American comic book artist (1926-2000). Real name:
Eli Katz. He was born in
Latvia but moved to
New York City with his family when he was three years old. He became interested in
art,
comics, and
pulp magazines and broke into the still-fairly-new field of comic books in 1941 -- he worked as an assistant in
Jack Binder's
studio and as an artist for
the Scarlet Avenger at
MLJ, the publishers of the
Archie comics. He also worked as a
freelancer at
Street and Smith,
Holyoke,
Quality Comics, and
Timely Comics. He even got to work for (and learn from) comics legends like
Joe Simon and
Jack Kirby.
After serving in the
Army during
World War II, Kane went to work for
DC Comics, drawing
Wildcat and
the Sandman. He also freelanced for a number of other companies as well. He continued to get steady work in comics, even during the anti-comics backlash in the
1950s, fueled by
Dr. Fredric Wertham's book "
Seduction of the Innocent"; it helped that Kane was
versatile enough to work in almost any
genre, from
comedy to
science fiction to his personal favorite, the
Western.
Once the
Silver Age got started in the mid-50's, Kane created
Adam Strange (though he didn't end up drawing him on a regular basis) and the revamped versions of
Green Lantern and
the Atom. He spent several years drawing GL and Atom, as well as several
fantasy and sci-fi books, but began to feel burned out at DC. After working on "
Thunder Agents" for
Tower Comics and "
Flash Gordon" for
King Comics, he quit DC and went to work for
Marvel. His Marvel work, considered some of the best and most
groundbreaking in the industry, included stints drawing
Spider-Man,
the Avengers,
the Hulk,
Conan the Barbarian,
Captain America, and
Captain Marvel, among others.
In 1971, Kane created what is now considered the first
graphic novel. "
Blackmark" was a critical
success, but made not a dime for Marvel. Also during the
1970s, he created
Iron Fist and
Morbius the Living Vampire for Marvel, but eventually left comic books to work on a
comic strip called "
Starhawks."
In his later years, Kane did some more work for DC, developed some
cartoons for
Hanna-Barbera, and visited numerous
comic book conventions, greeting
fans, telling stories, and signing
artwork.
Research: http://www.comic-art.com/bios-1/kanegil.htm