Bill Everett
Encyclopedia
William Blake "Bill" Everett, also known as William Blake and Everett Blake (May 18, 1917, Cambridge, Massachusetts
– February 27, 1973) was a comic book
writer
-artist
best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner
and co-creating Daredevil
for Marvel Comics
. He was a descendant of the poet William Blake
and of Richard Everett
, founder of Dedham, Massachusetts.
Everett was inducted into the comic book
industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000.
, or instead to have joined the U.S. Merchant Marine from ages 15 to 17, among other tales. In actuality, he was born at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge
, Massachusetts
, and raised in nearby Watertown, Massachusetts
, with his parents Robert Maxwell Everett and Elaine Grace Brown Everett, and his sister Elizabeth, born in 1915. His 300-year-old New England
family included Everett, Massachusetts
' namesake, Edward Everett
, who after serving as president of Harvard University
became governor of Massachusetts
and, in 1852, the U.S. Secretary of State. It also includes Edward's son, Massachusetts Congressman
William Everett
; and the poet William Blake
.
Everett's father ran a successful trucking business, and when Everett was young the family bought a large summer home in Kennebunkport
, Maine
. Both parents supported the artist talents of their son, whose reading tastes ran to the classics rather than pulp novels or comic strips, and included work by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
and Jack London
. He would later find artistic influence in such commercial magazine artists as Meade Schaeffer, Dean Cornwell
, and especially Floyd MacMillan Davis
.
At 12, in 1929, Everett contracted tuberculosis
, and was pulled from sixth grade to go with his mother and his sister to Arizona, to recuperate for four months. They then returned to Massachusetts, but a recurrence of the disease sent the trio back West, first to Prescott, Arizona
and then to Wickenburg
, 60 miles away. There, taking his first drink, Everett began the path to teenage alcoholism
. Nonetheless, he became well enough by 16 to return home with his mother and sister to the Boston
area, where his father, unscathed by the Great Depression
, had a large house in West Newton
. His alcoholism and natural rebelliousness caused his parents to remove him from high school at age 16, in his sophomore year, and enroll him at in 1934 at Boston's Vesper George School of Art. His inability to focus, however, led him to drop out in 1935, after a year-and-a-half of the program.
That same year, his father died of acute appendicitis
, and the family, though remaining well-off, moved to an apartment back in Cambridge. Everett knew his father "always wanted me to be a cartoonist
, and he died, unfortunately, before he saw that come true. But that was probably in back of the whole thing."
The Herald-Traveler for $12 a week. Soon afterward, he left to become a draftsman for the civil engineering
firm The Brooks System, in Newton, Massachusetts
. From there he pursued work in Phoenix, Arizona
and Los Angeles, California
without success. He then returned east to New York City
, where he again did newspaper advertising art, for the New York Herald-Tribune. He next became art editor for Teck Publications' Radio News
magazine, then assistant art director under Herm Bollin in Chicago, Illinois. Fired for being, as Everett described, "too cocky," he returned to New York where he sought employment as an art director. With no luck at this and desperate for work, he ran into an old Teck colleague, Walter Holze, who was now working in the new field of comic books. As Everett recalled in the late 1960s, "He asked me if I could do comics. I said, 'Sure!!' At that point I was starving. I wasn't interested in the comics business; I was talked into it".
Freelancing for Centaur Publications
, Everett "sold my first page for $2 — writing, penciling, inking and all. 'Skyrocket Steele' was my first strip." Soon he was getting $10 and then $14 a page, a respectable sum during this late-1930s period near the beginning of what historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books
. Everett co-created the superhero
Amazing-Man
at Centaur, working with company art director
Lloyd Jacquet
, and drew the first five issues.
