Ross Andru

American comic book artist (1927 1993)

Ross Andru ('/æ//n//d//r//uː/; born Rostislav Androuchkevitch, June 15, 1927 – November 9, 1993) was an American comics artist and editor whose career in comics spanned six decades. He is best known for his work on The Amazing Spider Man, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and The Metal Men, and for having co created the character called The Punisher. His most frequent collaborator was comics inker Mike Esposito, with whom he worked on projects over a span of four decades. The two also founded three short lived comic books companies: Mr. Publications (1951), MikeRoss (1953) and Klevart Enterprises (1970).

Ross Andru was born in Highland Park, Michigan on June 15, 1927, the third of Alexander and Glafire (née Evanoff) Androuchkevitch's three children. While students, they collaborated on flip book animation. Andru joined the US Army in 1945, and was discharged in 1946. In 1947, Andru attended the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, studying under Burne Hogarth. Again, Esposito was Andru's classmate.

In 1946, Andru worked for an animation studio in Manhattan drawing artwork for Chiclets chewing gum commercials. In 1948, Andru's first professional work as a comic strip illustrator was drawing layouts for the Tarzan newspaper strip. As his longtime partner Mike Esposito recalled, he and Andru were attending Burne Hogarth's Cartoonists and Illustrators School in 1947 when "Burne took Ross out of the class because he saw the talent he had and asked him, 'Would you like to assist me on Tarzan? (the newspaper strip for the Sunday page of the New York Daily Mirror). He paid Ross by the month the G. I. Bill gave him a few bucks to live on. Ross would lay it out then Burne would ink it with his approach actually change everything and it would look really like Burne Hogarth when he got through with it. Ross (Andru) had a great concept for visuals for the layout, for the storytelling. That's what Burne Hogarth saw in Ross and he developed him to pull all that out, the shots and the depth of field. That only lasted a couple of years, because the strip died in about 1950–51 Ross came to me when I started publishing and we more or less teamed up'."

A source claims penciler Andru first teamed with inker Esposito in 1949 for the publisher Fiction House, but this is unconfirmed at the Grand Comics Database. The team's first confirmed collaboration was on the six page "Wylie's Wild Horses" in Hillman Periodicals' Western Fighters vol. 2, #12 (Nov. 1950), signaling the start of a four decade collaboration. They quickly founded their own comics book company, the name of which is variously rendered as MR Publications, the combined initials of their first names; Mr. Publications, after the company's sole series, the whimsical adventure comic Mister Universe, which ran five issues (July 1951 – April 1952); or the hybrid MR. Publications. Andru and Esposito created early work on Key Publications' Mister Mystery in 1951 and Standard Comics' The Unseen and Joe Yank (the latter credited as "Mikeross"). generally credited as either Bernard Sachs or Bernie Sachs. Andru began a nine year run on Wonder Woman starting with issue #98 (May 1958), where he and writer Robert Kanigher reinvented the character, introducing the Silver Age version and her supporting cast. As well, with writer editor Robert Kanigher, Andru co created the robot superheroes called The Metal Men in Showcase #37 (April 1962), going on to draw the first 29 issues of the lighthearted series Metal Men, from 1963 to 1968. Andru and Kanigher had several other notable collaborations. The "Gunner and Sarge" feature introduced in All American Men of War #67 (March 1959) was one of the first war comics to feature recurring characters. Andru drew an early appearance of Kanigher's Sgt. Rock character in Our Army at War #81 (April 1959) With Kanigher, the Andru Esposito team introduced the non superpowered adventurers the Suicide Squad in The Brave and the Bold #25 (Sept. 1959). Another innovation was the melding of war comics with science fiction in "The War that Time Forgot", a feature created by Kanigher and Andru in Star Spangled War Stories #90 (May 1960). The title was set in the South Pacific on Dinosaur Island, an island inhabited by giant, living dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. The stories were set in the 1940s during World War II. Andru also drew early issues of Rip Hunter, Time Master in 1961, and the Sea Devils.

