Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the death of John Severin, legendary artist for EC and Marvel comics. I just got back from Texas tonight—like, an hour ago—with the intention of posting only about John’s stellar work on Kull for Marvel. However, I missed the big centennial of his birth back in December. John Severin, as cool as his Kull art was, was much more than that. This ten-year memorial post will have to make up for the missed centennial blog entry. A full Kull post will have to wait.

John Powers Severin was born in New Jersey. His father was an accountant who also dabbled in commercial illustration and graphic design. The family moved to Brooklyn and John enrolled in the High School of Art and Music soon after.

Severin had grown up loving comics. In his case, it was the comics in the newspapers. As I've explained elsewhere, all of the prestige and money in sequential art--from 1890 to 1990--was in newspaper strips. The artists who could not snag a gig in the newspapers went to the 'comic books' which arose in the late 1930s. John's main favorites among the syndicated comics artists were Hal Foster and Alex Raymond, much like his contemporaries Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson--as well as later Filipino artists like Alex Nino and Rudy Nebres. Foster and Raymond were the gods of comics artists of that generation. That said, like most right-thinking American artists, Severin was also a fan of Howard Pyle and Charles M. Russell.

Here's what John had to say in an interview about his years in art school, being a good-sized Irish Catholic boy from New Jersey and all:

Well, it was very different tor me. The reason I'm taking it from my point of view was that I had always gone to a parochial school where there was always a certain amount of discipline. (...) The vast majority [of artists] don't take to responsibility. And I think that's where my early training in discipline helped me, because I would like the responsibility. (...) It's just that when given an opportunity to do an essay on something, I could take off in my own direction, do my own research, forgetting the schoolbooks and everything else, and do a good job. When I'd get back into the school work part, that was a waste of time. My marks were indicative of the kind of effort I was putting into it. I was more interested, even in the High School of Music and Art, in drawing in class. Not paying attention to English, or... About the only thing I was terribly interested in was history.

That quote encapsulates a few things. Severin's disciplined work ethic throughout his career, his disdain for academic pedantry--and passion for drawing--and his love of history.

Did I mention that John was a fan of Kipling and Bierce? A man of discerning taste. Also, he was color-blind. He never let that slow him down a bit.

Severin described how he developed his style like this:

I just drew from my head. Supposing I had a page open to let's say [Hal Foster's] Prince Valiant or something like that. Most likely it would be Tarzan in this case. I would see the way he drew the figures leaning into a sword strike or something like that. It would excite me. I'd go over and I'd start drawing Scottish Highlanders battling away with their claymores using the inspiration from some drawing. One thing would set me off and get me going in a whole direction. I didn't seem to enjoy copying, so much as using the thing. If I saw a muscle drawn in a certain way that I didn't know anything about, I'd start incorporating that into my drawings from then on.

Did you notice that mention of "claymores"? Severin knew his history and his weapons, whether it was 1045 or 1945. Speaking of 1945, John served in the Army Air Corps during the Big One. I'll let him tell it:

I was rather large for the planes in those days. So it wasn't too difficult, after I graduated from that place, to try to get in as a gunner. But again, my height was against me there. So they ended me up—because in between I tried to fly a plane, be a pilot, and pass the tests. (...)
They called me out one day and I had to go down and take the physical for the air cadet, and passed that just Jim-dandy fine. Except when they came to the eye test, I was found to be color-blind. So they took me out in the sunshine and gave me the test, and it didn't work. They took me in under fluorescent lights and it didn't work then. Nothing! Of course, they're not going to waste thousands of dollars on some cluck who is color-blind when they can get a perfectly fine guy right down the road. So I didn't make it. I ended up, as a result of going into the airborne... Since I was colorblind, they put me in the camouflage section (...) But because I was colorblind—this was why they wanted me—I could spot the camouflage much easier than anybody else could. They used me as a determinant as to whether it was good or bad camouflage. That got boring as all hell!
Well, to stop all the bull, I ended up disgusted. They were asking for machine gunners in some engineer outfit that was going overseas [to the Pacific], so I decided, "Enough training. Let's get going with this crap!" And of all things, I became a machine gunner. (...) My action was minor stuff...raids, on their part of guarding... Since I was crew chief of the half-track, I guarded guys when they're out there working. Sometimes you'd get bored stiff and you'd volunteer and go on patrol of the area. Sometimes you'd help out the marines in their patrols, pad up their manpower. But as far as actual action...nah. Did I get shot at? Did I shoot at them? Everybody did. But I wasn't combat troop.

Severin demobilized. As the Lambiek Comiclopedia website says:

Back in civilian life Severin did advertising illustrations for bubble gum cards and toy boxes. In 1947 he became a contributor to Crestwood Studio, where he illustrated a story by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, which was later inked by Will Elder. This marked the start of his extensive comics career. Severin mostly worked alongside Elder, while his high school friend Colin Dawkins penned stories. For Prize Comics they drew western series like 'Lazo Kid', 'Fargo Kid', 'Black Bull' and 'American Eagle', but also stories for romance and crime titles by Better Publications, National Periodicals and Timely Comics. Even in those days Severin stood out for his meticulous research to get every visual detail right. He had a firm knowledge of the history of the Wild West and the American Civil War, down to the weapons and clothing. The title character of 'American Eagle', for instance, was a remarkable non-stereotypical portrayal of a Native American chief for the time. Severin attributed this to the fact that he just wanted his stories to be realistic and historically accurate.

Jack Kirby gave John his first job in comic books and Severin never forgot that. At the same time, Kirby never had anything but praise for John until his dying day. Severin's knowledge of history and attention to detail was noted from the very beginning of his career in comic books.

John would go on to draw a myriad of Western and war comics for the legendary EC brand and then for Atlas/Marvel. At the same time, Severin's sense of humor was on full display in EC's Mad Magazine and then Marvel's Cracked. He could also do horror, as he demonstrated in comics drawn for EC, Marvel and Warren comics. A man of parts and many talents.

Severin's work would most directly intersect with DMR Books readers when Roy Thomas tapped John--and his sister, Marie--to work on Marvel's Kull comic. The Severins went on to do two Kull portfolios as well. As I said earlier, that work deserves its own post.

The project that John Severin was working on almost until his death at age ninety was Mike Mignola's 'Weird Western' series, Witchfinder. Mignola is a lifelong Severin fan and that series encapsulated so much of what John had done in his previous sixty years of work.

When asked about various awards, Severin said this:

Some others have been: The Eisner Hall of Fame, the Jules Verne Estate Lifetime Achievement, Marvel Shazam, Best Horror Western for Desperadoes, the War Collectors Hall of Fame, the National Inkpot Award and the International Inkpot Award and every letter I receive telling me I have given someone pleasure is equally gratifying. I’ve been around a long time, so they come from kids to fans who go back fifty or sixty years.

John Severin gave us so much during his ninety years of life among us. Feel free to sample just a portion of that in the gallery below.

This cover, all by itself, makes me wish that Roy Thomas had been able to swing doing an ‘El Borak’ back-up in *The Savage Sword of Conan* during the 1970s. John Severin would’ve *nailed* it.

Rest easy, John. You’ve earned it.