John P. D'Agostino Sr., generally credited as Jon D'Agostino (June 13, 1929November 28, 2010) was an Italian-American comic-book artist best known for his

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc. (often referred to simply as Archie Comics) is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the village of Pelham, New York. The company's many titles feature the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Jug ...

work. As well, under the pseudonym Johnny Dee, he was the letterer for the lead story in the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

landmark ''

The Amazing Spider-Man ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American superhero American comic book, comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its title character and main protagonist. Being in the Earth 616, mainstream continuity of t ...

'' No. 1 (March 1963), as well as other seminal Marvel comics. D'Agostino is not the French comics artist Tony D'Agostino, a.k.a. Tony Dagos, whose early work was signed "D'Agostino". He is also not the concurrent early-Marvel letterer John Duffy a.k.a. John Duffi.

Biography

Early career

Jon D'Agostino was born in Cervinara, Italy, the son of Pasquale and Annunziata Pitanello D'Agostino."Archie Artist Jon D'Agostino Passes Away at 81"

press release A press release (also known as a media release) is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing new information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public releas ...

, November 30, 2010, via ''

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''
WebCitation archive
He emigrated to the United States with his family during childhood, and later attended New York City's School of Industrial Art and the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

.Jon D'Agostino
at the

Lambiek Comiclopedia Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ). His son Boris Kousemaker has been the owner since 2007. From 1968 to 2015, it was located in the Ke ...

Archived
October 18, 2011. (Sources vary.) His siblings were brothers Peter, Ted, Charles and William, the latter two of whom predeceased him, and sisters Lucielle and Gina. D'Agostino's earliest known work in the comics medium was as head

colorist In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black-and-white line art. For most of the 20th century this was done using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates. Since the late 20th century it is ...

for

Timely Comics Timely Comics was the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman (publisher), Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely P ...

, the 1940s forerunner of

. In that capacity, in 1949, he mentored new-hire Stan Goldberg, a 16-year-old colorist who would later become one of

' most prominent cartoonists. Goldberg in 2005 recalled, "I found out there was an opening in the coloring department at Timely Comics, so I went up there. They needed another body to be in the room that handled the coloring, and that's where I worked. ... e man who was in charge of the coloring department is still a dear friend of mine, Jon D'Agostino."Adelaide Comics and Books: Stan Goldberg interview (2005)
Writer and artist credits were not routinely given during this period fans and historians refer to as the

Golden Age of Comic Books The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era in the history of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and ma ...

, making full bibliographies difficult for many of the medium's pioneering creators. D'Agostino's first confirmed comics credit is penciling and inking the seven-page romance comic story "Glamor Killed My Love" (as John D'Agostino) in ''Romantic Hearts'' No. 6 (Feb. 1952), from publisher Story Comics. Other early credits, all using the first name "Jon", include horror stories in Master Publications' ''Dark Mysteries'' No. 14 (Oct. 1953), and inking the cover and the lead Rocky Jones, Space Ranger story in the science-fiction anthology series ''Space Adventures'' No. 18 (Sept. 1955), the first of his countless works for

Charlton Comics Charlton Comics was an American comic-book publishing company that existed from 1945 to 1986, having begun under a different name: T. W. O. Charles Company, in 1940. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line (comics), line was a divi ...

Later career

Through the 1950s and into the 1960s, D'Agostino fully drew or simply inked across a variety of titles for Charlton, including

romance comics Romance comics are a genre of comic book, comic books that were most popular during the Golden Age of Comics. The market for comics, which had been growing rapidly throughout the 1940s, began to plummet after the end of World War II when military ...

(''Sweethearts''); war comics (''Attack'', '' Fightin' Army''); talking animal comics and other types of children's comics (''Pudgy Pig'', '' Timmy the Timid Ghost'', ''Hunk''); and teen humor comics (''Freddy'', and the TV-series licensed comic '' My Little Margie''). He occasionally inked penciler Matt Baker under the joint pseudonym Matt Bakerino. As Johnny Dee, he lettered the lead story in the

' landmark ''

'' No. 1 (March 1963).''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #1
at the Grand Comics Database In the mid-1960s and continuing through the 1970s, D'Agostino began contributing to

and

Gold Key Comics Gold Key Comics was an imprint of American company Western Publishing, created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984. History Gold Key Comics was created in 1962, when its ...

in addition to Charlton, both as an artist and as a letterer. In the 1980s he was inking primarily for Archie and for Marvel, including on the latter's '' G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero'', ''

Marvel Two-In-One ''Marvel Two-in-One'' is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics featuring Fantastic Four member the Thing in a different team-up each issue. Publication history Original series The concept of teaming the Thing with a differen ...

'', and, for Marvel's

Star Comics Star Comics was an imprint of Marvel Comics that began in 1984 and featured titles that were aimed at child readers and were often adaptations of children's television series, animated series or toys. The last comic published under the imprint ...

children's imprint, '' Planet Terry'', '' Heathcliff'', and '' Royal Roy''. By 1990, D'Agostino was exclusively inking for Archie, on teen-humor stories for such titles as ''Archie's Pals 'N' Gals'', ''Jughead's Time Police'', ''Hot Dog'', ''Explorers of the Unknown'' (a light adventure comic starring the Archie gang), ''

Sabrina the Teenage Witch ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' is a comic book series published by Archie Comics about the adventures of a fictional American teenager named Sabrina Spellman. Sabrina was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo, and first appeared ...

'', and the video game licensed comic ''

Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...

''. D'Agostino's last known published credit was inking the cover of '' Betty'' No. 173 (June 2008),''Betty'' #173
at the Grand Comics Database although Archie Comics said in a statement announcing his death that his last interior work would appear in ''Jughead Double Digest'' No. 166, as part of the four-part "Cyrano Jones" story, "and several of his covers will be seen through 2011."

Personal life

He married his first wife, Jean D'Onofrio D'Agostino, in 1955. They remained married until her death in 1992, and had three sons: John Jr., Peter, and Pat. Following the 1992 death of his first wife, he married Elvira "Vivi" Testa D'Agostino in 1995. The two lived in

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, New York City. D'Agostino died November 28, 2010, of

bone cancer A bone tumor is an neoplastic, abnormal growth of tissue in bone, traditionally classified as benign, noncancerous (benign) or malignant, cancerous (malignant). Cancerous bone tumors usually originate from a cancer in another part of the body su ...

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References

External links

John P. Dagostino
icat the United States Social Security Death Index via FamilySearch.org. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
Jon D'Agostino
an
Johnny Dee
at the

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 use ...

The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics CreatorsThe Big Comic Book Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dagostino, Jon 1929 births 2010 deaths American comics artists Deaths from bone cancer in the United States Deaths from cancer in Connecticut Golden Age comics creators Silver Age comics creators Marvel Comics people Archie Comics people Charlton Comics People from Avellino Italian emigrants to the United States