Tony Tallarico
Encyclopedia
Tony Tallarico is an American
comic book
artist, and children's book
illustrator and author. Often paired in a team with his generally uncredited penciler, Bill Fraccio
, Tallarico drew primarily for Charlton Comics
and Dell Comics
— including for the comic book Lobo
, the first to star an African-American.
, New York City
, and attended New York City
's School of Industrial Art
, the Brooklyn Museum
Art School, and the School of Visual Arts
. He got his start in comics in 1953, penciling and self-inking
stories for such publishers as Charlton Comics
, Trojan, and the David C. Cook Publishing Company, for which he contributed to a newspaper
Sunday-supplement comic book similar to "The Spirit Section
".
's Classics Illustrated
#160, its adaptation of H. G. Wells
' The Food of the Gods
; Classics Illustrated Junior #571, "How Fire Came to the Indians
"; and Classics Illustrated Junior #574, the European folk tale "Brightboots". He also drew individual chapters in several issues in Gilberton's World Around Us series. At the end of the decade, Tallarico supplied second painted covers for reprints of Classics Illustrated #81, Homer
's The Odyssey, and #96, historian John Bakeless' Daniel Boone
: Master of the Wilderness.
He conceived of and drew the sole two issues of the little-known but groundbreaking Lobo
(Dec. 1965 & Sept. 1966), also listed as Dell Comics #12-438-512 and #12-439-610 in publisher Dell Comics
' quirky numbering system. The first known comic book
to star an African-American, this Western
series, scripted by Don Arneson, chronicled the adventures of a wealthy, unnamed African-American gunslinger hero, called "Lobo" by the first issue's antagonist
s. On the foreheads of vanquished criminals, Lobo would leave the calling card of a gold coin imprinted with the image of a wolf and an "L".
While Marvel Comics
' 1950s predecessor Atlas Comics
had included "Waku, Prince of the Bantu" — a rare feature starring an African chieftain in Africa, with no regularly featured Caucasian
characters — in Jungle Tales
(Sept. 1954 - Sept. 1955), "Waku" was one of four regular features each issue. Aside from Lobo, there would be no Black star of his/her own comic until Luke Cage, Hero for Hire
(June 1972).
Talarico drew the one-shot "Great Society
Comic Book" (1966), which portrayed President Lyndon B. Johnson
and other Democrats
as superheroes, fighting against evil conservatives. He was involved with the follow-up comic, "Bobman and Teddy", starring Robert and Ted Kennedy
as a Batman-and-Robin
-like dynamic duo.
Under the joint pseudonym
Tony Williamson and, later, Tony Williamsune, Tallarico and his generally uncredited penciler, Bill Fraccio
, collaborated on many stories for Warren Publishing
's horror
-comics magazines Creepy
, Eerie
and Vampirella
.
Tallarico's work includes issues of the Charlton superhero
comic Blue Beetle
and its TV
tie-in and teen idol
comics Bewitched
and Bobby Sherman
. He also drew Dell's 1966-1967 Frankenstein and Dracula superhero series and Harvey Comics
' short-lived superhero title Jigsaw
. His last recorded work in the comic book field is the story "Double Occupancy" in Charlton's Ghost Manor #15 (Oct. 1973).
for such publishers as Kidsbooks, Tuffy Books, Modern, Simon & Schuster
, Price Stern Sloan, Treasure Books, Concordia Publishing House, Putnam, and Little Simon. He created a line of Disney licensed books for Tuffy in the late 1980s, including the Mickey Mouse Clock Book and Goofy Shoelace Book. Still active as of the mid-2000s, Tallarico by his counts has created more than 1,000 children's books, including the Where Are They? series.
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
artist, and children's book
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
illustrator and author. Often paired in a team with his generally uncredited penciler, Bill Fraccio
Bill Fraccio
William Fraccio was an American comic book artist whose career stretched from the 1940s Golden Age of comic books through 1979, when he turned to producing advertising art and teaching...
, Tallarico drew primarily for Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1946 to 1985, having begun under a different name in 1944. It was based in Derby, Connecticut...
and Dell Comics
Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
— including for the comic book Lobo
Lobo (Dell Comics)
Lobo is a fictional Western comic book hero who is the medium's first African-American character to headline his own series.-Publication history:...
, the first to star an African-American.
Early life and career
Tony Tallarico was born in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, 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...
, and attended 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...
's School of Industrial Art
High School of Art and Design
The High School of Art and Design is a Career and Technical Education high school located at 1075 Second Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets in Manhattan, New York City, New York.It is operated by the New York City Department of Education...
, the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
Art School, and the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
. He got his start in comics in 1953, penciling and self-inking
Inker
The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...
stories for such publishers as Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1946 to 1985, having begun under a different name in 1944. It was based in Derby, Connecticut...
, Trojan, and the David C. Cook Publishing Company, for which he contributed to a newspaper
Newspaper
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...
Sunday-supplement comic book similar to "The Spirit Section
The Spirit
The Spirit is a crime-fighting fictional character created by writer-artist Will Eisner. He first appeared June 2, 1940 in "The Spirit Section", the colloquial name given to a 16-page Sunday supplement, distributed to 20 newspapers by the Register and Tribune Syndicate and reaching five million...
".
The Silver Age
In 1961, Tallarico illustrated the Gilberton CompanyClassics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies...
's Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies...
#160, its adaptation of H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
' The Food of the Gods
The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth
The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth is a novel written by H. G. Wells. Published in 1904, it is one of his lesser known scientific romances, aside from the various B-movie adaptations .-Plot summary:...
