Ричард Айерс: Художник Золотого и Серебряного веков комиксов

American cartoonist

Richard Bache Ayers (/ɛər//z/; April 28, 1924 – May 4, 2014) was an American comic book artist and cartoonist best known for his work as one of Jack Kirby's inkers during the late 1950s and 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comics, including on some of the earliest issues of Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four. He is the signature penciler of Marvel's World War II comic Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, drawing it for a 10 year run, and he co created Magazine Enterprises' 1950s Western horror character the Ghost Rider, a version of which he would draw for Marvel in the 1960s. Ayers was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2007.

Richard Bache Ayers was born April 28, 1924, in Ossining, New York, the son of John Bache Ayers and Gladys Minnerly Ayers. He had a sister who was 10 years older. The siblings were in the 13th generation, he said, of the Ayers family that had settled in Newbury, Massachusetts in 1635. At 18, during World War II, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, and was stationed in Florida, where after failing radar training he was sent for a month's art training at McTomb University and began working as an artist in the Air Corps' Operations division.

Following this, in 1947, Ayers studied under Burne Hogarth in the first class of Hogarth's new institution, New York City's Cartoonists and Illustrators School (renamed the School of Visual Arts in 1956). Joe Shuster, co creator of Superman, would visit the class, and Ayers eventually ventured to his nearby studio. "Next thing I knew," Ayers said in the same interview, "I was penciling a bit here and there." There, Sullivan "let me try the Jimmy Durante [humor] strip. I submitted my work and got the job." With writer Ray Krank, Ayers created the horror themed Western character Ghost Rider in Tim Holt #11 (1949). The character appeared in stories through the run of Tim Holt, Red Mask, A 1 Comics, Bobby Benson's B Bar B Riders, and the 14 issue solo series The Ghost Rider (1950–1954), up through the introduction of the Comics Code. The character's genesis came, Ayers recalled in 2003, when Sullivan "describe[d] what he wanted in the Ghost Rider" and told Ayers to see the 1949 Disney animated feature The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, one segment of which adapted Washington Irving's story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", featuring the Headless Horseman. "[A]nd then he told me to play the Vaughn Monroe record "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky". And then he started talking about what he wanted the guy wearing." After the trademark to the character's name and motif lapsed, Marvel Comics debuted its own near identical, non horror version of the character in Ghost Rider #1 (Feb. 1967), by writers Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich and original Ghost Rider artist Ayers.

In 1952, while continuing to freelance for Magazine Enterprises, Ayers began a long freelance run at Atlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel Comics. He drew horror stories in such titles as Adventures into Terror, Astonishing, Journey into Mystery, Journey into Unknown Worlds, Menace, Mystery Tales, Mystic, Strange Tales, and Uncanny Tales. Ayers revealed in 1996, however:
The first work I did with Jack was the cover of Wyatt Earp #25 (Oct. 1959). [Editor in chief] Stan Lee liked it and sent me another job, "The Martian Who Stole My Body," for Journey into Mystery #57 (Dec. 1959). I also began Sky Masters, the [syndicated] newspaper strip. There is a lot of confusion on this; people think Wally Wood inked them all, because they're signed Kirby/Wood. But that was Dave Wood, the writer [who was unrelated to artist Wally Wood]. I began Sky Masters with the 36th Sunday page; Jack's pencils, my inks, in September 1959. I ended the Sundays in January 1960. I also did the dailies for a period of [over] two years, from September of '59 to December of '61. These were complete inks; I was the only one doing it at the time. Of course, Wally Wood also worked on that strip, in the beginning, before me. Ayers went on to ink scores of Kirby Western and monster stories, including such much reprinted tales as "I Created the Colossus!" (Tales of Suspense #14, Feb. 1961), "Goom! The Thing from Planet X!" (Tales of Suspense #15, March 1961), and "Fin Fang Foom!" (Strange Tales #89, Oct. 1961). As Marvel introduced its superheroes in the early 1960s, Ayers inked Kirby on the first appearances of Ant Man (Tales to Astonish #27 & 35, Jan. & Sept. 1962), Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (issues #1 3, May Sept. 1963), and the revamped Rawhide Kid (beginning with The Rawhide Kid #17, Aug. 1960); on the second and several subsequent early appearances of Thor (Journey into Mystery #84 89, Sept. 1962 Feb. 1963); on Fantastic Four #6 20 (Sept. 1962 Nov. 1963), and the spin off Human Torch solo series in Strange Tales (starting with its debut in issue #101); and The Incredible Hulk #3 5 (Sept. 1962 Jan. 1963), among other series. The Computers That Said No to Drugs (March 1985), The Answer to a Riddle (March 1987), and Fit to Win (March 1988). He also drew approximately 30 sports star biographies for Revolutionary Comics between 1990 and 1994. Ayers' work continued into the 2000s. He contributed a pinup page to the 2001 comic The Song of Mykal, published privately by the comics shop Atlantis Fantasyworld, did inking on "Doris Danger" stories in the magazine Tabloia #572 576, and drew a pinup page in the comic Doris Danger's Greatest All Out Army Battles! He wrote and drew the eight page "Chips Wilde" Western story in the benefit comic Actor Comics Presents #1 (Fall 2006), provided a sketch for the benefit comic The 3 Minute Sketchbook (2007), and contributed to the tribute comic The Uncanny Dave Cockrum (2007). In 2009, he drew a half page biographical illustration of a 1940s character in the reference guide Marvel Mystery Handbook 70th Anniversary Special.

Audio of Merry Marvel Marching Society record, including voice of Dick Ayers, at Dograt. com. WebCitation archive.