Rudolph E. "Rudy" LapickSocial Security Death Index listing for Lapick, Rudolph E., Social Security Number 119-16-8993. Note: Gives date of death as February 28; however, a death notice ran online February 27 at Evanier, P.O.V. Online (see). (17 November 1926"United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/J5ND-3ZJ : accessed 01 Mar 2013), Rudolph E Lapick, 28 February 2004. – 27 February 2004) was an American
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 who worked as an inker for Archie Comics for many years. He was nominated for a
Shazam Award
The Academy of Comic Book Arts (ACBA) was an American professional organization of the 1970s that was designed to be the comic book industry analog of such groups as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Composed of comic-book profession ...
in 1974 for Best Inker (humor).
Biography
Rudy Lapick was born in
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, New York, the son of Rudolph and Florence Lapick. He had a brother, John, and a sister, Gioia. After he married Mary Zema on May 30, 1948, the couple moved to nearby
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as en ...
. They had a daughter, Lorraine and two sons, Rudy Jr. and John. Gives death date as Friday, February 27, 2004.
Lapick became a staff inker at
Timely Comics
Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...
, the 1940s forerunner of
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
. In the 1950s, his work included issues of ''
G.I. Joe
''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), Ac ...
Grand Comics Database
The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information useful ...
He was
Dan DeCarlo
Daniel S. DeCarlo (December 12, 1919 – December 18, 2001) was an American cartoonist best known for having developed the look of Archie Comics in the late 1950s and early 1960s, modernizing the characters to their contemporary appearance and es ...
's primary inker for the majority of DeCarlo's career both at Timely and for decades at Archie.
Lapick maintained a long friendship with fellow Timely/Atlas artist
, dating to their working together in the Timely art room starting in 1946. Almost five decades later, he inked some of Colan's late-career work at Archie Comics.
He was living in Yonkers at the time of his death.