Everett and other creators followed Jacquet to his new company Funnies, Inc., one of the first comic-book "packagers" that would create comics on demand for publishers. Everett recalled
#1, a planned promotional comic to be given away in movie theaters. When plans changed, Everett used his character instead for Funnies, Inc.'s first client, pulp magazine
publisher Martin Goodman
. The original eight-page story was expanded by four pages for Marvel Comics
#1 (Oct. 1939), the first publication of what Goodman would eventually call Timely Comics
, the 1940s precursor of Marvel Comics. Everett's anti-hero proved a sudden success, quickly becoming one of Timely's top three characters, along with Carl Burgos
' android superhero
the Human Torch
and Jack Kirby
and Joe Simon
's Captain America
. Everett soon introduced such supporting characters as New York City
policewoman Betty Dean, a steady companion and occasional love-interest, and Namor's cousin Namora
.
Everett drew his star character in Sub-Mariner Comics, published first quarterly, then thrice-yearly and finally bimonthly, for issues #1-32 (Fall 1941 - June 1949).
Everett entered the U.S. Army for World War II
military service in February 1942. He attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir
, during which time he met Gwenn Randall, who was working for the Ordnance Department at the Pentagon
. The couple married in 1944, when Everett returned from the European theater of operations, and their first child, a daughter, was born shortly before he was shipped out to the Philippines
to fight in the Pacific theater
; he returned home in February 1946. With money inherited from a great-uncle, Everett took some time off and traveled before settling in Fairbury
, Nebraska
, his wife's hometown. "This was when I renewed my association with Martin Goodman, working by mail on a freelance basis, picking up the Sub-Mariner where I'd left off four years ago". His first recorded post-war credit is writing and full art for the 12-page story "Sub-Mariner vs. Green-Out" in Sub-Mariner Comics #21 (Fall 1946) — the third of three Sub-Mariner stories that issue, for which Syd Shores
drew the cover. Everett was soon providing Sub-Mariner stories regularly for the solo title as well as for The Human Torch
, Marvel Mystery Comics
and even Blonde Phantom Comics
.
Additionally, he drew the title feature in the three-issue spin-off series Namora (Aug.-Dec. 1948).
Early pseudonyms included Willie Bee and Bill Roman.
. Like most superhero characters in the postwar era, the Sub-Mariner had faded in popularity, and his solo title had been canceled in 1949. But after a nearly five-year hiatus, he briefly returned with Captain America
and the Golden Age Human Torch
in Young Men #24 (Dec. 1953), during Atlas' mid-1950s attempt at reviving superheroes. Everett drew the Sub-Mariner feature through Young Men #28 (June 1954) and in Sub-Mariner Comics #33-42 (April 1954 - Oct. 1955), which outlasted the other two characters' features. During this time, Namora had her own spin-off series.
Everett also drew the features "Venus
" and "Marvel Boy
", as well as a large number of stories for Atlas' anthological horror
-fantasy
series. One such tale, "Zombie!," written by editor-in-chief Stan Lee
and published in Menace
#5, introduced the character Simon Garth, the Zombie, who in the 1970s would be plucked from this one-shot story to star in Marvel's black-and-white horror-comics magazine
Tales of the Zombie.
, who debuted in Daredevil #1 (April 1964). Comics historian and former Jack Kirby
assistant Mark Evanier
, investigating claims of Kirby's involvement in the creation of both Iron Man
and Daredevil, interviewed Kirby and Everett and found that,
2000s Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada
noted that when Everett turned in his first-issue pencils extremely late, Brodsky and Spider-Man
artist Steve Ditko
inked "a lot of backgrounds and secondary figures on the fly [and] cobbled the cover and the splash page together from Kirby's original concept drawing" In an interview conducted by Marvel writer-editor and Everett's one-time roommate Roy Thomas
, in what the latter recalled as either "late 1969 or in 1970," Everett said of Daredevils creation five years earlier:
Within two years, however, Everett began penciling for Marvel once again, first on the character the Hulk
, in Tales to Astonish
, initially over Kirby layouts, and on Doctor Strange
in Strange Tales
. Readers during this 1960s Silver Age of comic books
also became acquainted with his Golden Age and 1950s stories, which were reprinted first in the book The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer
(Dial Press, 1965), and then in the comic books Fantasy Masterpieces, Marvel Super-Heroes
, and Marvel Tales
.
