hero Comics Mr Fixit Vortex s NASCAR Adventures and Millennium Publications H P Lovecraft s Cthulhu The Whisperer in Darkness His final DC work was penciling and inking over Joe Quesada s layouts for Spelljammer 11 July 1991 and his last known comics work was the 10 page The Theft of Thor s Hammer by writer Bill Mantlo in Marvel Super Heroes vol 2 15 Oct 1993 8 Marvel one time editor in chief Roy Thomas said of the artist Don was unlucky enough I think to be a non superhero artist who starting in the sixties had to find his niche in a world dominated by superheroes Fortunately as he proved first with Iron Man and then with the Avengers Don could rise to the occasion because he had real talent and a good grounding in the fundamentals He amalgamated into his own style certain aspects of Jack Kirby s style and carved out a place for himself as one of a handful of artists who were of real importance during the very early days of Marvel 5 Heck died of lung cancer in 1995 5 He was living in Suffolk County New York on Long Island at the time of his death 40 Bibliography editDC Comics edit Action Comics 517 520 1981 Adventure Comics 424 462 465 482 484 486 487 1972 1981 Adventures of the Outsiders 38 1986 All Star Squadron 8 9 65 1982 1987 Batman Family 8 14 16 17 20 1976 1978 Blue Beetle 23 24 1988 Centurions 1 4 1987 Checkmate 4 1988 DC Challenge 9 1986 DC Comics Presents 38 1981 Detective Comics 408 425 427 429 431 433 481 482 485 486 489 1971 1980 The Flash 198 280 295 1970 1981 Ghosts 86 1980 Green Lantern 120 122 185 1979 1985 Heart Throbs 101 1966 House of Mystery 192 1971 House of Secrets 85 89 95 1970 1972 Justice League of America 187 188 198 199 201 205 207 209 213 216 1981 1983 My Greatest Adventure 49 1960 Our Army at War 36 1955 Secret Origins 33 1988 Steel The Indestructible Man 1 5 1978 Supergirl 2 4 1973 Superman Family 187 194 198 1978 1979 Superman Movie Special 1 Superman IV The Quest for Peace 1987 Superman s Girl Friend Lois Lane 123 130 1972 1973 Teen Titans 50 52 1977 The Witching Hour 6 17 20 1970 1972 Wonder Woman 199 204 206 233 234 287 301 306 309 311 317 319 329 1972 1986 Marvel Comics edit Amazing Adventures vol 1 5 1961 Amazing Adventures vol 2 6 8 1971 Amazing Spider Man 57 59 63 66 Annual 3 1966 1968 Avengers 9 15 17 40 45 108 112 145 146 157 Annual 1 2 1964 1977 Avengers Spotlight 22 1989 Captain America Annual 10 1991 Captain Marvel 5 10 16 1968 1969 Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders 12 16 1969 Chamber of Chills 3 13 1973 1974 Chamber of Darkness 1 2 8 1969 1970 Champions 1 2 5 1975 1976 Daredevil 103 106 118 1973 1975 Fear 29 1975 Ghost Rider vol 1 2 1967 Ghost Rider vol 2 22 25 1977 Giant Size Avengers 4 1975 Giant Size Defenders 4 5 1975 Giant Size Dracula 3 4 1974 1975 Giant Size Spider Man 2 1974 Invaders 35 38 1978 1979 Iron Man 26 31 33 37 1970 1971 Annual 12 1991 Journey into Mystery 37 44 50 53 55 65 67 68 73 74 76 77 79 80 82 86 88 98 100 1956 1964 Jungle Tales 6 7 1955 later becomes Jann of the Jungle 8 11 14 17 1955 1957 Ka Zar 2 5 11 1974 1975 Kid Colt Outlaw 99 100 104 105 135 1961 1967 Marvel Comics Presents 12 32 40 49 51 63 1989 1990 Marvel Fanfare 56 1991 Marvel Feature 1 1971 Marvel Premiere 29 30 1976 My Love 14 1970 Mystery Tales 25 30 1955 Mystic 46 55 1956 1957 Navy Combat 1 16 19 1955 1958 Our Love Story 4 1970 Psi Force 22 1988 Rawhide Kid 17 20 22 27 30 31 55 1960 1966 Strange Tales 67 69 71 83 87 88 90 92 95 96 98 101 103 105 108 140 145 148 1959 1966 Strange Worlds 1 2 5 1958 1959 Sub Mariner 64 68 1973 1974 Tales of Suspense 1 3 6 13 15 19 22 24 26 29 36 38 39 42 44 46 50 72 1959 1965 Tales to Astonish 2 4 5 7 17 19 21 25 27 30 32 35 37 39 41 43 45 48 53 54 1959 1964 Tower of Shadows 2 4 9 Annual 1 1969 1971 Two Gun Kid 45 58 1958 1961 X Men 38 42 44 49 52 54 55 64 1967 1970 References edit Donald L Heck at the Social Security Death Index Retrieved on