Werner Roth was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic bookA 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...
artistAn 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...
, perhaps best known for immediately succeeding
Jack KirbyJack 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....
on
Marvel ComicsMarvel 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...
'
X-MenUncanny X-Men, first published as The X-Men, is the flagship Marvel Comics comic book series for the X-Men franchise. It is the mainstream continuity featuring the adventures of the eponymous group of mutant superheroes...
.
Roth's work began appearing in Marvel Comics, then known as
Atlas ComicsAtlas 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...
, in 1953.
Stan LeeStan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
, the editor at Atlas, was impressed with Roth's portfolio, particularly his drawings of women. According to Lee, "when you have a good artist like Werner Roth, you want to use him. So I took his samples to show [then-publisher]
Martin GoodmanMartin 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....
. I suggested we should use Werner, even create a comic for him. Which we did, and that was how Lorna, the Jungle Girl was born." Roth drew the first dozen issues of Lorna. He drew a number of other features for Atlas, including most of the stories of the
Apache KidThis entry is for the comic-book character. For the unrelated, real-life person, see The Apache Kid . For other usages, see The Apache Kid ....
. He later drew romance comics at
DCDC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
.
Roth returned to Marvel to work on the
X-Men in 1966, initially using the pseudonym
Jay Gavin, taken from the names of his two sons, to conceal his Marvel work from his editors at DC.
Roth later drew more Western comics for Marvel, and pencilled issues of
Superman's Girl Friend, Lois LaneSuperman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane was a comic book series published monthly by DC Comics focusing on the adventures of supporting character Lois Lane. The series began publication March/April 1958 and ended its run September/October 1974 with 137 regular issues and 2 80-page Annuals...
for
DC ComicsDC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
.
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