Information about Carmine Infantino

Carmine Infantino
Born	May 24 1925 (1925--) (age 82) Brooklyn, New York City
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Penciller, Editor
Notable works	Flash (Barry Allen)
Awards	National Cartoonists Society Award, various Alley Awards. Expanded list.

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, Pasquali "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 with the poverty of the Great Depression he turned instead to a career as a licensed plumber. Carmine Infantino's mother emigrated from a town just north of Naples, Italy.^[1]

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:

I used to go around as a youngster into companies, go in and try to meet people — nothing ever happened. One day I went to this place on 23rd Street, this old broken-down warehouse, and I met Harry Chesler. Now, I was told he was a mean guy and he used people and he took artists. But he was very sweet to me. He said, 'Look, kid. You come up here, I'll give you a dollar a day, just study art, learn, and grow.' That was damn nice of him, I thought. He did that for me for a whole summer.[2]

Infantino, who also attended night classes at the Art Students League, 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

...Frank Giacoia and I were in constant contact. One day in '40 we decided to go up to Timely Comics, which later became Marvel, to see if we could get some work. They gave us a script called 'Jack Frost' and that story became our first published work. Frank did the pencils and I did the inking. Joe Simon was the editor and he offered us both a staff job. Frank quit school and took the job. I wanted desperately to quit school and I told my father that it was a great opportunity. He said, 'No way! You're gonna finish school.' Things were very bad, he was desperate for money, but he wouldn't let me quit school. He said, 'School comes first. If you're that good, the job will be there later.' I can't love the man enough for that. So Frank took the job and I didn't. I was 15 or 16 and I just kept making my rounds in the early '40s, looking for freelance work while continuing my studies.[3]

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 atist 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 1967, Infantino was tasked with designing covers for the entire DC line. 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; Infantino stayed at 25 cents, a decision that ultimately proved bad for over-all sales.

After working with writer Mario Puzo on the Superman movie, Infantino collaborated with Marvel on the historic company-crossover publication Superman vs. 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.^[4] As of 2005, 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"

Footnotes

References

• The Comics Journal #191: Carmine Infantino interview excerpt
• The Grand Comics Database
• NCS Awards