|
 An
artist equally comfortable working in humor as well as drama, Marvel Age of
Comics mainstay Marie Severin passed away on Wednesday (082918) at the age of 89
after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke at a care facility in Amityville NY. Sevein
was a “triple threat” talent equally talented as a penciller, inker and colorist
from the earliest days of the Silver Age through the turn of the century.
Because of this she was a trailblazer for women looking to break into comics
right down to today.
Born Marie Anita Severin on Aug. 21, 1929, in East Rockaway, N.Y. into a family
of creative individuals. Her father, John, who had emigrated from Norway, was an
artist who studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and designed packaging for
Elizabeth Arden cosmetics. Her mother, Marguerite was a homemaker who designed
and made her own clothes. Her older brother John Severin would also become a
noted comic artist best known for his known for his realistic war and western
comics. Both parents encouraged both their children to draw, the two children
could often be seen at the kitchen table drawing swipes form comics. She
graduated from an all-girls Roman Catholic high school in Brooklyn before
following in her father’s footsteps and briefly attending Pratt.
She started in the industry in 1949 as a colorist for EC Comics, working with
her brother John who helped get her the job. She was one of only a handful of
female artists who worked in the industry at that time. At EC she would become
known as the companies “conscience” due to her dark coloring of art she deemed
either “too sexy” or “too gory”. While coloring was considered a secondary job
in comics, Severin loved it saying: “I think of coloring as the music in comic
books.” She stayed with EC until it folded in 1954 after the Senate hearing on
Comics and Juvenile Delinquency.
In the mid-fifties she split her time working on and off at Atlas (later Marvel)
as well as drawing educational illustrations for the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York. When Marvel caught fire in the early 1960’s she was hired on as a full
timer in Production by Stan Lee. A freelance illustration for Esquire Magazine
quickly moved her out of production and into the Bullpen.
It was at this time she gained prominence during the height of the Silver Age
(1960’s through the late 70’s) at Marvel. During this period she drew most of
the greatest heroes in the Marvel Comics pantheon. She drew covers for Marvel
titles like Daredevil, Iron Man, Captain America and often amended, retouched or
updated other artists’ work. Among her most notable superhero work were runs of
Doctor Strange, The Incredible Hulk and The Sub-Mariner. She also worked with
her brother on Kull the Conqueror.
Where many artists are identified with a specific character or book, Ms.Severin
is probably best remembered as Marvel’s resident in house humorist. Because of
this her work in the humor genre would overshadow the rest of her career and the
vehicle for that reputation would be Marvel’s humor book: “Not Brand Echh”.
Created as Marvels first answer to Mad Magazine, the series featured
self-referential parodies of Marvel characters and creators as well as other
target’s in the comic industry.
Beyond her work as a humorist, her most lasting contribution was probably her
designs of the Jessica Drew, the first Spider-Woman, drawing her with a
skintight red-and-yellow costume. The character had her own comic from the late
1970s until the early ’80s and has since been revived in different variations.
Ms. Severin had a wry sense of humor that she used to battle and often overcome
sexual stereotypes in a field dominated by men. “They say that women gossip,”
she once said. “Well, networking is male gossip, and they ‘networked’ all the
time.” In 2001 she was named to the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame.
Ms. Severin’s brother John died in 2012. She has no immediate survivors. |
