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Sheldon Mayer

{{distinguish|Sheldon Moldoff}}

{{short description|American comic creator (1917-1991)}}

{{Infobox comics creator

| image = Sheldon Mayer self-portrait.jpg

| caption = Sheldon Mayer self-portrait from the cover of The Amazing World of DC Comics #5 (March–April 1975)

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1917|4|1|mf=y}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1991|12|21|1917|04|01}}

| death_place = Copake, New York, U.S.

| write = y

| pencil = y

| edit = y

| notable works = Black Orchid
Funny Stuff
Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist
Sugar and Spike
The Three Mouseketeers

| awards = Jack Kirby Hall of Fame
Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame

}}

Sheldon Mayer ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|eɪ|.|ər}}; April 1, 1917 – December 21, 1991)"United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch [https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VSN8-T2H : Sheldon Mayer, December 21, 1991] accessed March 13, 2013 was an American comics artist, writer, and editor. One of the earliest employees of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Publications, Mayer produced almost all of his comics work for the company that would become known as DC Comics.

He is among those credited with rescuing the unsold Superman comics strip from the rejection pile.

Mayer was inducted into the comic book industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000.

Early life and career

Mayer was born in Harlem, New York, to a Jewish family.{{Cite web|url=https://13thdimension.com/jews-n-comics-the-13-most-influential-jewish-creators-and-execs/|title=JEWS 'N' COMICS: The 13 Most Influential Jewish Creators and Execs|date=13 September 2015}}{{Cite web|url=http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/11merrily.html|title = Interview with Merrily Mayer Harris, Shelly Mayer's Daughter - Comic Book Artist #10 - TwoMorrows Publishing}} Sheldon Mayer's career in the days before comic books was a diverse one. He worked as writer and artist on "scores of titles" for a juvenile audience circa 1932–33, before joining the Fleischer animation studios as an "opaquer" in 1934, at the age of seventeen.{{cite web |url= http://www.bailsprojects.com/(S(rpjauj554mtreebn2zi42o45))/bio.aspx?Name=MAYER%2c+SHELDON|title= Mayer, Sheldon|first= Jerry|last= Bails|author-link= Jerry Bails|year= 2006|work= Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120211215458/http://www.bailsprojects.com/(S(rpjauj554mtreebn2zi42o45))/bio.aspx?Name=MAYER,+SHELDON|archive-date= February 11, 2012|url-status= live|df=mdy-all}}

He began working for National Allied Publications (Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's initial company, later known as DC Comics) shortly after it was founded, in 1935, writing and drawing stories and "thus becoming one of the very first contributors [of original material] to comic books."{{Cite comic| writer = Marx, Barry| cowriters = Cavalieri, Joey and Hill, Thomas| artist = Petruccio, Steven | editor = Marx, Barry| story = Sheldon Mayer Superman Discovered | title = Fifty Who Made DC Great| date = 1985| publisher = DC Comics| page = 13}}

Between 1936 and 1938, Mayer worked for Dell Comics, producing illustrations, house advertisements and covers for titles including Popular Comics, The Comics and The Funnies. Also in 1936, he joined the McClure Syndicate "as an editor working for comics industry pioneer M.C. Gaines." While working for the McClure syndicate, Mayer came across Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's unsold Superman comics strip, which he "immediately fell in love with." He recalled in a 1985 book that, "The syndicated press rejected it about fifteen times. I was singing [its] praises so much that in 1938 Gaines finally took the strip up to Harry Donenfeld, who was looking for original material to run in his new title, Action Comics," where the soon-to-be iconic character debuted as the lead feature of the first issue.{{cite book|last1=Wallace|first1= Daniel|last2=Dolan|first2=Hannah, ed.|chapter= 1930s|title = DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle|publisher=Dorling Kindersley|year=2010|location= London, United Kingdom|isbn= 978-0-7566-6742-9 |page= 20 |quote = It was editor Sheldon Mayer, working at M. C. Gaines' McClure Syndicate, who suggested Superman to DC as a potential filler feature for Action Comics.}} Action Comics editor Vin Sullivan is also among those credited with discovering Superman. Mayer said,

{{blockquote|I was crazy about Superman for the same reason I liked The Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, and The Desert Song. The mystery man and his alter ego are two distinct characters to be played off against each other. The Scarlet Pimpernel's alter ego was scared of the sight of blood, a hopeless dandy: no one would have suspected he was a hero. The same goes for Superman.}}

All-American Comics

File:Marstonpetermayergaines.jpg, H. G. Peter, Sheldon Mayer and Max Gaines in 1942.]]

