Charles Nicholas
| Chuck Cuidera | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charles Nicholas Cuidera September 23, 1915 |
| Died | August 25, 2001 (aged 85) |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Artist |
|
Notable works
|
Blackhawk |
| Charles Wojtkoski | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski December 6, 1921 |
| Died | June 21, 1985 (aged 63) |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer, Artist |
| Pseudonym(s) | Charles Nicholas |
|
Notable works
|
Blue Beetle |
"Charles Nicholas" is the pseudonymous house name of three early creators of American comic books for the Fox Feature Syndicate and Fox Comics.
The name originated at Eisner & Iger, one of the first comic-book "packagers" that created comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium during the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of comic books. Co-principal Will Eisner, himself a comics creator, recalled,
We had a whole bunch of phony names like Chuck's. We just handed them out with the salary. There was a period in comics beginning with the middle- to late-'30s when none of the artists owned their own drawings. They were hired by the publishers ... [who] used what the pulp magazines used – a thing called a house name. A fake name. So the publishers not only owned the comic strip, they owned the name [of the creator], therefore the guy working for them couldn't lay a claim. That's how the name 'Charles Nicholas' started.
The three creators are listed in order of birth year, below.
Charles Nicholas Cuidera, also known as Chuck Cuidera (September 23, 1915 – August 25, 2001), was an American comic book artist best known as the first illustrator of the Quality Comics aviator character Blackhawk, in Military Comics #1–11 (Aug. 1941 – Aug. 1942). Cuidera was also an early artist of the superhero Blue Beetle, yet though he claimed, in his very late years, that he was the Charles Nicholas who created that character, comics historians credit Charles Wojtkowski, who also used the Charles Nicholas pseudonym.
Cuidera grew up in Newark, New Jersey, and after earning art scholarships graduated from Pratt Institute in 1939. Breaking into comic books at Fox Feature Syndicate, where he drew Blue Beetle stories, he shortly afterward migrated to the Eisner & Iger shop.
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