Everett even returned to his enduring character, first inking Namor's adventures in Tales to Astonish
#85-86, then taking over full artistic duties for issues #87-91 and #94, and penciling issues #95-96. He then did complete stories — writing, penciling and inking — on Sub-Mariner #50-55 and 57 (June 1972 - Nov. 1972; Jan. 1973), with script assists by Mike Friedrich
on two issues; and #58 (Feb. 1973), co-written with Steve Gerber
and co-penciled with Sam Kweskin
as his health began to deteriorate for the final time. He co-wrote and inked Sub-Mariner #59 (March 1973), plotted #60 (April 1973), and co-wrote, co-penciled (with fellow Golden Ager Win Mortimer
), and co-inked #61 (May 1973). His final efforts on the character he created were five pages of pencils (inked by fellow Golden Ager Fred Kida
) that appeared posthumously in Super-Villain Team-Up
#1 (Aug. 1975).
Artist Gene Colan said that Everett had been Lee's first choice to draw the horror series Tomb of Dracula
, which premiered in 1972 and for which Colan then lobbied successfully.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
– February 27, 1973) was a comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
-artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner
Namor the Sub-Mariner
Namor the Sub-Mariner is a fictional comic book character in the Marvel Comics universe, and one of the first superheroes, debuting in Spring 1939. The character was created by writer-artist Bill Everett for Funnies Inc., one of the first "packagers" in the early days of comic books that supplied...
and co-creating Daredevil
Daredevil (Marvel Comics)
Daredevil is a fictional character, a superhero in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby, and first appeared in Daredevil #1 .Living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood...
for Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
. He was a descendant of the poet William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
and of Richard Everett
Richard Everett
Richard Everett was a founder of both Springfield, Massachusetts and Dedham, Massachusetts and an ancestor of many notable Americans....
, founder of Dedham, Massachusetts.
Everett was inducted into the comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000.
Early life
Bill Everett, a fabulist who spun fanciful stories of his youth, claimed at various points to have graduated from high school in ArizonaArizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, or instead to have joined the U.S. Merchant Marine from ages 15 to 17, among other tales. In actuality, he was born at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, and raised in nearby Watertown, Massachusetts
Watertown, Massachusetts
The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...
, with his parents Robert Maxwell Everett and Elaine Grace Brown Everett, and his sister Elizabeth, born in 1915. His 300-year-old New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
family included Everett, Massachusetts
Everett, Massachusetts
Everett is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, near Boston. The population was 41,667 at the 2010 census.Everett is the last city in the United States with a bicameral legislature, which is composed of a seven-member Board of Aldermen and an 18-member Common Council...
' namesake, Edward Everett
Edward Everett
Edward Everett was an American politician and educator from Massachusetts. Everett, a Whig, served as U.S. Representative, and U.S. Senator, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and United States Secretary of State...
, who after serving as president of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
became governor of Massachusetts
Governor of Massachusetts
The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...
and, in 1852, the U.S. Secretary of State. It also includes Edward's son, Massachusetts Congressman
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
William Everett
William Everett
William Everett was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Charlotte Gray Brooks and orator, Massachusetts governor and U.S...
; and the poet William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
.
Everett's father ran a successful trucking business, and when Everett was young the family bought a large summer home in Kennebunkport
Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,720 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area....
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. Both parents supported the artist talents of their son, whose reading tastes ran to the classics rather than pulp novels or comic strips, and included work by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
and Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
. He would later find artistic influence in such commercial magazine artists as Meade Schaeffer, Dean Cornwell
Dean Cornwell
Dean Cornwell was an American illustrator and muralist. His oil paintings were frequently featured in popular magazines and books as literary illustrations, advertisements, and posters promoting the war effort. Throughout the first half of the 20th century he was a dominant presence in American...
, and especially Floyd MacMillan Davis
Floyd MacMillan Davis
Floyd MacMillan Davis was an American painter and illustrator known for his work in advertising and illustration; Walter and Roger Reed described him as "someone who could capture the rich, beautiful people of the 1920s: dashing, mustachioed men; the cool, svelte women...
.
