Stan Goldberg
Stan Goldberg
Main page
1777829

Stan Goldberg

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Stan Goldberg

Stan Goldberg (May 5, 1932 – August 31, 2014) was an American comic book artist, best known for his work with Archie Comics and as a Marvel Comics colorist who in the 1960s helped design the original color schemes of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and other major characters. He was inducted into the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame in 2011.

Goldberg was born in The Bronx, New York City, on May 5, 1932. He graduated from the School of Industrial Art high school in Manhattan.

In 1949, when "I think I just turned 17 or I was still 16 at the time, I don't remember," Goldberg began work in the comics field as a staff colorist for Marvel's 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, working under Jon D'Agostino. Two years later, Goldberg became the coloring-department manager. In that capacity, he said, he "colored not just interiors, but also every cover the rest of the decade" for Timely's successor, Atlas Comics. During this time, he took evening classes at the School of Visual Arts, where Jerry Robinson, whose war-comics stories Goldberg was coloring, was one of the instructors.

In addition to coloring, Goldberg drew stories for Atlas' horror comics (including as early as "The Cave of Death" in Marvel Tales #109, Oct. 1952) and other titles. As he recalled in the mid-2000s of the Atlas staff:

I was in the Bullpen with a lot of well-known artists who worked up there at that time. We had our Bullpen up there until about 1958 or '59. [sic; the Bullpen staff was let go in 1957] The guys ... who actually worked nine-to-five and put in a regular day, and not the freelance guys who'd come in a drop off their work ... were almost a hall of fame group of people. There was John Severin. Bill Everett. Carl Burgos. There was the all-time great Joe Maneely.... We all worked together, all the colorists and correction guys, the letterers and artists. ... We had a great time.

Goldberg went freelance in 1958, and also enrolled again in the School of Visual Arts, this time to study TV storyboarding and where one instructor was influential Batman artist Jerry Robinson. As Atlas segued into Marvel, Goldberg began freelance-coloring the company's comic books through the mid-1960s, working with such artists as Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby to create the color designs for such characters as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk and others during what historians call the Silver Age of comic books. Other Marvel colorists of that era — all of whom, like Goldberg, worked uncredited at that time — included George Roussos, Marie Severin, and, on his own work only, writer-artist Jim Steranko.

Goldberg recalled in the mid-2000s that "Stan [Lee, Marvel's editor-in-chief] was writing Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-Man and all those books. I was doing the initial coloring on all those books; I was creating the color schemes on all those characters."

As a penciler and inker, Goldberg found his niche drawing in the house style established by Dan DeCarlo for the various Marvel humor titles starring teens and career girls. After starting with Kathy the Teenage Tornado, Goldberg moved on to the long-running, slapsticky Millie the Model. Goldberg would also draw drew her in a more serious style during Millie's 1963-67 iteration as a romantic-adventure star, and likewise exhibited a less-cartoony style on the teen romantic comedy series Patsy Walker. He would eventually co-plot these humor stories with writer-editor Lee.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.