By Joshua H. Stulman

As 2020 comes to a close, its important to honor the memory of those who passed away this past year who were influential in the Comic Book and Science Fiction industry.

The below list highlights some of these great comic creators that have made significant contributions through their work.

Victor Gorelick

Victor Gorelick (1941-2020) was a major influence on Archie Comics as the main editor for all books in the company line. He began work at Archie Comics in his mid-teens. Over the next 60 years, Gorelick worked at Archie learning all facets of the comic book industry. From letterer, colorist, and production coordinator to Editor In Chief, Gorelick entire professional career is forever linked with Archie. In recent years, Gorelick was instrumental in expanding Archie’s popularity through embracing social justice issues as well as transitioning Archie Comics to tv media, including the popular “Riverdale” TV series.

Frank McLaughlin

Frank McLaughlin (1935-2020) was recruited right out of college for Charlton Comics at the very beginning of the 1960’s. Charlton Comics was expanding at the same time Stan Lee was just beginning to create Marvel Comics’ “Silver Age.” He worked as an inker alongside Dick Giordano and managed the “bullpen” of Charlton artists when Giordano was promoted to editor. He soon became art director at Charlton Comics in 1962 and oversaw its Super-Hero line of comics, where he also created the martial arts character, Judo-Master, with writer Joe Gill. In the 1970’s-1980’s, McLaughlin worked as an inker for both Marvel and DC Comics with memorable runs on Justice League of America, Batman, and Green Arrow.

Allen Bellman

Allen Bellman (1924-2020) was one of the few remaining “Golden Age” comic artists to work at Marvel Comics when it was called Timely Comics at its very beginning. He broke into comics in 1942 working as an assistant to Syd Shores and soon was illustrating Captain America, Human Torch and All Winner’s Comics. Bellman was hired as a staff artist and worked out of Timely Comics office. He retired from comic art in the 1960’s, but was rediscovered in the late 1990’s by comic fans. He was a regular guest at many comic book conventions until his death.

Mort Drucker

Mort Drucker (1929-2020) was the master caricaturist of Mad Magazine. He began work with the company in the mid-1950’s and illustrated all of the pop culture movie parodies for Mad Magazine for nearly 60 years and was well loved by Hollywood actors. Drucker is credited with the movie poster for George Lucas’s “American Graphitti” among others. His commercial work ranges from Broadway illustrations, variety of magazine ad campaigns, Children’s books, humor books and album covers. Several portraits by Mort Drucker appeared on the cover of Time Magazine and are preserved in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.

Martin Pasko

Martin Pasko (1954-2020) was a comic book and animation writer. His work began on Warren’s horror magazines but quickly found work at DC where he is known for his long work on Superman as well as Wonder Woman and the Dr. Fate revamp. Pasko continued to work at DC during the 80’s but also wrote scripts from many of 1980’s and 90’s TV cartoon series. Among these cartoon series include G.I Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Batman: The Animated Series along with many others. Pasko also wrote the script for the theatrical release of Batman: The Mask Of the Phantasm.

Dennis O’Neil

Dennis O’Neil (1939-2020) was perhaps one of the most prominent writers in comics. O’Neil had a great impact on both Marvel and DC with many lists of accomplishments both as writer and editor. O’Neil’s greatest accomplishment is his promotion of Social Justice and Political issues in comics. For Marvel, O’Neil wrote Daredevil, Iron Man, Amazing Spider-man and many more. He was vastly influential in promoting Frank Miller at Marvel, and served as editor on Miller’s iconic Daredevil run. O’Neil wrote many of the stories the dealt with Iron Man’s alcoholism as well as introducing African-American, Jim Rhodes, as Iron Man.

Dennis O’Neil is best known for his collaboration with artist, Neal Adams at DC Comics, this includes the famous Muhammad Ali vs Superman comic. His work with Adams was ground breaking for both art and script. Their collaboration on Green Lantern introduced DC’s first African American Super-Hero, John Stewart, as well as stories relating to Environmentalism, Racism, and Drug Abuse.