At 12, in 1929, Everett contracted tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, and was pulled from sixth grade to go with his mother and his sister to Arizona, to recuperate for four months. They then returned to Massachusetts, but a recurrence of the disease sent the trio back West, first to Prescott, Arizona
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
and then to Wickenburg
Wickenburg, Arizona
Wickenburg is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 6,423.-Geography:Wickenburg is located at ....
, 60 miles away. There, taking his first drink, Everett began the path to teenage alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
. Nonetheless, he became well enough by 16 to return home with his mother and sister to the Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
area, where his father, unscathed by the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, had a large house in West Newton
West Newton, Massachusetts
West Newton is a village of the City of Newton, Massachusetts and is one of the oldest of the thirteen Newton villages. The postal code 02465 roughly matches the village limits.-Location:...
. His alcoholism and natural rebelliousness caused his parents to remove him from high school at age 16, in his sophomore year, and enroll him at in 1934 at Boston's Vesper George School of Art. His inability to focus, however, led him to drop out in 1935, after a year-and-a-half of the program.
That same year, his father died of acute appendicitis
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...
, and the family, though remaining well-off, moved to an apartment back in Cambridge. Everett knew his father "always wanted me to be a cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
, and he died, unfortunately, before he saw that come true. But that was probably in back of the whole thing."
Early work
Everett soon became a professional artist on the advertising staff of the Boston newspaperNewspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
The Herald-Traveler for $12 a week. Soon afterward, he left to become a draftsman for the civil engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
firm The Brooks System, in Newton, Massachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
. From there he pursued work in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
and Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
without success. He then returned east to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he again did newspaper advertising art, for the New York Herald-Tribune. He next became art editor for Teck Publications' Radio News
Radio News
Radio News was an American monthly technology magazine published from 1919 to 1971. The magazine was started by Hugo Gernsback as a magazine for amateur radio enthusiasts, but it evolved to cover all the technical aspects to radio and electronics. In 1929 a bankruptcy forced the sale of Gernsback's...
magazine, then assistant art director under Herm Bollin in Chicago, Illinois. Fired for being, as Everett described, "too cocky," he returned to New York where he sought employment as an art director. With no luck at this and desperate for work, he ran into an old Teck colleague, Walter Holze, who was now working in the new field of comic books. As Everett recalled in the late 1960s, "He asked me if I could do comics. I said, 'Sure!!' At that point I was starving. I wasn't interested in the comics business; I was talked into it".
Freelancing for Centaur Publications
Centaur Publications
Centaur Publications was one of the earliest American comic book publishers. During their short existence, they created several colorful characters, including Bill Everett's Amazing Man....
, Everett "sold my first page for $2 — writing, penciling, inking and all. 'Skyrocket Steele' was my first strip." Soon he was getting $10 and then $14 a page, a respectable sum during this late-1930s period near the beginning of what historians and fans call the Golden Age of comic books
Golden Age of Comic Books
The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...
. Everett co-created the superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
Amazing-Man
Amazing-Man (Centaur Publications)
Amazing-Man is a fictional, American comic book superhero whose adventures were published by Centaur Publications during the 1930s to 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Historians credit his creation variously to writer-artist Bill Everett or to Everett together...
at Centaur, working with company art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
Lloyd Jacquet
Lloyd Jacquet
Lloyd Victor Jacquet was the founder of Funnies, Inc., one of the first and most prominent of a handful of comic book "packagers" established in the late 1930s that created comics on demand for publishers testing the waters of the emerging medium. Among its other achievements, Funnies, Inc...
, and drew the first five issues.
Everett and other creators followed Jacquet to his new company Funnies, Inc., one of the first comic-book "packagers" that would create comics on demand for publishers. Everett recalled
Sub-Mariner
At Funnies, Inc., Everett created the Sub-Mariner for an aborted project, Motion Picture Funnies WeeklyMotion Picture Funnies Weekly
Motion Picture Funnies Weekly is a 36-page, black-and-white American comic book series created in 1939, and designed to be a promotional giveaway in movie theaters...
