George Roussos
| George Roussos | |
|---|---|
Roussos at his drawing board in 1941
|
|
| Born |
August 20, 1915 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Died | February 19, 2000 (aged 84) Bay Shore, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Inker, Colourist |
| Pseudonym(s) | George Bell |
George Roussos (August 20, 1915 – February 19, 2000), also known under the pseudonym George Bell, was an American comic book artist best known as one of Jack Kirby's Silver Age inkers, including on landmark early issues of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four. Over five decades, he created artwork for numerous publishers, including EC Comics, and he was a staff colorist for Marvel Comics.
George Roussos was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Greek-Americans William and Helen Roussos. After he and his sisters Helen and Alice were orphaned as children, George was sent to live at the Brooklyn Orphan Asylum in New York City, and attended Public School 125 in the Woodside neighborhood of Queens. Roussos was influenced by the art of cartoonist Frank Miller in the aviation comic strip Barney Baxter in the Air. Other influences included Chester Gould, Stan Kaye, Robert Fawcett and Hal Foster. "I had no schooling [in art] except the things I learned by myself," Roussos said.
He entered comics in 1939 as letterer of the Spanish-language version of the newspaper panel Ripley's Believe It or Not, despite not being able to read Spanish. The following year, Bob Kane and Bill Finger hired him to assist inker Jerry Robinson on Batman stories. Roussos' duties included drawing backgrounds, inking, and lettering, starting as early as Batman #2 (Summer 1940). At the same time, he did similar duties on Target and the Targeteers. He and Robinson would eventually leave the Kane studio to work directly for National Comics (the future DC Comics) on Batman and other characters. Roussos worked on features starring the Vigilante, Johnny Quick, Superman, and Starman. His most notable DC work was as penciller, inker, colorist, and letterer of the Detective Comics backup feature "Air Wave", on which he experimented, on at least one story, with using only shades of gray for color.
...
Wikipedia