In 1939, "Gaines left McClure to enter into a partnership with National Periodical Publications," and Mayer went with him, becoming the first editor of the All-American Publications line, then run as a separate entity from National/DC, publishers of Superman and Batman.Wallace "1930s" in Dolan, p. 24: "Jack Liebowitz partnered with publisher M. C. Gaines (who brought with him his sharp young editor, Sheldon Mayer) to launch a new line of comics under the All American Publications banner." Mayer edited and participated in the creation of - among others - the Flash (in Flash Comics), Green Lantern, Hawkman, Wonder Woman and All-Star Comics, home to the Justice Society of America.Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 33: "DC took the 'greatest hits' premise of the comic to its logical conclusion in All Star Comics #3 by teaming the Flash, the Atom, Doctor Fate, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Hourman, Sandman, and the Spectre under the banner of the Justice Society of America for an ongoing series."{{cite book|last= Thomas|first= Roy|author-link= Roy Thomas|chapter= The Men (and One Woman) Behind the JSA: Its Creation and Creative Personnel|title= All-Star Companion Volume 1|publisher= TwoMorrows Publishing|year= 2000|location= Raleigh, North Carolina|page= 22|isbn = 1-893905-055}} Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "This was obviously a great notion, since it offered readers a lot of headliners for a dime, and also the fun of watching fan favorites interact."{{cite book|last = Daniels|first = Les|author-link = Les Daniels|title = DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes|chapter= The Justice Society of America All American's All Star Team Up|publisher = Bulfinch Press|year = 1995|location= New York, New York

|page = 54|isbn = 0821220764}}

Among his non-superhero work, Mayer assisted with lettering and logo creation on several All-American titles, and drew a number of covers for the "Mutt and Jeff" reprints appearing in the companies flagship title All-American Comics (1939–1958). Having created the semi-autobiographical strip Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist for Dell Comics in 1936, where the feature appeared in The Funnies #2–29 and Popular Comics #6–9),[http://www.comics.org/searchNew/?q=scribbly&selected_facets=facet_model_name_exact:story&sort=chrono Scribbly] at the Grand Comics Database. Mayer moved "Scribbly" to All-American Publications in 1939. Soon afterward, the featured included the supporting character of "Ma" Hunkel, who would go on to become the Golden Age incarnation of the Red Tornado, with Mayer writing, penciling and inking the renamed Scribbly and the Red Tornado for All-American Comics between 1941 and 1944 when All-American merged with National.{{gcdb|type=credit|search= Sheldon+Mayer|title= Sheldon Mayer}} Mayer launched several talking animal titles including Funny Stuff (Summer 1944),Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 46: "Edited by Sheldon Mayer, the anthology title showcased a number of new animal humor features." Animal Antics (March 1946),Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 50 and Funny Folks (April 1946).Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 51: "Editor Sheldon Mayer launched yet another talking-animal title. Like the newly launched Animal Antics, the features in Funny Folks were originals, not based on characters from animated movie shorts."

Scribbly

{{Main|Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist}}

Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist is a comic book character created in 1936 by Sheldon Mayer, first appearing in Dell Comics.

Editorial retirement

Mayer retired from editing in 1948,{{cite web |url= http://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/mayer_sheldon.htm|title= Sheldon Mayer |date= December 20, 2006|publisher= Lambiek Comiclopedia|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131216060023/http://www.lambiek.net/artists/m/mayer_sheldon.htm|archive-date= December 16, 2013|url-status= live|df=mdy-all}} "to devote himself full-time to cartooning". He began to write and draw a number of humor comics for National, including the features The Three Mouseketeers, Leave It to Binky, a teenage humor book, and Sugar and Spike. Leave It to Binky debuted in February 1948Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 58 while Scribbly received its own title in August 1948.Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 59 He also created the backup feature "Doodles Duck", starring a dimwitted, easily angered instigator and his smarter, calmer nephew Lemuel, in Animal Antics #40 (Sept. 1952). This is unrelated to Howie Post's early DC creation Doodles Duck.{{cite web|url= http://toonopedia.com/doodles2.htm|title= Doodles Duck|last= Markstein|first= Don|publisher= Don Markstein's Toonopedia|archive-url= https://archive.today/20240527194924/https://www.webcitation.org/6gfYy81w0?url=http://toonopedia.com/doodles2.htm|archive-date= May 27, 2024|url-status= live|df= mdy-all|access-date= April 10, 2016}}

