George Klein

George D. Klein – 1969) was an American comic book artist whose career stretched from the 1930s and 1940s' Golden Age of comic books until his death in 1969. He was best known as an inker for DC Comics, where he was an integral part of the Superman family of titles from 1955 to 1968, and for Marvel Comics, where he was the generally recognized, uncredited inker on Jack Kirby's pencil art for the landmark comic book The Fantastic Four #1.

Biography

Early career Sub-Mariner Comics #5 (Spring 1942): Rare George Klein inks on one of Timely's "big three" heroes. Pencils by Al Gabriele. Klein attended the Kansas City Art Institute and New York's Cartoonists and Illustrators School. Klein found himself more utilized, however, in what was called Timely's "animator" bullpen, which created such movie tie-in and original talking animal comics as Mighty Mouse and Animated Funny Comic-Tunes .

Because he was on staff, Klein frequently did not sign his artwork – a typical though not ironclad industry habit at the time – making it difficult to assess his Golden Age output.

In the post-war era, Klein drew for a variety of publishers. For DC Comics, nearly ten years before teaming with penciler Curt Swan on various Superman titles, Klein inked him on a "Boy Commandos" story in World's Finest Comics #21 (March–April 1946). For American Comics Group (ACG), Klein worked on such horror/suspense titles as Adventures into the Unknown, Forbidden Worlds, and Out of the Night. For Atlas Comics, Marvel's 1950s iteration, Klein penciled but mostly inked stories for such comics as Marvel Tales, Sports Action, Wild Western, and Space Squadron, for which he drew the backup feature "Blast Revere". By late in the decade he was also doing stories for Prize Comics' Black Magic. That database credits Klein as inker for issue #2 with the caveat, "Inking often attributed to Dick Ayers and occasionally to Art Simek. The credit given reflects the current consensus." Another standard reference, the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators, gives "George Klein?" as inker for issue #1 and "Sol Brodsky? George Klein?" for #2, with the additional note, "On the letter page of Fantastic Four (I) #272 and #281, Sol Brodsky is said to be the inker of this issue." Daredevil #47 (Dec. 1968): Art by Gene Colan and George Klein

Regardless, Klein was working almost exclusively for DC Comics during this time, known as the Silver Age of Comic Books, until DC's 1968 shakeup (see above). Klein then became one of Marvel's most high-profile inkers in the short time before his death. He embellished John Buscema on a run of The Avengers; Gene Colan on issues #46-49 off that penciler's signature series, Daredevil; and, in his last assignment, Jack Kirby on Thor #168–169 (Sept.-Oct. 1969). His death was announced in Marvel Comics' "Bullpen Bulletins" fan page appearing in Fantastic Four #93 and other comics with a December 1969 cover-date.

Inking style Former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, who wrote Marvel Comics' The Avengers during Klein's stint on that superhero title, described Klein's inking as "a Joe Sinnott kind of style. ... [He] could do that Sinnott style that was very popular then."

In its list of "The 20 Greatest Inkers of American Comic Books", historians at the retailer Atlas Comics (no relation to the comics publishers) listed George Klein at #17:

Awards 2024 Inkwell Awards Stacey Aragon Special Recognition Award (SASRA)