Jack Burnley (January 11, 1911 – December 19, 2006) was the pen name of Hardin J. Burnley, an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

artist and illustrator. Burnley was the first artist, after co-creator Joe Shuster, to draw

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

in comic books.

Biography

Early career

Jack Burnley began his comics career working for the

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...

, providing cartoons for the sports section (including work for

Damon Runyon Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short-story writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To ...

). He became (in 1929) the then-youngest artist to have a syndicated feature, and also produced illustrations for advertising.Biography by Joe Desris, in ''Batman Archives'', Volume 3 (

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

, 1994), p. 223 In 1938, Burnley began to freelance, producing "single-page sports fillers" for

, by whom he was subsequently hired in 1940. His first published assignment was the cover illustration for ''New York World's Fair 1940'' (AKA ''World's Fair Comics'' #2); the cover portrayed

with

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

and

Robin Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') **Bush-robin **Forest rob ...

, the first time the trio had ever appeared together in print. Burnley went on to provide uncredited artwork for '' Action Comics'' until 1947. Burnley's work was often credited to other artists. In the 1945 Batman newspaper strips which Burnley penciled, the stylized Bob Kane signature logo appears, although Kane had not worked on the sequence. The version of Superman he created was noted for its carefully drawn musculature, which set the style of superheroes for years to come.

Later DC work

Burnley co-created (with writer Gardner Fox) the superhero

Starman ''StarMan'' is a 1996 fantasy novel by Australian writer Sara Douglass. It follows the second book in the series, '' Enchanter'', with Axis marching north with his army to confront a formidable enemy. Background ''StarMan'' was first published ...

, which first appeared in ''

Adventure Comics ''Adventure Comics'' is an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1938 to 1983 and revived from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues (472 of those after the title changed from ''New Adventure Comics''), ...

'' (April 1941). He "became DC's top

ghost artist A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

," working on the main characters and titles. In addition to pencilling over 100 covers, he also worked (for a brief time in 1944), as uncredited penciler on both the Batman and Superman Sunday

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

s.Comic creator: Jack Burnley
/ref> Burnley left DC and the comic book field in 1947, and returning to newspaper sports cartooning. He worked for the ''

Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph The ''Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph'' was an evening daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1927 to 1960. Part of the Hearst newspaper chain, it competed with ''The Pittsburgh Press'' and the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' until bein ...

'' for four years, then for the '' San Francisco News'' until his retirement in 1976. Burnley and his wife, former cabaret dancer Dolores Farris relocated to

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

in 1981. Burnley died on December 19, 2006, at the Heritage Hall senior facility in Charlottesville, following a fall that broke his hip.

Notes

External links

Jack Burnley
on Comiclopedia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnley, Jack American comics artists 1911 births 2006 deaths Golden Age comics creators