American comic book artist, born in 1925. As a boy, he would travel around
New York City, trying to meet artists for comic books and
comic strips. At 15, he met
Charles Flanders, the artist for
the Lone Ranger comic strip, who allowed Carmine to watch him
draw to perfect his
technique. Two years later, in 1942, he got a job with
Timely Comics (which later grew up to be
Marvel), and a few years later, was contacted by
Al Capp, the creator of "
Lil Abner". Capp had seen Carmine's work and wanted to hire him to assist with his comic strip. Carmine planned to move to
Boston, but his
father advised him to finish
school first, telling him, "If you're any good, they'll still want you when you graduate."
While still in school, Infantino worked for several different
publishers. Working for
Charles Biro, he wrote
scripts for
Airboy and
the Heap. At
Quality Comics, he did some
inking and erased panel borders. He also worked with
Will Eisner. He also met
Frank Giacoia, who became a lifelong
friend and inked most of Infantino's
art.
Infantino enrolled in the
Art Students League and the
Brooklyn Museum of Art when he was 19. After graduating, he and Giacoia got work at
DC Comics, where they worked on a host of
Golden Age characters, including
Johnny Quick,
the Flash,
Green Lantern,
Black Canary,
Johnny Thunder,
the Three Ghosts, and
the Shining Knight. Infantino joined the
National Cartoonists Society in 1946 (where he got to meet one of his
idols,
Milton Caniff) and later returned to the Art Students League, where he studied the
figure studies of
Edgar Degas.
After the publication of
Dr. Fredric Wertham's "
Seduction of the Innocent", a public
backlash against the industry caused many comics publishers to shut down; during that period, Infantino worked exclusively for DC, putting together a wide range of comics, including
romances,
Westerns, and stories about
Rex the Wonder Dog and
Detective Chimp. In 1956, editor
Julius Schwartz asked Infantino to
redesign and
revive the Flash--the result, published in "
Showcase #4", was a new guy wearing a new
streamlined costume. The new Flash was wildly
popular and kicked off a resurgence in the
popularity of
superhero comics; Infantino had
kickstarted comics'
Silver Age.
By 1959, the Flash had his own title, with Infantino as the
penciller--he stuck with the Flash for almost 20 years and became so strongly
associated with the character that it's not uncommon for the Flash's current creators to name
landmarks and
buildings in the comic after Infantino.
While working on the Flash, Infantino also drew
the Elongated Man and
Adam Strange (he based many of his
futuristic cityscapes on the designs of architect
Frank Lloyd Wright), and helped revamp
Batman. He was named DC's
editor-in-chief in 1967 and began working to break the company out of its
stodgy rut--he hired
innovative creators like
Neal Adams and helped start a movement for greater
creator's rights within DC and the rest of the industry. He was appointed DC's
publisher in 1971 and its
president in 1974. He left the company in 1976 over a
dispute with Time-Warner, DC's parent company. After that, he worked for
Hanna-Barbera for a while, taught
classes at the
School of Visual Arts, and did some
commercial artwork. He currently lives in New York City and published his
autobiography, "
The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino", in 2002.
Research from http://www.comic-art.com/bios-1/infntno1.htm