September 23 2012 Archived from the original on September 23 2012 a b Don Heck Lambiek Comiclopedia December 5 2008 Archived from the original on May 18 2012 Miller John Jackson June 10 2005 Comics Industry Birthdays Comics Buyer s Guide Iola Wisconsin Archived from the original on February 18 2011 Retrieved December 12 2010 In print issue 1650 February 2009 p 107 Coates John 2014 Formative Years Don Heck A Work of Art Raleigh North Carolina TwoMorrows Publishing p 9 ISBN 978 1605490588 a b c d e f Evanier Mark March 24 1995 Don Heck Obituary P O V Online Archived from the original on November 24 2002 Retrieved March 15 2006 Heck in Murray Will September 1993 Iron Man Almost 44 Years Later Don Heck Is Still Drawing Comics Part One Comics Scene No 37 Starlog Group Inc pp 54 55 a b c Heck Comics Scene 37 p 55 a b c d e f g h i Don Heck at the Grand Comics Database a b c Heck quoted in Peel John March April 1985 A Signing Session with Don Heck Comics Feature No 34 p 18 I started on Horrific and Danger I did the covers and they also let me do the lettering on Horrific like the logo Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion at the Grand Comics Database Heck Comics Scene 37 p 58 Sidebar Artistic Conversations Murray Comics Scene 37 p 55 Brevoort Tom Gilbert Laura ed 2008 1950s Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History London United Kingdom Dorling Kindersley p 72 ISBN 978 0756641238 Editor Stan Lee had assembled a small but steady pool of creative talent to produce the company s output in addition to himself This group of artists included Jack Kirby Steve Ditko Don Heck Larry Lieber Paul Reinman Stan Goldberg Al Hartley and Dick Ayers a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a first2 has generic name help CS1 maint multiple names authors list link DeFalco Tom 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 91 Daniels Les 1991 Marvel Five Fabulous Decades of the World s Greatest Comics New York City Harry N Abrams p 99 ISBN 0 8109 3821 9 Evanier Mark n d The Jack FAQ P O V Online Archived from the original on December 28 2009 DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 99 Following the tradition of Sax Rohmer s Fu Manchu and Atlas own Yellow Claw the Mandarin first appeared in Tales of Suspense 50 in a story written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Don Heck DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 101 A case of mistaken identity led the police to assume Hawkeye was part of a criminal gang The Black Widow saved him from capture but also tricked him into fighting Iron Man DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 100 The Black Widow was a Russian spy assigned to capture American industrialist Tony Stark Her story was plotted by Stan Lee written by Don Rico and drawn by Don Heck DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 102 DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 106 Europe s wealthiest nobleman Count Nefaria had a terrible secret he was also the most powerful crimelord on Earth Created by Stan Lee and Don Heck Nefaria secretly ran the worldwide criminal organization called the Maggia DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 109 Created by Stan Lee and artist Don Heck the Swordsman tried to join Earth s mightiest heroes but after being refused he began working for the criminal mastermind the Mandarin DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 110 Stan Lee and Don Heck brought back the machine responsible for creating Wonder Man to produce a brand new super villain in The Avengers 21 DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 116 DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 119 Sanderson Peter 1970s in Gilbert 2008 p 159 Writer Steve Englehart and artist Don Heck introduced Mantis a mistress of the martial arts DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 