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George Tuska

George Tuska (born April 26, 1916 in Hartford, Connecticut), also known as Carl Larson, is an American comic book and newspaper comic strip artist best known for his 1940s work on various Captain Marvel titles and his 1960s work illustrating Iron Man and other Marvel Comics characters.

Biography

Early life and career

Tuska studied at the National Academy School of Art. In 1939, he became an assistant on the Associated Press newspaper comic strip Scorchy Smith, about an aviator. He also worked for comic book packager Eisner & Iger, "alongside Bob Powell, Lou Fine, and Mike Sekowsky" ,Tuska recalled, adding that the studio later expanded "with Charles Sultan, John Celardo, Nick Cardy, and [writer] Toni Blum joining in. I worked on 'Shark Brodie' [for Fiction House], 'Spike Marlin' [in Harvey Comics' Speed Comics, as "Carl Larson"], and other strips" for comics including Fiction House's Jungle Comics and Wings Comics, and Fox Comics' Wonderworld Comics and Mystery Men Comics.

Tuska later left to work with packager Harry "A" Chesler's studio, helping to supply content for such Fawcett Comics publications as Captain Marvel Adventures, and for such characters as Golden Arrow, Uncle Sam and El Carim. Tuska also drew the debut of the Quality Comics feature "Hercules" — starring a superhuman circus strongman, not the mythological figure — in Hit Comics #1 (July 1940).

Following Tuska's military service in World War II, he worked on Lev Gleason Publications' comic-book series Crime Does Not Pay, and later became one of the last writer-artists of Scorchy Smith, which ran until 1961. Tuska also did the comic strip Buck Rogers from 1959-1967.

The Silver Age

Tuska freelanced primarily for Marvel during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books and beyond, penciling and occasionally inking other artists on series including Ghost Rider, Luke Cage, Power Man, Black Goliath, Sub-Mariner, The X-Men and the movie tie-in series Planet of the Apes. His first Marvel story, a "Tales of the Watcher" feature in Tales of Suspense #58 (Nov. 1964), had a special introduction by editor Stan Lee hailing the return of the Golden Age great. He enjoyed a nearly 10-year, sometimes briefly interrupted run on Iron Man from issue #5 (Sept. 1968) to #106 (Jan. 1978).

Later career

Later, for DC Comics, Tuska drew characters including Superman, Superboy, and Challengers of the Unknown. He had a 15-year run drawing The World's Greatest Superheroes Present Superman comic strip from 1978-1993, often inked by Vince Colletta.

Retired from active comics work, Tuska, as of the 2000s, lives in Manchester, New Jersey, and does commissioned art.

Quotes

Michael Hawkins, Toymania: "Tuska really takes the title as the Iron Man artist of the '70s, having that decade's longest run".

Tony Isabella: "I would love to see a Best of George Tuska collection which included his crime, mystery, romance, war, and western stories. He brought as much excitement and talent to those genres as he did to superhero comics".

Will Eisner on the early 1940s' Eisner studio: "It was a friendly shop, and I guess I was the same age as the youngest guys there. We all got along. The only ones who ever got into a hassle were George Tuska and Bob Powell. Powell was kind of a wiseguy and made remarks about other people in the shop. One day, George had enough of it, got up, and punched out Bob Powell".