Dennis O’Neil biggest impact on comics is perhaps his stewardship as editor of the Batman comic line at DC from the 1980’s through 2000. His tenure oversaw Frank Miller’s critically acclaimed Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and modernized origin in Batman: Year One. Other major Batman events include the Death of Robin II, Knightfall, and No Man’s Land.

Joe Sinnott

Joe Sinnott (1926-2020) was one of the major Marvel artists and key member of the “bullpen” from the early 1960’s through his retirement in the 1990’s. Sinnott first entered comics during the “Golden Age” and worked for Marvel on Westerns and horror books throughout the 1950’s. His first collaboration with Jack Kirby began on Fantastic Four # 5 (which also introduced Dr. Doom). Sinnott would work on Fantastic Four from 1965-1981. Sinnott remained with Marvel for most of his professional career working on nearly every major Marvel character at some point.

Sinnott emerged as the premier inker at Marvel and is responsible for inking the famous covers to many of Marvel’s #1’s or first appearances of the 1970’s. In the late 1990’s, Sinnott worked on the Spider-Man Daily Newspaper strip with Stan Lee, which he continued almost until his death.

Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser (1929-2020) is perhaps best known to comic fans as the creator the DC “Bullet” Logo that graced the cover of every DC Comic from the mid 1970’s through the early 2000’s. He is even more known for his earlier design work including his “Bob Dylan” poster and “I Love NY” logo. Glaser is the co-founder of New York Magazine. Throughout his career, Glaser produced over 400 ad posters, and was recognized with the Presidential Medal of the Arts in 2009.

Bob Fujitani

Bob Fujitani (1921-2020) was a golden age comic artist. His work was predominantly for the non super-hero comic publishing groups like Lev Gleeson, Harvey Comics and Dell Comics. In the 1962, Fujitani created the nuclear super-hero, Doctor Solo: Man of Atom for Gold Key Comics. The superhero saw a major revival by Valiant comics in the 1990’s. Fujitani is also known for his work on Flash Gordon and Rip Kirby newspaper strips.

Ron Cobb

Ron Cobb (1937-2020) was a noted character designer and prop designer for science fiction movies in the 1970’s-1980’s. He is best known for creating many of the aliens, including the Hammerhead Alien, found in the Cantina Scene for Star Wars. He also worked on Dune, Alien, Conan The Barbarian, E.T., and is credited with designing the time-traveling Delorean for Back To The Future.

Richard Corben

Richard Corben (1940-2020) was a comic illustrator and regular contributor to Heavy Metal Magazine in its formative years. His work from Heavy Meal was translated to the self titled animated film in the 1980’s. Corben’s work was laden with nudity and whose comic stories were aimed at a mature audience. He produced a number of album covers, most famously the cover to Meatloaf’s “Bat Out Of Hell.”

Throughout his career, Corben collaborated with many famous writers including Harlan Ellison, Bruce Jones and Brian Azzarello. Later in life, his artwork was embraced by Marvel and DC Comics for their “Mature Readers” titles for Marvel Max and DC’s Vertigo imprints to critical acclaim.

David Prowse

David Prowse (1935-2020) is best known as the actor to portray Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy by George Lucas. He was a British actor and body builder. He was also featured in Stanley Kubrick’s “Clockwork Orange”. Prowse served as trainer for the “Superman” films and for “The Princess Bride.” He was a regular guest at comic conventions for the past 20 years

Jeremy Bulloch

Jeremy Bulloch (1945-2020) was best known as the actor to portray the bounty hunter, Boba Fett, in “Empire Strikes Back” and “Return Of The Jedi.” Although he did not actually voice the character, Bulloch is closely associated with the fan favorite character. He also played roles in three James Bond films and episodes of Doctor Who. Like many Star Wars “alumni,” Bulloch toured the globe as a frequent guest at comic conventions and Star Wars celebrations.