Pete Costanza was an American

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

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 and illustrator

Illustrator

An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...

. He is best known for his work on Fawcett Comics

Fawcett Comics

Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s...

' Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel (DC Comics)

Captain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...

 and the Marvel Family

Marvel Family

The Marvel Family is a group of fictional characters, a team of superheroes in the Fawcett Comics and DC Comics universes. Created in 1942 by writer Otto Binder and Fawcett artists C. C...

 during the World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 era fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books

Golden Age of Comic Books

The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...

, and served as one of Captain Marvel's longest-tenured artists.

Costanza began his career at Fawcett during writer-artist C. C. Beck

C. C. Beck

Charles Clarence Beck was an American cartoonist and comic book artist, best known for his work on Captain Marvel at Fawcett Comics and DC Comics....

's initial planning and creation of Captain Marvel, later becoming Beck's chief assistant on that character, one of the era's most popular.

After Fawcett folded, Costanza freelanced for Gilberton

Gilberton (publisher)

The Gilberton Company, Inc. was an American publisher best known for the comic book series Classics Illustrated. Beginning life as an imprint of the Elliot Publishing Company, the company became independent in 1942, before being sold to the Frawley Corporation in 1967...

's Classics Illustrated

Classics Illustrated

Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies...

, adapting literary classics and historic events into single-issue comic-book narratives, as well as for Charlton Comics

Charlton Comics

Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1946 to 1985, having begun under a different name in 1944. It was based in Derby, Connecticut...

, the American Comics Group

American Comics Group

American Comics Group was a New York City-based comic book publisher which operated during the Golden and Silver Age of comic books. ACG published one of the first horror comics titles, Adventures into the Unknown. Another of ACG's claims to fame was the character of Herbie Popnecker, who starred...

 (ACG), for which he was widely known for his work on "Magicman" and "Forbidden Worlds," and the Standard/Nedor/Better

Nedor Comics

Nedor Publishing was a comic book imprint of publisher Ned Pines, who also published pulp magazines under a variety of company names that he also used for the comics...

 umbrella of comics company.

In 1967, Otto Binder

Otto Binder

Otto Oscar Binder was an American author of science fiction and non-fiction books and stories, and comic books...

, a 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...

 writer and editor, recommended Costanza succeed Curt Swan

Curt Swan

Douglas Curtis Swan was an American comic book artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of comic books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 1950s through the 1980s.-Early life and career:Curt Swan, whose Swedish...

 as artist of the series Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen

Jimmy Olsen

Jimmy Olsen is a fictional character who appears mainly in DC Comics’ Superman stories. Olsen is a young photojournalist working for the Daily Planet. He is close friends with Lois Lane, Clark Kent/Superman and Perry White...

. Over the next three years, until retiring due to a stroke in 1971, Costanza remained primarily on Jimmy Olsen while occasionally contributing to 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...

, Adventures of Superman, and World's Finest Comics

World's Finest Comics

World's Finest Comics was an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1941 to 1986. The series was initially titled World's Best Comics for its first issue; issue #2 switched to the more familiar name...

. Retired after his stroke, which affected his right hand, Costanza taught himself to oil paint left-handed, and produced over 400 paintings of adventure, romance and Americana, many of which have been exhibited and sold.