Wayne Boring (June 5, 1905[1] – February 20, 1987)[2] was an Americancomic book artist best known for his work on Superman from the late 1940s to 1950s. He occasionally used the pseudonymJack Harmon.
In 1942, the by-then-named National Comics hired Boring as a staff artist,[4] teaming him as penciler the following year with inker Stan Kaye. The two would work together for nearly 20 years during a period fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books. In 1948, following Siegel and Shuster's departure from the company over a Superman rights lawsuit, Mort Weisinger, the editor of the Superman line, brought in Boring as well as Al Plastino and Curt Swan. During this mid-1940s period, he often signed his work for rival Novelty Press's Blue Bolt Comics as Jack Harmon.[5]
Superboy #1 (March–April 1949). Cover art by Boring.
Boring was the primary Superman comic book penciller through the 1950s. Swan succeeded him the following decade,[10] though Boring returned for sporadic guest appearances in the early 1960s and then again in late 1966 and early 1967.[11] One critic wrote of Boring's 1950s Superman art, "Comics legend Wayne Boring played a major role in visually defining the most well known super-hero in the world during the peak of Superman's popularity."[12] Another writer echoed, "Boring's bravura brushwork defined many of its key elements and made Superman look more powerful and imposing, now standing a heroic nine heads tall, and brought a fresh realism, a sleek sci-fi vision and a greater seriousness of tone."[13]
Boring was let go from DC in 1967[13] along with many other prominent writers and artists who had made demands for health and retirement benefits.[14] From 1968 to 1972, Boring ghosted backgrounds for Hal Foster's Prince Valiant Sunday comic strip[13] and took over the art on writer Sam Leff's 1961–71 United Feature Syndicate strip Davy Jones.[15] Afterward, Boring drew three issues of Marvel Comics' Captain Marvel, then left the field to semi-retire as a bank security guard, though he would continue to draw commissioned work.[16] He briefly returned to DC to pencil some stories in All-Star Squadron Annual #3 (1984), Superman #402 (Dec. 1984), and Action Comics #561 and 572 (Nov. 1984 and Oct. 1985).[11]
Boring died of a heart attack,[16] following a brief comeback announced in one of his last published works, penciling a Golden Age Superman story written by Roy Thomas and inked by Jerry Ordway in Secret Origins vol. 2 #1 (April 1986).[17] His final work was All-Star Squadron #64 (Dec. 1986) a recreation of Superman #19.[18]
Awards
In 1985, DC Comics named Boring as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great.[19]
^Wayne Boring at the United States Social Security Death Index via FamilySearch.org. Retrieved on February 21, 2013. Archived from the original on July 18, 2015. Gives death date only as February 1987".
^Fryer, Kim (July 1987). "Superman artist Wayne Boring dead". The Comics Journal (116). Fantagraphics Books: 23. Wayne Boring, one of the first Superman artists, died at the age of 81 on February 20 in Pompano Beach, Florida. Boring, who was born in Minnesota on June 5, 1905...
^Daniels, Les (1995). "The Superman Style Refining the Man of Steel". DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes. New York, New York: Bulfinch Press. p. 28. ISBN0821220764. The image of Superman that eventually became preeminent was Wayne Boring's. By 1942 the former assistant to Joe Shuster was working on his own for DC, turning out pencilled and inked pages for Action Comics and Superman.
^Wallace, Daniel; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1940s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 51. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. A stunning cover by Wayne Boring heralded a tale that played on the conflicted post-war zeitgeist surrounding the use of nuclear weapons.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 59: "Superman's origin was retold—and slightly revamped—for this special tenth anniversary issue...Writer Bill Finger and penciller Wayne Boring related how Joe-El failed to save Krypton and sent his son to Earth."
^Irvine, Alex "1950s" in Dolan, p. 91: "Superman's Fortress of Solitude was seen for the first time. The story 'The Super-Key to Fort Superman', by writer Jerry Coleman and artist Wayne Boring, revealed the secrets of the Fortress."
^McAvennie, Michael "1960s" in Dolan, p. 100: "Writer Otto Binder and artist Wayne Boring introduced an entire world filled with the backward beings, living amid foul, dilapidated conditions."
^Daniels "The Superman Family Strength in Numbers", p. 118: "By 1961, Swan's new look would replace Wayne Boring's patriarchal version. Swan's Superman became definitive, and ultimately he would draw, as he says, 'more Superman stories than anybody else.'"
^Vance, Michael (December 13, 2000). "Comics Legend Wayne Boring". "Suspended Animation" (column), Starland.com. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011.
^Manning, Matthew K. "1980s" in Dolan, p. 218: "The heroes of the DC Universe got a little more exposed thanks to the new ongoing effort Secret Origins, a title offering new interpretations to the backgrounds of some of comics' biggest icons. [Its] debut issue featur[ed] the origin of the first true super-hero – the Golden Age Superman – by writer Roy Thomas and illustrator Wayne Boring."
^Marx, Barry, Cavalieri, Joey and Hill, Thomas (w), Petruccio, Steven (a), Marx, Barry (ed). "Wayne Boring Superman Remodeled" Fifty Who Made DC Great, p. 26 (1985). DC Comics.
