Christopher Rule

Christopher Rule (November 23, 1894 – April 6, 1983) was an American comic book artist active from the 1940s through at least 1960, and best known as the first regular Marvel Comics inker for comics artist Jack Kirby during the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books.

Biography

Early life and career After driving an ambulance in France during World War I, Christopher Rule in the 1920s worked in comic strips and fashion illustration. For publisher S. Gabriel & Sons, Rule and Pelagie Doane illustrated a Pinocchio "put together book" in which gummed illustrations could be cut out and mounted on background sheets.

Comic books Strange Tales #68 (April 1959). Cover art by penciler Jack Kirby and inker Rule. In 1943, Rule was a comic-book inker with the Jack Binder Studio, and also that year inked Fawcett Comics stories featuring the superheroes Mary Marvel and Mr. Scarlet.

By 1944 he had become a staff artist at Timely Comics, the forerunner of Marvel Comics during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Rule worked in what was called the "animator bullpen", which produced such movie tie-in and original talking animal comics as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, and Animated Funny Comic-Tunes, and was separate from the superhero group producing comics featuring the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner and Captain America. Due to his work going unsigned, in the manner of the times, comprehensive credits are difficult if not impossible to ascertain. Rule's first confirmed credits are as inker of the one-page fashion filler "Junior Miss Steps Out..." and as penciler-inker of an eight-page story in the teen-romance comic Junior Miss #1 (Winter 1944).

Inker Joe Giella, who worked on staff at Timely for two years beginning circa 1946, recalled Rule at the time as "a very heavy, older fellow with grayish hair. He was a good friend of Mike Sekowsky's, and worked in the same room with Mike. He was kind of an intellectual". Artist Gene Colan, a Marvel mainstay from 1946 on, described Rule as "kind of like a Santa Claus — a roly-poly guy who was very funny". Echoed artist Stan Goldberg, "He had a great gift of gab and a magnificent vocabulary. [...] He was kind of like a Santa Claus and looked very important".

Personal life In 1923, Rule married Harriet May Cassebeer, the former wife of Edwin William Cassebeer, an executive of the Steinway Corporation, and a daughter of Charles Ruthrauff. By this marriage he had one stepdaughter, Florence Louise Cassebeer (a.k.a. Florence Louise Steinway, born 1913).

Atlas and Kirby

In a rare formal credit in a comic of that period, Rule is listed as "art associate" in the Atlas Comics title Girls' Life #4 (July 1954), under "editorial and art director" Stan Lee. Others note the long lag time between Rule's last confirmed credit and the Fantastic Four premiere.