; Classics Illustrated Junior #571, "How Fire Came to the Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
"; and Classics Illustrated Junior #574, the European folk tale "Brightboots". He also drew individual chapters in several issues in Gilberton's World Around Us series. At the end of the decade, Tallarico supplied second painted covers for reprints of Classics Illustrated #81, Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's The Odyssey, and #96, historian John Bakeless' Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
: Master of the Wilderness.
Lobo (Dell Comics)
Lobo is a fictional Western comic book hero who is the medium's first African-American character to headline his own series.-Publication history:...
(Dec. 1965 & Sept. 1966), also listed as Dell Comics #12-438-512 and #12-439-610 in publisher Dell Comics
Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
' quirky numbering system. The first known 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...
to star an African-American, this Western
Western comics
Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century...
series, scripted by Don Arneson, chronicled the adventures of a wealthy, unnamed African-American gunslinger hero, called "Lobo" by the first issue's antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
s. On the foreheads of vanquished criminals, Lobo would leave the calling card of a gold coin imprinted with the image of a wolf and an "L".
While 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...
' 1950s predecessor Atlas Comics
Atlas 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...
had included "Waku, Prince of the Bantu" — a rare feature starring an African chieftain in Africa, with no regularly featured Caucasian
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
characters — in Jungle Tales
Jungle Tales
Jungle Tales was an American comic book title published by Atlas Comics, the 1950s predecessor to Marvel Comics. It was an anthology title of stories set in an African jungle.-Publication history:...
(Sept. 1954 - Sept. 1955), "Waku" was one of four regular features each issue. Aside from Lobo, there would be no Black star of his/her own comic until Luke Cage, Hero for Hire
Luke Cage
Luke Cage is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Archie Goodwin and artist John Romita, Sr., he first appeared in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #1...
(June 1972).
Talarico drew the one-shot "Great Society
Great Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States promoted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and fellow Democrats in Congress in the 1960s. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice...
Comic Book" (1966), which portrayed President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
and other Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
as superheroes, fighting against evil conservatives. He was involved with the follow-up comic, "Bobman and Teddy", starring Robert and Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
as a Batman-and-Robin
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
-like dynamic duo.
Under the joint pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Tony Williamson and, later, Tony Williamsune, Tallarico and his generally uncredited penciler, Bill Fraccio
Bill Fraccio
William Fraccio was an American comic book artist whose career stretched from the 1940s Golden Age of comic books through 1979, when he turned to producing advertising art and teaching...
, collaborated on many stories for Warren Publishing
Warren Publishing
Warren Publishing was an American magazine company founded by James Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades...
's 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...
-comics magazines Creepy
Creepy
Creepy was an American horror-comics magazine launched by Warren Publishing in 1964. Like Mad, it was a black-and-white newsstand publication in a magazine format and thus did not require the approval or seal of the Comics Code Authority. The anthology magazine was initially published quarterly but...
, Eerie
Eerie
Eerie was an American magazine of horror comics introduced in 1966 by Warren Publishing. Like Mad, it was a black-and-white newsstand publication in a magazine format and thus did not require the approval or seal of the Comics Code Authority. Each issue's stories were introduced by the host...
and Vampirella
Vampirella
Vampirella is a fictional character, a comic book vampire heroine created by Forrest J Ackerman and costume designer Trina Robbins in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazine Vampirella #1 . Writer-editor Archie Goodwin later developed the character from horror-story hostess, in...
.
Tallarico's work includes issues of the Charlton 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 —...
comic Blue Beetle
Blue Beetle
Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional superheroes that appear in American comic books published by a variety of companies since 1939.-Publication history:...
and its TV
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
tie-in and teen idol
Teen idol
A teen idol is a celebrity who is widely idolized by teenagers; he or she is often young but not necessarily teenaged. Often teen idols are actors or pop singers, but some sports figures have an appeal to teenagers. Some teen idols began their careers as child actors...
comics Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
and Bobby Sherman
Bobby Sherman
Robert Cabot "Bobby" Sherman, Jr. , is an American singer, actor and occasional songwriter, who became a popular teen idol in the late 1960s and early 1970s.He graduated in 1961 from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California...
. He also drew Dell's 1966-1967 Frankenstein and Dracula superhero series and Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers Robert B...
' short-lived superhero title Jigsaw
Jigsaw (comics)
Jigsaw, in comics, may refer to:* Jigsaw , a Marvel Comics supervillain and enemy of the Punisher* Jigsaw , a Harvey Comics character and the star of two eponymous series...
. His last recorded work in the comic book field is the story "Double Occupancy" in Charlton's Ghost Manor #15 (Oct. 1973).
Later career
In the 1970s, Tallarico began writing/illustrating children's booksChildren's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
for such publishers as Kidsbooks, Tuffy Books, Modern, Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
, Price Stern Sloan, Treasure Books, Concordia Publishing House, Putnam, and Little Simon. He created a line of Disney licensed books for Tuffy in the late 1980s, including the Mickey Mouse Clock Book and Goofy Shoelace Book. Still active as of the mid-2000s, Tallarico by his counts has created more than 1,000 children's books, including the Where Are They? series.
Family
Tallarico has been married to a writer, Elvira, for over 44 years. They have two children, Nina Reyes and Tony John Tallarico.Awards
On May 19, 2006, Tallarico was bestowed the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention's Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement, in recognition of his creating the first comic book to star an African-American. He was an honoree at the reception dinner at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
External links
- "Tony Tallarico Interview", "Coville's Clubhouse" (column), Collector Times, August 2006. WebCitation archive.
- Archive of NCS Long Island Chapter "The Berndt Toast Gang" News (newsletter); scroll down to "Tony Tallarico Award". Original page.