#1, a planned promotional comic to be given away in movie theaters. When plans changed, Everett used his character instead for Funnies, Inc.'s first client, pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
publisher Martin Goodman
Martin Goodman (publisher)
Martin Goodman born on was an American publisher of pulp magazines, paperback books, men's adventure magazines, and comic books, launching the company that would become Marvel Comics....
. The original eight-page story was expanded by four pages for Marvel Comics
Marvel Mystery Comics
Marvel Mystery Comics is an American comic book series published during the 1930s-1940s period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic Books...
#1 (Oct. 1939), the first publication of what Goodman would eventually call Timely Comics
Timely Comics
Timely Comics, an imprint of Timely Publications, was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics....
, the 1940s precursor of Marvel Comics. Everett's anti-hero proved a sudden success, quickly becoming one of Timely's top three characters, along with Carl Burgos
Carl Burgos
Carl Burgos was an American comic book and advertising artist best known for creating the original Human Torch in Marvel Comics #1 Carl Burgos (né Max Finkelstein, April 18, 1916, New York City, New York; died March 1984) was an American comic book and advertising artist best known for creating...
' android superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
the Human Torch
Human Torch (Golden Age)
The Human Torch, also known as Jim Hammond, is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics-owned superhero. Created by writer-artist Carl Burgos, he first appeared in Marvel Comics #1 , published by Marvel's predecessor, Timely Comics....
and Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
and Joe Simon
Joe Simon
Joseph Henry "Joe" Simon is an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the first editor of Timely Comics, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics.With his...
's Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
. Everett soon introduced such supporting characters as New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
policewoman Betty Dean, a steady companion and occasional love-interest, and Namor's cousin Namora
Namora
Namora is a fictional character, a superhero in the . She is from Atlantis and is the daughter of an Atlantean father and a human mother. She is the cousin of Namor the Sub-Mariner.-Publication history:...
.
Everett drew his star character in Sub-Mariner Comics, published first quarterly, then thrice-yearly and finally bimonthly, for issues #1-32 (Fall 1941 - June 1949).
Everett entered the U.S. Army for World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
military service in February 1942. He attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir
Fort Belvoir
Fort Belvoir is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Originally, it was the site of the Belvoir plantation. Today, Fort Belvoir is home to a number of important United States military organizations...
, during which time he met Gwenn Randall, who was working for the Ordnance Department at the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
. The couple married in 1944, when Everett returned from the European theater of operations, and their first child, a daughter, was born shortly before he was shipped out to the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
to fight in the Pacific theater
Pacific Ocean theater of World War II
The Pacific Ocean theatre was one of four major naval theatres of war of World War II, which pitted the forces of Japan against those of the United States, the British Commonwealth, the Netherlands and France....
; he returned home in February 1946. With money inherited from a great-uncle, Everett took some time off and traveled before settling in Fairbury
Fairbury, Nebraska
Fairbury is a city in Jefferson County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 4,262 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Jefferson County....
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, his wife's hometown. "This was when I renewed my association with Martin Goodman, working by mail on a freelance basis, picking up the Sub-Mariner where I'd left off four years ago". His first recorded post-war credit is writing and full art for the 12-page story "Sub-Mariner vs. Green-Out" in Sub-Mariner Comics #21 (Fall 1946) — the third of three Sub-Mariner stories that issue, for which Syd Shores
Syd Shores
Sydney Shores was an American comic book artist known for his work on Captain America both during the 1940s, in what fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books, and during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books....
drew the cover. Everett was soon providing Sub-Mariner stories regularly for the solo title as well as for The Human Torch
Jim Hammond
Herbert Edward 'Jim' Hammond was an English professional football player for Fulham and a cricket player for Sussex.Having been signed from non-league side Lewes F.C., Hammond played for Fulham between 1928 and 1938, scoring 150 goals in 342 games. He was once called up for duty with the national...
, Marvel Mystery Comics
Marvel Mystery Comics
Marvel Mystery Comics is an American comic book series published during the 1930s-1940s period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic Books...
and even Blonde Phantom Comics
Blonde Phantom
The Blonde Phantom is a fictional masked crime fighter in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Syd Shores for Marvel predecessor Timely Comics, she first appeared in All Select Comics #11 , during the 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden...