Sugar and Spike proved to be one of Mayer's longest-lasting strips, starring two babies who could communicate in baby talk that adults could not understand.{{cite web|url= http://www.toonopedia.com/sugspike.htm|title= Sugar and Spike|last= Markstein|first= Don|publisher= Don Markstein's Toonopedia|archive-url= https://archive.today/20120913073710/http://www.toonopedia.com/sugspike.htm|archive-date= September 13, 2012|url-status= live|df= mdy-all|access-date= December 13, 2011|quote= Sugar Plumm and Cecil "Spike" Wilson had to make sense of their environment without assistance from those who already knew their way around it, because everybody but their fellow babies spoke in the incomprehensible gobbledygook of grownups.}} Mayer even signed the stories he drew, something rare at National Periodical Publications in the late 1950s when Sugar and Spike debuted.

In the 1970s, when failing eyesight limited his drawing ability, he continued to work for National/DC, contributing scripts to the companies horror and mystery magazines, including most notably House of Mystery, House of Secrets and Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion. With artist Tony DeZuniga, he co-created the "Black Orchid" feature which ran in Adventure Comics #428–430 in 1973.McAvennie, Michael "1970s" in Dolan, p. 156: "Very little was known about the Black Orchid, even after writer Sheldon Mayer and artist Tony DeZuniga presented her so-called 'origin issue' in Adventure Comics." Mayer wrote and drew several "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" treasuries{{cite web|url= http://www.toonopedia.com/sh_mayer.htm|title= Sheldon Mayer|last1= Markstein|first1= Don|date= n.d.|work= Don Markstein's Toonopedia|archive-url= https://archive.today/20240525151213/https://www.webcitation.org/63e1zyO1w?url=http://www.toonopedia.com/sh_mayer.htm|archive-date= May 25, 2024|url-status= live|df= mdy-all|quote= [Mayer] also worked on several tabloid-formatted comic books for DC in the mid-1970s, including the company's first use of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer since the early '60s.|access-date= December 3, 2011}} starting in 1972. These were published as Limited Collectors' Edition C–24, C–33, C–42, C–50{{cite journal|last = Arnold|first = Mark|author-link = Mark Arnold (historian)|title = You Know Dasher and Dancer: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer|journal= Back Issue!|issue = 61|pages = 7–10|publisher = TwoMorrows Publishing|date = December 2012|location= Raleigh, North Carolina}}[http://www.comics.org/issue/245191/ Limited Collectors' Edition #C–20], [http://www.comics.org/issue/245181/ #C–24], [http://www.comics.org/issue/68948/ #C–33], [http://www.comics.org/issue/245184/ #C–42], and [http://www.comics.org/issue/245187/ #C–50] at the Grand Comics Database and All-New Collectors' Edition C–53, C–60.[http://www.comics.org/issue/245192/ All-New Collectors' Edition #C–53] and [http://www.comics.org/issue/68933/ #C–60] at the Grand Comics Database Additionally, one digest format edition was published as The Best of DC #4 (March–April 1980).[http://www.comics.org/issue/34179/ The Best of DC #4] at the Grand Comics Database In 1978, Mayer wrote and drew a "How to Draw Batman Booklet" as part of an ongoing debate with DC editor Paul Levitz regarding continuity in comic books.{{cite book|last1 = Greenberger|first1 = Robert|author-link = Robert Greenberger|last2 = Manning|first2 = Matthew K.|title = The Batman Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles from the Batcave|publisher = Running Press|year = 2009|location= Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|isbn = 978-0762436637|page= 49|quote = Mayer objected to the idea of continuity in comic book stories...this eighteen-page story, written and penciled by Mayer arrived as an instructional component to the debate.}} In the 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great, Mayer is cited as still writing and drawing "for the company that first published his great discovery, Superman, forty-seven years ago."

