Sheldon Moldoff Dies At 91

Above, a Curt Swan/Sheldon Moldoff cover from the mid-1960s.

Golden Age/Silver Age artist Sheldon Moldoff passed away at age 91.

Moldoff was one of Bob Kane's "ghost artists" on Batman. He also shared inking duties for Curt Swan with George Klein in the 1960s.

According to Wikipedia:

He co-created the Batman supervillains Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Matt Hagen (Clayface), and Bat-Mite, as well as the original heroes Batgirl and Ace the Bat Hound. Moldoff is also the sole creator of the Black Pirate (Jon Valor).

Moldoff died on February 29.

Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson Original Art

As I mentioned in my blog today on Boy Commandos no. 25 from 1948, Curt Swan is my all-time favorite comic book artist.

One of my prized possessions is a piece of original art by Swan (pencils) and Murphy Anderson (inks). It is a page from a 1970s issue of Action Comics (featuring Superman) and is signed by Swan.

This is it:



Nice, eh? (No. It's not for sale.)

Boy Commandos No. 25

One of the oldest comic books in my collection is Boy Commandos no. 25 from National Comics (now known as DC Comics). The cover date is January/February 1948, which means it was published in late-1947.

I managed to buy it back in the early 1990s at a comic book convention.

According to Mike's Amazing World of Comics (or, specifically, Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics) database, Boy Commandos no. 25's cover was pencilled by Curt Swan and inked by Charles Nicholas. The three stories were also pencilled by Swan and inked by Steve Brodie.

Swan went on to become "the definitive Superman artist" and my personal favorite. I was lucky to obtain this Golden Age comic at a reasonable price. Having it feature early work of Curt Swan is the icing on the cake.


SPECIAL THANKS: To Tony Isabella for the tip about Mike's Amazing World of Comics database!