Fred Peters

Influences Among his early graphic influences were Harold Foster's 'Prince Valiant', Alex Raymond's 'Flash Gordon' and Bob Kane and Bill Finger's 'Batman'. He went to art schools in Oklahoma and Minnesota.

Animation work

Near the mid-1940s, Peters moved to California, where he was hired as an animator at the Walt Disney Studios. He walked in with his illustrations and was hired on the spot. He's quoted saying, "It was the best place he had ever worked." He contributed to pictures as 'Bambi' (1942), where he illustrated a waterfall scene, and animated Jiminy Cricket in his second movie appearance in the anthology picture 'Fun and Fancy Free' (1946). But he was mostly preoccupied with the Pluto cartoons, for which he animated hundreds of cartoons.

EC Comics Peters eventually left Disney to start his own studio in New York with a friend. When this attempt failed, he became an illustrator of animated TV commercials, illustrated advertisements, color slides and comic strips. In 1949, he became a freelance illustrator and comics artist joining EC Comics. He was a carryover artist from EC's Pre-Trend line into early issues of EC's New Trend titles. He helped make many good comics, and people at his work said that he was a brilliant drawer and that he often made masterpieces of art. He made contributions to their western 'Gunfighter', 'Saddle Justice' and crime titles 'Crime Patrol', 'War Against Crime'. Peters was present in two early comic books of EC's groundbreaking "New Trend" line. He illustrated three "EC quickies" for 'Crime SuspenStories' issue #14 (December 1952), dealing with death from electrocution, hanging and decapitation. In the 32nd issue of Tales From the Crypt (October-November 1952), he illustrated the story 'Cutting Cards', about two rival gamblers who try to compete with one another in terms of gruesome crimes. TV.com noted: In the comic story the gamblers' names are Lou Crebis and Gus Forney. In the episode, their names are Reno Crevice and Sam Forney. Walter Hill actually used some of the original panels from the comic story to help storyboard this episode.

Boston Globe Peters settled down in Boston, where he worked for the newspaper Boston Globe for 32 years starting October 7, 1951, illustrating hundreds of articles along with creating comics Expressway Blues and 'Word Wizard' (with writer S.G. Backus) until January 27, 1985.

Death After his retirement, he became a member of several art associations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida, including a charter member of The Reading Art Association. and taught watercolor painting classes in these states. Fred Peters died on May 18, 2018, at the age of 95. War Against Crime #10 "The Perfect Murder" (1950) Gunfighter #13 "The Old Prospector's Tale: The Day of Death..." (1950) Gunfighter #14 "The Old Prospector's Tale: Ramsey's Revenge!" (1950) Crime SuspenStories #14 "The Hangman's Noose" and "The Guillotine" (1952) Tales From the Crypt #32 "Cutting Cards" (1952)