.
Additionally, he drew the title feature in the three-issue spin-off series Namora (Aug.-Dec. 1948).
Early pseudonyms included Willie Bee and Bill Roman.
Atlas Comics
By now, Timely Comics had evolved into Marvel's 1950s iteration, Atlas ComicsAtlas Comics (1950s)
Atlas Comics is the term used to describe the 1950s comic book publishing company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities, used Atlas as the umbrella name for his comic...
. Like most superhero characters in the postwar era, the Sub-Mariner had faded in popularity, and his solo title had been canceled in 1949. But after a nearly five-year hiatus, he briefly returned with Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
and the Golden Age Human Torch
Jim Hammond
Herbert Edward 'Jim' Hammond was an English professional football player for Fulham and a cricket player for Sussex.Having been signed from non-league side Lewes F.C., Hammond played for Fulham between 1928 and 1938, scoring 150 goals in 342 games. He was once called up for duty with the national...
in Young Men #24 (Dec. 1953), during Atlas' mid-1950s attempt at reviving superheroes. Everett drew the Sub-Mariner feature through Young Men #28 (June 1954) and in Sub-Mariner Comics #33-42 (April 1954 - Oct. 1955), which outlasted the other two characters' features. During this time, Namora had her own spin-off series.
Everett also drew the features "Venus
Venus (comics)
Venus is the name of two fictional characters appearing in Marvel Comics. The first originally based on the goddess Venus from Roman and Greek mythology was retconned to actually be a siren that only resembles the goddess. The second is stated to be the true goddess, and now wishes only to be...
" and "Marvel Boy
Marvel Boy
Marvel Boy is the name of several fictional comic book characters in the Marvel Comics universe, including predecessor companies Timely Comics and Atlas Comics.-Martin Burns:...
", as well as a large number of stories for Atlas' anthological horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
-fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
series. One such tale, "Zombie!," written by editor-in-chief Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
and published in Menace
Menace (Atlas Comics)
Menace was a 1953 to 1954 American crime/horror anthology comic book series published by Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursor of Marvel Comics. It is best known for the first appearance of the supernatural Marvel character the Zombie, in a standalone story that became the basis for the 1970s...
#5, introduced the character Simon Garth, the Zombie, who in the 1970s would be plucked from this one-shot story to star in Marvel's black-and-white horror-comics magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
Tales of the Zombie.
Marvel Comics
With writer-editor Lee, Everett co-created the Marvel superhero DaredevilDaredevil (Marvel Comics)
Daredevil is a fictional character, a superhero in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby, and first appeared in Daredevil #1 .Living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood...
, who debuted in Daredevil #1 (April 1964). Comics historian and former Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
assistant Mark Evanier
Mark Evanier
Mark Stephen Evanier is an American comic book and television writer, particularly known for his humor work. He is also known for his columns and blogs, and for his work as a historian and biographer of the comics industry, in particular his award-winning Jack Kirby biography, Kirby: King of...
, investigating claims of Kirby's involvement in the creation of both Iron Man
Iron Man
Iron Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #39 .A billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer,...
and Daredevil, interviewed Kirby and Everett and found that,
2000s Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada
Joe Quesada
Joseph "Joe" Quesada is an American comic book editor, writer and artist. He became known in the 1990s for his work on various Valiant Comics books, such as Ninjak and Solar, Man of the Atom...
noted that when Everett turned in his first-issue pencils extremely late, Brodsky and Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
artist Steve Ditko
Steve Ditko
Stephen J. "Steve" Ditko is an American comic book artist and writer best known as the artist co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange....
inked "a lot of backgrounds and secondary figures on the fly [and] cobbled the cover and the splash page together from Kirby's original concept drawing" In an interview conducted by Marvel writer-editor and Everett's one-time roommate Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
, in what the latter recalled as either "late 1969 or in 1970," Everett said of Daredevils creation five years earlier:
Within two years, however, Everett began penciling for Marvel once again, first on the character the Hulk
Hulk (comics)
The Hulk is a fictional character, a superhero in the . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 ....
