Al Plastino: Last Superman Standing

With a comics career dating back to 1941, including inking early issues of Captain America, Al Plastino was one of the last surviving penciler/inkers of his era. Laboring uncredited on Superman for two decades (1948-1968), he co-created Supergirl, Brainiac, and the Legion of Super-Heroes, drawing those characters’ first appearances, and illustrating the initial comics story to feature Kryptonite. He was called upon to help maintain the DC Comics house-style by redrawing other artists’ Superman heads, most notoriously on Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen series, much to his chagrin. His career even included working on classic daily and Sunday newspaper strips like Nancy, Joe Palooka, Batman, and others. With a foreword by Paul Levitz, this book (by Eddy Zeno, author of Curt Swan: A Life In Comics) was completed just weeks before Al’s recent passing. In these pages, the artist remembers both his struggles and triumphs in the world of comics, cartooning and beyond. A near-century of insights shared by Al, his family, and contemporaries Allen Bellman, Nick Cardy, Joe Giella, and Carmine Infantino—along with successors Jon Bogdanove, Jerry Ordway, and Mark Waid—paint a layered portrait of Plastino’s life and career. And a wealth of illustrations show just how influential a figure he is in the history of comics.