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Carmine Infantino
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Carmine Infantino (born May 24, 1925) is an American comic book artist and editor who was a major force in the Silver Age of Comic Books. He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000.
ine Infantino was born via midwife in his family's apartment in Brooklyn, New York City. His father, Pasquale "Patrick" Infantino, born in New York City, was originally a musician who played saxophone, clarinet, and violin, and had a band with composer Harry Warren, but in the poverty of the Great Depression he turned instead to a career as a licensed plumber.
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Carmine Infantino (born May 24, 1925) is an American comic book artist and editor who was a major force in the Silver Age of Comic Books. He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000.
Biography
Early life and career
Carmine Infantino was born via midwife in his family's apartment in Brooklyn, New York City. His father, Pasquale "Patrick" Infantino, born in New York City, was originally a musician who played saxophone, clarinet, and violin, and had a band with composer Harry Warren, but in the poverty of the Great Depression he turned instead to a career as a licensed plumber. Carmine Infantino's mother, Angela Rosa DellaBadia, emigrated from Calitri, a hill town northeast of Naples, Italy.
He attended Public Schools 75 and 85 in Brooklyn before going on to the School of Industrial Art (later the High School of Art and Design) in Manhattan. During his freshman year of high school, Infantino began working for Harry "A" Chesler, whose studio was one of a handful of comic-book "packagers" who created complete comics for publishers looking to enter the emerging field in the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of Comic Books. As Infantino recalled:
Infantino, who also attended night classes at the Art Students League of New York, became an art assistant at Quality Comics the following summer. Later, at Timely Comics, the Golden Age precursor of Marvel, Infantino got his first job drawing comics. With friend and high-school classmate Frank Giacoia penciling, Infanto inked the feature "Jack Frost" in USA Comics #3 (Jan. 1942). He wrote in his autobiography that
Infantino would eventually work for several publishers during the decade, drawing Airboy and the Heap for Hillman Periodicals; working for packager Jack Binder, who supplied Fawcett Comics; briefly at Holyoke; then landing at DC Comics, where he became a regular artist of the Golden Age Flash, Black Canary, Green Lantern and Justice Society of America.
During the 1950s, Infantino freelanced for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's company, Prize Comics, drawing the series Charlie Chan, which in particular shows the influence both of Kirby's and Milton Caniff's art styles. Back at DC, during a lull in the popularity of superheroes, Infantino drew Westerns, mysteries, science fiction comics. As his style evolved, he began to shed both the Kirbyisms and the gritty shading of Caniff, and develop a clean, linear style.
The Silver Age
In 1956, DC editor Julius Schwartz assigned writer Robert Kanigher and artist Infantino to the company's first attempt at reviving superheroes: an updated version of the Flash that would appear in issue #4 (Oct. 1956) of the try-out series Showcase. Infantino designed the now-classic red uniform with yellow detail, striving to keep the costume as streamlined as possible, and he drew on his design abilities to create a new visual language to depict the Flash's speed, making the figure a red and yellow blur. The eventual success of the new, science-fiction oriented Flash heralded the wholesale return of superheroes, and the beginning of what fans and historians call the Silver Age of comics.
Infantino continued to work for Schwartz in his other features and titles, most notably "Adam Strange" in Mystery in Space, replacing Mike Sekowsky who did the penciling in Showcase 17-19. In 1964, Schwartz was made responsible for reviving the faded Batman titles. Writer John Broome and artist Infantino jettisoned the sillier aspects that had crept into the series (such as (Ace the Bathound, and Bat-Mite) and gave the "New Look" Batman and Robin a more detective-oriented direction and sleeker draftsmanship that proved a hit combination. Other features and characters Infantino drew at DC include "The Space Museum", and Elongated Man
After Wilson McCoy, the artist of The Phantom comic strip, died, Infantino finished one of his last stories. Infantino was a candidate for taking over the Phantom Sunday strip after McCoy's death, but the job was instead given to Sy Barry.