, in Tales to Astonish
Tales to Astonish
Tales to Astonish is the name of two American comic book series and a one-shot comic published by Marvel Comics.The primary title bearing that name was published from 1959-1968...
, initially over Kirby layouts, and on Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange
Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, and first appeared in Strange Tales #110 ....
in Strange Tales
Strange Tales
Strange Tales is the name of several comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics. It introduced the features "Doctor Strange" and "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.", and was a showcase for the science fiction/suspense stories of artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, and for the...
. Readers during this 1960s Silver Age of comic books
Silver Age of Comic Books
The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those in the superhero genre. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books and an interregnum in the early to mid-1950s, the Silver Age is considered to cover the...
also became acquainted with his Golden Age and 1950s stories, which were reprinted first in the book The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer
Jules Feiffer
Jules Ralph Feiffer is an American syndicated cartoonist, most notable for his long-run comic strip titled Feiffer. He has created more than 35 books, plays and screenplays...
(Dial Press, 1965), and then in the comic books Fantasy Masterpieces, Marvel Super-Heroes
Marvel Super-Heroes (comics)
Marvel Super-Heroes is the name of several comic book series and specials published by Marvel Comics.-Marvel Super-Heroes Special:The first was the one-shot Marvel Super-Heroes Special #1 , reprinting Daredevil #1 and The Avengers #2 Marvel Super-Heroes is the name of several comic book series and...
, and Marvel Tales
Marvel Tales
Marvel Tales is the title of three American comic-book series published by Marvel Comics, the first of them from the company's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics...
.
Everett even returned to his enduring character, first inking Namor's adventures in Tales to Astonish
Tales to Astonish
Tales to Astonish is the name of two American comic book series and a one-shot comic published by Marvel Comics.The primary title bearing that name was published from 1959-1968...
#85-86, then taking over full artistic duties for issues #87-91 and #94, and penciling issues #95-96. He then did complete stories — writing, penciling and inking — on Sub-Mariner #50-55 and 57 (June 1972 - Nov. 1972; Jan. 1973), with script assists by Mike Friedrich
Mike Friedrich
Mike Friedrich is an American comic book writer and publisher best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics, and for publishing the anthology series Star*Reach, one of the first independent comics...
on two issues; and #58 (Feb. 1973), co-written with Steve Gerber
Steve Gerber
Stephen Ross "Steve" Gerber was an American comic book writer best known as co-creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck....
and co-penciled with Sam Kweskin
Sam Kweskin
Irving Sam Kweskin , who sometimes worked under the name Irv Wesley, was an American advertising and comic book artist.-Early life and career:...
as his health began to deteriorate for the final time. He co-wrote and inked Sub-Mariner #59 (March 1973), plotted #60 (April 1973), and co-wrote, co-penciled (with fellow Golden Ager Win Mortimer
Win Mortimer
James Winslow "Win" Mortimer was a comic book and comic strip artist best known as one of the major illustrators of the DC Comics superhero Superman...
), and co-inked #61 (May 1973). His final efforts on the character he created were five pages of pencils (inked by fellow Golden Ager Fred Kida
Fred Kida
Fred Kida is an American comic book and comic strip artist best known for the characters Airboy and Valkyrie.-Early life and career:...
) that appeared posthumously in Super-Villain Team-Up
Super-Villain Team-Up
Super-Villain Team-Up is the name of two American comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Both series featured supervillains as the protagonists.-Super-Villain Team-Up:...
#1 (Aug. 1975).
Artist Gene Colan said that Everett had been Lee's first choice to draw the horror series Tomb of Dracula
Tomb of Dracula
The Tomb of Dracula is a horror comic book series published by Marvel Comics from April 1972 to August 1979. The 70-issue series featured a group of vampire hunters who fought Count Dracula and other supernatural menaces...
, which premiered in 1972 and for which Colan then lobbied successfully.
External links
- Bill Everett at Grand Comics Database
- Archive of Korkis, Jim. "Wild Bill: That Man from Atlantis", The Golden Age Of Comics #8, February 1984, reprinted at LiveForEverett.com. WebCitation archive.