Don Perlin

Donald David Perlin (; August 27, 1929 – May 14, 2024) was an American comic book artist, writer, and editor. He is best known for Marvel Comics' Werewolf by Night, Moon Knight (a character he co-created), The Defenders, and Ghost Rider. In the 1990s, he worked for Valiant Comics, both as artist and editor, where he co-created Bloodshot.

Biography

Early life and career Perlin was born on August 27, 1929, in New York City, and grew up in the Canarsie neighborhood of the borough of Brooklyn. Perlin was Jewish. At 14, he began studying art under Burne Hogarth, who taught small private classes at either his Central Park West apartment

He broke into the industry in the late 1940s, later recalling, "My first job was for a company called Fox Features. It was one of those cops-and-robbers stories. I pencilled it, Pete Morisi inked it." He recalled he spent three weeks as a ghost artist pencilling over Jules Feiffer's layouts on Will Eisner's newspaper-insert comics feature The Spirit. As he recalled the experience,

Quote|I kind of say that I worked for Will Eisner. What happened was I walked into his office when the fellow that they had doing The Spirit left. I walked in with some samples and they brought them in to Eisner, he looked at them and hired me. At that time they had a publication that they were doing called PS magazine; it was a mechanical maintenance magazine for the Army. They gave me a drawing board in the corner of the office and left me alone. Jules Feiffer was writing it. He, at that time, was in the Army stationed at Governors Island ... and he’d come in on the weekend and write a story, lay it out roughly on the boards. I’d come in on the Monday and I’d pencil it. I never saw Eisner again after that first time. I mean, while working there. He recalled,

Doing comics in the evenings after work, with the first of its three printings cover-dated May 1961. In 1962 he began an 11-year stint drawing almost exclusively for Charlton, across a variety of genres, from war to romance comics to hot-rod sports stories. Occasional artwork for other companies included the TV-series tie-in Hogan's Heroes #4 (March 1967), for Dell Comics, and comics biographies of Thurgood Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for Fitzgerald Publications. and co-penciling two issues of Thor with John Buscema in 1973, among other work, including a smattering for rival DC Comics' supernatural anthologies. He had continued in commercial art and package design as his primary employment all these years, Perlin recalled, when had an offer to return to comics full-time:

He joined Jim Shooter's Valiant Comics in 1991, pencilling the series Solar, Man of the Atom and Bloodshot and editing Solar, Man of the Atom, Shadowman, and Magnus Robot Fighter. Shortly after Valiant's mid-1990s takeover by Acclaim Entertainment, Perlin went into semi-retirement.

Perlin died on May 14, 2024, at the age of 94.

Awards Perlin won the 1997 National Cartoonists Society Comic Books Award.

Bibliography of series as regular artist (as penciller if not noted otherwise)

DC Comics Ghosts #24, 26, 28, 36 (1974–1975) House of Mystery #252 (1977) Scooby-Doo #24–25, 29, 33 (1999–2000) Secrets of Sinister House #16 (1974) The Unexpected #154–155, 174 (1974–1976) Weird War Tales #12, 15, 20 (1973) Witching Hour #44–45, 52, 69, 71 (1974–1977)

Marvel Comics Beauty and the Beast miniseries (Beast/Dazzler) #1–4 (1984) Captain America (inker) #229–234, 236–240, 243; (penciller) #242, 244 (1978–1980) The Defenders (layouts, finished by others including Joe Sinnott, Jim Mooney, Pablo Marcos, and Bob Wiacek) #82–111 and 113; (penciller) #112, 114–118, 120–125, 129, 132, 134–145, 147, 149–152 (April 1980 – Feb. 1986) Ghost Rider #26–34, 36–42, 45–60 (Oct. 1977 – Sept. 1981), #67 (April 1982), #71 (Aug. 1982), #76–77 (Jan.–Feb. 1983) Man-Thing Vol. 2 #4-8, 10 (May 1980–May 1981) Thor #210-213 (April-July 1973), #332 (June 1983) Transformers: #13–15, 17–19, 21–32, 35 (breakdowns only #31–32) (Feb. 1986 – Dec. 1987) Transformers: The Movie (layouts only) #1–3 (Dec. 1986 – Feb. 1987) Werewolf by Night #17–43 (May 1974 – March 1977)

Valiant Comics

Bad Eggs #1–8 (1996) Bloodshot #1–3, 5–7, 9–17 (1992–1994) Solar, Man of the Atom #1–4, 6–7, 9–10, 12–13, 18–19 (1991–1992) Timewalker #1–4, 9, 12–13 (1994–1995)