Jack Burnley
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
artist and illustrator. Burnley was the first artist, after co-creator Joe Shuster
Joe Shuster
Joseph "Joe" Shuster was a Canadian-born American comic book artist. He was best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with writer Jerry Siegel, first published in Action Comics #1...
, to draw Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
.
Early career
Jack Burnley began his comics career working for the King Features SyndicateKing Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...
, providing cartoons for the sports section (including work for Damon Runyon
Damon Runyon
Alfred Damon Runyon was an American newspaperman and 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 New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the...
). He became (in 1929) the then-youngest artist to have a syndicated feature, and also produced illustrations for advertising. In 1938, Burnley began to freelance, producing "single-page sports fillers" for DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, 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 Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
with Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
and Robin
Robin (comics)
Robin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
, the first time the trio had ever appeared together in print. Burnley went on to provide uncredited artwork for Action Comics
Action Comics
Action Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined...
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 FoxGardner Fox
Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer best known for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic-book historians estimate that he wrote over 4,000 comics stories....
) the superhero Starman
Starman (Ted Knight)
Starman is a fictional comic book superhero in the , and a member of the Justice Society of America. Created by artist Jack Burnley and editors Whit Ellsworth, Murray Boltinoff, Jack Schiff, Mort Weisinger, and Bernie Breslauer, he first appeared in Adventure Comics #61 .-Fictional character...
, which first appeared in Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics was a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1935 to 1983 and then revamped from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues , making it the fifth-longest-running DC series, behind Detective Comics, Action Comics, Superman, and Batman...
(April 1941). He "became DC's top ghost artist," 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
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
s. Burnley left DC and the comic book field in 1947, and returning to newspaper sports cartooning. He worked for the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph for four years, then for the San Francisco News until his retirement in 1976.
Burnley and his wife, former cabaret dancer Delores Ferris relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
in 1981. Delores died at Heritage Hall in 2003 after surgery following a fall that broke her hip. Burnley died on December 19, 2006 at the Heritage Hall senior facility in Charlottesville, following a fall that broke his hip.
External links
- Jack Burnley on Comiclopedia
- Obituary