DC Comics editorial director
In late 1966/early 1967, Infantino was tasked by Irwin Donenfeld with designing covers for the entire DC line. Stan Lee learned this and approached Infantino with a $22,000 offer to move to Marvel. Publisher Jack Liebowitz confirmed that DC could not match the offer, but could promote Infantino to the position of art director. Initially reluctant, Infantino accepted what Liebowitz posed as a challenge, and decided to stay with DC. When DC was sold to Kinney National Company, Infantino was promoted to editorial director. He started by hiring new talent, and promoting artists to editorial positions. He hired Dick Giordano away from Charlton Comics, and made artists Joe Orlando, Joe Kubert and Mike Sekowsky editors. New talents such as Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil were injected into the company.
Infantino was made publisher in 1971, during a time of declining circulation for DC's comics. Infantino attempted a number of changes, including the launch of starting several new titles. Older characters including Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Superman, Wonder Woman and, again, Batman were revamped to mixed results.
The same year he was made publisher, Infantino scored a major coup in signing on Marvel Comics' star artist, Jack Kirby. Beginning with Jimmy Olsen, Kirby created his Fourth World saga that wove through that existing title and three new series he created. With sales of his comics landing below expectations, however, the titles were eventually canceled and a few years later Kirby went back to working at Marvel Comics.
In an effort to raise revenue, Infantino raised the cover price of DC's comics from 15 to 25 cents, simultaneously raising the page-count by adding reprints and new backup features. Marvel met the price increase, then dropped back to 20 cents; DC stayed at 25 cents, a decision that ultimately proved bad for overall sales.
After working with writer Mario Puzo on the Superman movie, Infantino collaborated with Marvel on the historic company-crossover publication Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. Yet before sales on that hit book had been recorded, Warner Communications replaced Infantino with Jenette Kahn, a person new to the comics field. Mr. Infantino returned to drawing freelance.
Later career
Infantino later drew for a number of titles for Warren Publishing and Marvel, including the latter's Star Wars, Spider-Woman, and Nova. In the 1980s, he again drew the Flash for DC Comics. In 2004, he sued DC for rights to characters he alleges to have created while he was a freelancer for the company. These include several Flash characters including Wally West, Iris West, the Elongated Man, Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, and Gorilla Grodd. , Infantino is retired, although he is often a guest at comic book conventions. Vanguard Productions published his autobiography The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino (ISBN 1-887591-12-5).
Infantino is the uncle of Massachusetts musician Jim Infantino, of the band Jim's Big Ego. He contributed the cover art to the group's album They're Everywhere, which features a song about Barry Allen.
Awards
Infantino's awards include:
- 1958 National Cartoonists Society Award, Best Comic Book
- 1961 Alley Award, Best Single Issue: The Flash #123 (with Gardner Fox)
- 1961 Alley Award, Best Story: "Flash of Two Worlds", The Flash #123 (with Gardner Fox)
- 1961 Alley Award, Best Artist
- 1962 Alley Award, Best Book-Length Story: "The Planet that Came to a Standstill!", Mystery in Space #75 (with Gardner Fox)
- 1962 Alley Award, Best Pencil Artist
- 1963 Alley Award, Best Artist
- 1964 Alley Award, Best Short Story: "Doorway to the Unknown", The Flash #148 (with John Broome)
- 1964 Alley Award, Best Pencil Artist
- 1964 Alley Award, Best Comic Book Cover (Detective Comics #329 with Murphy Anderson)
- 1967 Alley Award, Best Full-Length Story: "Who's Been Lying in My Grave?", Strange Adventures #205 (with Arnold Drake)
- 1967 Alley Award, Best New Strip: "Deadman" in Strange Adventures (with Arnold Drake)
- 1969 special Alley Award for being the person "who exemplifies the spirit of innovation and inventiveness in the field of comic art"
Quotes
Nick Cardy on the popular but apocryphal anecdote, told by Julius Schwartz, about Carmine Infantino firing Cardy over not following a cover layout, only to rehire him moments later when Schwartz praised the errant cover art:
Footnotes
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