A Spider Man story drawn by Andru in 1968 was originally planned as a fill in issue of The Amazing Spider Man but was published in Marvel Super Heroes #14 when regular Spider Man artist John Romita Sr. recovered more quickly than anticipated from a wrist injury. For the black and white comics magazine publisher Skywald in 1971, Andru and Esposito contributed many stories across the line, including to the horror titles Nightmare and Psycho and the Western titles Wild Western Action, The Bravados and Butch Cassidy. With writer Gary Friedrich, they created Skywald's motorcycle riding superhero Hell Rider. Andru and Esposito formed the publishing company Klevart Enterprises in 1970, which two years later published two issues of a humor magazine cover titled Up Your Nose (and Out Your Ear). The name, Esposito said, came from an expression used by late night talk show host Johnny Carson, "May the bird of paradise fly up your nose, and out your ear."

In the early 1970s, Andru left DC for Marvel Comics. Initially he did short runs on such titles as Marvel Feature where he launched the superhero team the Defenders in issue #1 (Dec. 1971) and Marvel Team Up, starting in March 1972, where he drew Spider Man teaming with other Marvel characters. In 1973, he began his five year stint as regular penciler on The Amazing Spider Man, which at that point was Marvel's highest selling monthly comic. Andru and writer Gerry Conway introduced the Punisher, who would become one of Marvel Comics' most popular characters. In 1976, Andru penciled the first large scale comic book Intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider Man, in a story written by Conway and co published by Marvel and DC. As one historian wrote, "The tale was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Ross Andru, both among the few [at that time] to ever have worked on both Superman and Spider Man The result was a defining moment in Bronze Age of Comic Books."

In 1978, Andru returned to DC to work as an editor, a position he held until 1986. During this period his art appeared mostly on the covers of such titles as Action Comics and Superman. Working with writer Marv Wolfman and collaborator Mike Esposito, he co created the syndicated comic strip The Unexplained in 1979. Throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, Andru and inker Dick Giordano were DC's primary cover artists, providing cover artwork for the Superman titles as well as covers for many of the other comics in the DC line at that time. In the 1980s, Andru returned to interior artwork. He and Roy Thomas collaborated on the "Superman and His Incredible Fortress of Solitude" treasury edition published as DC Special Series #26 (Summer 1981). Pandora Pann was a proposed series by Andru and writer Len Wein which was to have been published in 1982. But other commitments prevented Wein from writing it, and the project was cancelled. In 1981, Andru contributed to the DC Super Heroes Super Healthy Cookbook, illustrating various Justice League characters as they explained food recipes to a 4th to 6th grade audience. Additional artists included Dick Giordano and Leo Durañona. Andru made a brief return to the Wonder Woman title, drawing six pages in issue #300 (Feb. 1983). The following year, Andru contributed to the 300th issue of World's Finest Comics as well. A New Teen Titans drug awareness comic book sponsored by the American Soft Drink Industry and drawn by Andru was published in cooperation with The President's Drug Awareness Campaign in 1983. Andru also pencilled Teen Titans Spotlight #3–6 (1986–1987). He was one of the contributors to the DC Challenge limited series in 1986. Other Andru artwork appeared in Vigilante (1984) and Blue Beetle (1987–1988).

In 1990, Ross Andru contributed a story to Valiant Comics' Captain N:The Game Master #1. The same year, he reunited with writer Gerry Conway and inker Mike Esposito for a story in Web of Spider Man Annual #6. In 1992, the graphic novel Spider Man: Fear Itself, pencilled by Andru, inked by Esposito, plotted by Conway and scripted by Stan Lee was published. Andru's last published work was for Archie Comics' Zen, Intergalactic Ninja in 1992, on which he was teamed once again with Esposito.

Frequent collaborator Gerry Conway commented of Ross Andru's work, "Ross Andru could place a character anywhere he wanted. He had a terrific sense of spatial relations; he could track a battle easily across rooftops, from panel to panel. He drew some great sequences where he maintained the same stationary background, a rooftop or a street, across an entire page, but move the characters from panel to panel. I know there are artists today who do that, but many of today's artists are figure oriented. Space and context doesn't seem as important to them, whereas it was extremely important to Ross. He used to go around New York City taking pictures of the buildings so he could be accurate about where he put Spider Man."

Andru suffered a brain aneurysm and died on November 9, 1993, in Jamaica Bay, Queens County, New York. His body was cremated and interred at the Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium, Middle Village, Queens County, New York.

Andru was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2007. In Ultimate Spider Man issue #87 (Feb. 2006), a "Ross Andru" has a cameo as the principal of Peter Parker's high school.

Superman vs. the Amazing Spider Man (1976)