132 Lorna Dane s green hair marked her as a mutant in The X Men 49 an issue written by Arnold Drake and illustrated by Don Heck and Werner Roth DeFalco 1960s in Gilbert 2008 p 135 Alex Summers was the younger brother of the X Man Scott Cyclops Summers He appeared in The X Men 54 by writer Arnold Drake and artist Don Heck Wells John May 2013 The Master Crime File of Jason Bard Back Issue 64 Raleigh North Carolina TwoMorrows Publishing 39 43 Cassell Dewey May 2013 A Rose By Any Other Name Would Be Thorn Back Issue 64 Raleigh North Carolina TwoMorrows Publishing 28 32 McAvennie Michael Dolan Hannah ed 2010 1970s DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle London United Kingdom Dorling Kindersley p 154 ISBN 978 0 7566 6742 9 After nearly five years of Diana Prince s non powered super heroics writer editor Robert Kanigher and artist Don Heck restored Wonder Woman s well wonder a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a first2 has generic name help CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Sanderson 1970s in Gilbert 2008 p 169 Writer Steve Englehart and veteran Avengers artist Don Heck presented the grand finale of the long running Celestial Madonna saga Immortus presided over the double wedding of Mantis to the resurrected Swordsman and the android Vision to the Scarlet Witch Sanderson 1970s in Gilbert 2008 p 171 Created by writer Tony Isabella and artist Don Heck the Champions consisted of Angel Iceman Hercules the Black Widow and Ghost Rider Markstein Don 2009 The Champions Don Markstein s Toonopedia Archived from the original on April 14 2012 Retrieved January 20 2013 Walker Karen July 2013 We ll Keep on Fighting Til the End The Story of the Champions Back Issue 65 Raleigh North Carolina TwoMorrows Publishing 17 23 McAvennie 1970s in Dolan p 177 Thomas Roy 2000 The Justice League Justice Society Team Ups The All Star Companion Raleigh North Carolina TwoMorrows Publishing pp 191 192 ISBN 1 893905 05 5 Justice League of America 207 209 Oct Dec 1982 and All Star Squadron 14 15 Oct Nov 1982 Greenberger Robert August 2017 It Sounded Like a Good Idea at the Time A Look at the DC Challenge Back Issue 98 Raleigh North Carolina TwoMorrows Publishing 41 Sources disagree on its spelling sometimes even within the same source The cover of the single issue itself appears to spell it NightGlider The cover of Victory 1 likewise spells it as one word though in an all caps typeface The Grand Comics Database entry spells it as both Nightglider and Night Glider The archived pulldown title search menu Archived from the original on March 3 2009 Retrieved 2012 09 09 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link at the Jack Kirby Museum site spells it Night Glider Donald L Heck United States Social Security Death Index Retrieved February 2 2018 via FamilySearch org External links editBest Daniel May 10 2011 Original Art Stories Don Heck In His Own Words 20th Century Danny Boy Archived from the original on September 14 2012 Retrieved September 13 2012 The American Artist Bluebook Don Heck DC Profiles 73 Don Heck at the Grand Comics Database Don Heck at IMDb Don Heck Archived 2018 08 12 at the Wayback Machine at Mike s Amazing World of Comics Don Heck at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators Preceded byn a Iron Man feature in Tales of Suspense artist1963 1965 Succeeded byGene Colan Preceded byJack Kirby The Avengers penciller1964 1967 Succeeded byJohn Buscema Preceded byAlex Saviuk The Flash penciller1979 1981 Succeeded byCarmine Infantino Preceded byGeorge Perez Justice League of America penciller1982 1983 Succeeded byChuck Patton Preceded byGene Colan Wonder Woman penciller1983 1986 Succeeded byn a Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Don Heck amp oldid 1217448913, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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