After successful cataract surgery, Mayer returned to drawing Sugar and Spike stories for the international market;Markstein "Sheldon Mayer": "He continued to write and draw Sugar & Spike until 1971, when failing eyesight forced him to abandon cartooning...Mayer's sight was restored a few years later, and he went back to producing new Sugar & Spike stories. But the American comic book market was no longer able to support such a feature, so these were mostly published overseas." only a few have been reprinted in the United States. The American reprints appeared in the digest sized comics series The Best of DC #29, 41, 47, 58, 65, and 68. In 1992, Sugar and Spike #99 was published as part of the DC Silver Age Classics series;[http://www.comics.org/series/17352/ DC Silver Age Classics Sugar and Spike #99 (1992)] at the Grand Comics Database this featured two previously unpublished stories by Mayer. DC writer and executive Paul Levitz has described Sugar and Spike as being "Mayer's most charming and enduring creation"{{cite book|author-link= Paul Levitz|last=Levitz|first= Paul|title= 75 Years of DC Comics The Art of Modern Mythmaking|publisher= Taschen|year=2010|location= Cologne, Germany|isbn= 9783836519816|page= 64}} while novelist and Sandman creator Neil Gaiman has stated "Sheldon Mayer's Sugar and Spike series...is the most charming thing I've ever seen in comics."{{cite book|last = Bender|first = Hy|title = The Sandman Companion|publisher = Vertigo|year = 1999|location= New York, New York|page = 154|isbn = 1563894653}}

DC attempted to license Sugar and Spike as a syndicated newspaper strip but was unsuccessful.{{cite journal|last = Wells|first = John|title = The Lost DC Kids Line|journal= Back Issue!|issue = 57|page = 47|publisher = TwoMorrows Publishing|date = July 2012|location= Raleigh, North Carolina|quote= Did you know that DC tried to sell Shelly Mayer's Sugar and Spike as a syndicated newspaper strip? [A] sample, ca. 1979–early 1980s was one of three DC concepts unsuccessfully pitched to papers.}} Sales on the "Sugar and Spike" issues of The Best of DC were strong enough that DC announced plans for a new ongoing series featuring the characters. The project was never launched for unknown reasons.Wells pp. 46–47: "In a 'Meanwhile' column in several Aug. 1984-dated titles...DC vice-president-executive director Dick Giordano tentatively announced Sugar and Spike #1 as appearing 'sometime this fall or early winter'...Ultimately, for reasons virtually no one recalls, DC quickly got cold feet on the project even as Marvel's Star Comics rolled out in 1985."

Awards

Mayer received an Inkpot Award in 1976.{{cite web |url= http://www.hahnlibrary.net/comics/awards/inkpot.php|title= Inkpot Award Winners |publisher= Hahn Library Comic Book Awards Almanac|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120709055558/http://www.hahnlibrary.net/comics/awards/inkpot.php|archive-date= July 9, 2012|url-status= live|df=mdy-all}} He was posthumously inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1992{{cite web|url= http://www.harveyawards.org/previous-awards-nominees/1992-harvey-awards/|title= 1992 Harvey Awards|year= 2013|publisher= Harvey Awards|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131012221701/http://www.harveyawards.org/previous-awards-nominees/1992-harvey-awards/|archive-date= October 12, 2013|url-status= dead|df= mdy-all}} and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2000.{{cite news |url= http://www.comic-con.org/awards/hall-fame-awards?page=5|title= Will Eisner Hall of Fame|newspaper= Comic-Con International: San Diego|year= 2014|publisher= San Diego Comic-Con International|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140110110527/http://www.comic-con.org/awards/hall-fame-awards?page=5|archive-date= January 10, 2014|url-status= live|df=mdy-all}}

Bibliography

=Centaur Publications=

  • Comics Magazine #1 (1936)

=DC Comics=

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References

{{reflist|30em}}

External links

  • {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624083422/http://www.geocities.com/sm_scribbly/ |date=June 24, 2008 |title=Sheldon Mayer: Writer, Artist, Cartoonist, Editor and More }}
  • {{comicbookdb|type=creator|id= 433|title= Sheldon Mayer}}
  • [http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/creator.php?creatorid=22 Sheldon Mayer] at Mike's Amazing World of Comics
  • [http://toonopedia.com/scribbly.htm "Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist"] at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. [https://archive.today/20240528033525/https://www.webcitation.org/6pKtE6oI6?url=http://toonopedia.com/scribbly.htm Archived] from the original on March 29, 2017.

{{Inkpot Award 1970s}}

{{Justice Society of America |state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Sheldon}}

Category:1917 births

Category:1991 deaths

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:American comics artists

Category:American comics writers

Category:Artists from New York City

Category:American comic book editors

Category:Golden Age comics creators

Category:Inkpot Award winners

Category:Silver Age comics creators

Category:Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees

Category:Jewish American comics artists

Category:Jewish American comics writers

Category:Writers from New York City

Category:DC Comics people