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A Birthday Tribute in 13 COVERS AND PAGES…
By PETER BOSCH
It’s ironic that the late Johnny Craig was born in a village named Pleasantville, N.Y., and yet made his name drawing (and writing on occasion) some of the most spectacularly gruesome stories in the horror line of E.C. Comics in the 1950s. It is difficult to present here many of the covers he drew for the company, what with the ax killings, decapitations, face-stompings, razor-slashings, torture, hangings, and other grisly forms of homicide.
I mean, we could run them, but for his birthday this year — he was born April 25, 1926 — we’re going to look at his work from much later, between 1968-1970, when he took over the art for Marvel’s Iron Man after Gene Colan’s time on it.
Iron Man #25 (May 1970). Script by Archie Goodwin. Pencilled by Johnny Craig and inked by Sam Grainger.
Following the end of E.C.’s comic book line, Craig left the business for several years, turning his attention to the advertising world. Feeling restless, he returned to comics in 1964. His first assignments were at ACG and at Warren’s Creepy and Eerie horror magazines (writing and drawing under the pseudonym of “Jay Taycee,” so as to not cause problems with his ongoing advertising work). (“Jay Taycee” was a phonetic pronunciation of his initials: John Thomas Alexis Craig.) He also pencilled DC’s The Brave and the Bold #70 (Feb.-Mar. 1967), which featured Batman and Hawkman.
In 1967, Archie Goodwin, who had worked as editor at Warren at the time Craig freelanced for them, was now at Marvel starting to write the Iron Man stories with Tales of Suspense #99 (Mar. 1968) being his first issue. And he helped bring in Craig.
Tales of Suspense #99 (Mar. 1968). Script: Goodwin. Pencils: Gene Colan. Inks: Craig.
(NOTE: For the following Iron Man story pages, the scripts were all written by Archie Goodwin.)
Tales of Suspense #99 was actually the last issue of that series. Iron Man and Captain America, each of whom had regular features in Tales of Suspense, were graduating to their own individual titles. Craig’s first time working on the Golden Avenger was in that issue, inking the pencils of Gene Colan (who had been drawing Iron Man since 1965).
Following this, Craig inked two more of Colan’s Iron Man stories (Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1, April 1968, and Iron Man #1, May 1968), and then took over the pencilling and inking with Iron Man #2 (June 1968).
Iron Man #2 (June 1968), cover by Craig.
Craig’s first solo work drawing Iron Man (Iron Man #2).
However, it turned out to be for only #2 and the following two issues.
Iron Man #3 (July 1968), cover by Craig.
Iron Man #3 story page with art by Craig.
Iron Man #4 (Aug. 1968), cover by Craig.
Iron Man #4 story page with a third panel that is very reminiscent of Craig’s E.C. days.
Craig was late in delivering his art pages (something he was known for at E.C., too), and the general feeling in the Marvel offices was that drawing superheroes was not his forte. George Tuska was brought in to pencil the series starting with #5 (Sept. 1968) and Craig was switched to just inking.
Craig inking George Tuska for this dynamic cover for Iron Man #11 (Mar. 1969).
However, Craig did get to draw an occasional fill-in issue (#14, #24, and #25) and – forte or not – he could deliver very well, as can be seen below.
Iron Man #14 (June 1969) cover by Craig.
Iron Man #14 splash page by Craig.
A reversal of roles with Craig pencilling and Tuska inking this splash for Iron Man #24 (Apr. 1970).
A great action page from Iron Man #24 with Craig pencils and Tuska inks.
Marvel did keep him busy during this time, having him ink a few issues of Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, and one of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, as well as drawing a story in each of Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness. However, Iron Man #28 (Aug. 1970) was his last inking there.
Craig later freelanced for DC (between 1978-1981) on several horror and sci-fi titles and then retired completely from comic book work. But he was still kept busy for many years recreating E.C. covers on commission for happy fans, as well as doing new drawings for fanzines.
Johnny Craig died at age 75 on September 13, 2001.
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MORE
— The TOP 13 Most Infamous EC COMICS COVERS AND STORIES — RANKED. Click here.
— A TALE TO ASTONISH: An Eyewitness Account of a Bombastic IRON MAN-NAMOR Throwdown. Click here.
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13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. (You can buy it here.) A sequel, American Movie Comic Books: 1930s-1970s — From the Silver Screen to the Printed Page, is due in 2025. (You can pre-order here.) Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.
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