Bob Oksner

Bob Oksner (October 14, 1916 – February 18, 2007) was an American comics artist known for both adventure comic strips and for superhero and humor comic books, primarily at DC Comics.

Biography Oksner's early work includes creating the second version of Marvel Boy in 1943 for Timely Comics, the predecessor of Marvel Comics. He later wrote with Jerry Albert and drew the syndicated newspaper comic strip Miss Cairo Jones (1945–1947), after which DC Comics editor Sheldon Mayer hired him as an artist on comics adapted from other media. Oksner drew a few Justice Society of America stories in All Star Comics during his early years at DC. He moved from adventure strips to teen-oriented strips such as Leave It to Binky which debuted in February 1948. Oksner described Leave It to Binky as "the one that I really feel got my feet on the ground at DC. I did that one from the very beginning until it ended [in 1958]." Oksner's work in this field included The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and its successor, The Adventures of Jerry Lewis; The Adventures of Bob Hope; The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis; Sgt. Bilko; Pat Boone; and Welcome Back, Kotter; and, for the King Features syndicate, the newspaper comic-strip spin-off of the 1950s TV sitcom I Love Lucy. Other work includes drawing the original humor comics Angel and the Ape and Stanley and His Monster.

When the demand for humor comics fell off by the 1970s, Oksner began drawing DC superhero series and drawing and co-creating Soozi (1967), with Don Weldon. He retired from comics in 1986.

Awards Oksner won the National Cartoonists Society Division Award for Comic Books in 1960 and 1961, and in 1970 the Shazam Award for Best Pencil Artist (Humor Division) for his work on Adventure Comics and other DC titles.

Oksner was a recipient of the Inkpot Award in 2002.