John Celardo

John Celardo (December 27, 1918 – January 6, 2012) was an American comic strip and comic book artist, best known for illustrating the Tarzan comic strip.

Early life Born on Staten Island, New York City, Celardo continued to live there most of his life. After a childhood in Mariners Harbor, he graduated from Port Richmond High School. He began his art career in the late 1930s drawing animals for the National Youth Administration at the Staten Island Zoo at West Brighton, where he was once photographed in the alligator pit by the Staten Island Advance.

World War II Serving with the U. S. Army during World War II, he was assigned to duty in the European theatre, where he rose to the rank of captain. Returning to Staten Island after World War II, he lived in Castleton Corners and eventually settled in Graniteville. After 1969, his comic book work was primarily for DC Comics and Gold Key Comics.

Comic strips

In the early 1950s, he succeeded Bob Lubbers as illustrator of the Tarzan comic strip. the newspaper strip was published and started on April 7, 1969. No end date is known. He drew the daily Buz Sawyer comic strip from 1983 until it was discontinued on October 7, 1989. His works on the Tarzan comics were among the first to be banned by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons of then-West Germany, who supposedly insulted him by stating that he has a "degenerate imagination".

During the 1960s, he also did artwork for Topps trading cards, including a comic strip on their Land of the Giants card series. In 1969, he illustrated Paperback Library's Get Your Shape in Shape by Rita Chazen and Fran Hair. From 1973 to the mid-1990s, he was a comics editor at King Features Syndicate. Celardo was a member of Artists and Writers, the National Cartoonists Society and the Staten Island Kiwanis Club.

Death At age 93, Celardo died on January 6, 2012, at Clove Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in Staten Island, survived by his son, John J.; his wife, the former Julia Esposito; his daughter, Donna DeForest; three brothers Joe, Frank and Edward; and three grandchildren Ryan DeForest, Kaitlin DeForest, and Devin DeForest.