Wayne Boring

Boring attended the Minnesota School of Art and the Chicago Art Institute. In 1937, he began "ghosting" (drawing for hire without credit) on such comic book features as Slam Bradley and Doctor Occult for the Jerry Siegel-Joe Shuster studio. In 1938, Siegel and Shuster's character Superman was published in Action Comics #1, for the DC Comics precursor National Allied Publications, and Boring became a ghost on the soon spun off Superman comic strip, eventually becoming the credited artist.{{cite web|url= http://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/boring_wayne.htm|title= Wayne Boring|date= June 12, 2009|publisher= Lambiek Comiclopedia|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111018122030/http://lambiek.net/artists/b/boring_wayne.htm|archive-date= October 18, 2011|url-status= live|df= mdy-all|access-date= October 18, 2011}}

In 1942, the by-then-named National Comics hired Boring as a staff artist,{{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 Superman Style Refining the Man of Steel|publisher = Bulfinch Press|year = 1995|location= New York, New York|page = 28|isbn = 0821220764|quote= The image of Superman that eventually became preeminent was Wayne Boring's. By 1942 the former assistant to Joe Shuster was working on his own for DC, turning out pencilled and inked pages for Action Comics and Superman.}} teaming him as penciler the following year with inker Stan Kaye. The two would work together for nearly 20 years during a period fans and historians call the Golden Age of comic books. In 1948, following Siegel and Shuster's departure from the company over a Superman rights lawsuit, Mort Weisinger, the editor of the Superman line, brought in Boring as well as Al Plastino and Curt Swan. During this mid-1940s period, he often signed his work for rival Novelty Press's Blue Bolt Comics as Jack Harmon.{{gcdb|type=credit|search= Jack+Harmon|title= Jack Harmon}}

File:Superboy v1 1.jpg #1 (March–April 1949). Cover art by Boring.]]

Boring's "Superman Covers Atom Bomb Test!" cover for Action Comics #101 (Oct. 1946) was an early example of nuclear weapons in popular culture.{{cite book|last=Wallace|first= Daniel|last2=Dolan|first2=Hannah, ed.|chapter= 1940s|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= 51|quote = A stunning cover by Wayne Boring heralded a tale that played on the conflicted post-war zeitgeist surrounding the use of nuclear weapons.}} A more detailed origin story for Superman by Boring and writer Bill Finger was presented in Superman #53 (July 1948) to mark the character's tenth anniversary.Wallace "1940s" in Dolan, p. 59: "Superman's origin was retold—and slightly revamped—for this special tenth anniversary issue...Writer Bill Finger and penciller Wayne Boring related how Joe-El failed to save Krypton and sent his son to Earth." Boring co-created the Fortress of Solitude in Action Comics #241 (June 1958) with writer Jerry ColemanIrvine, Alex "1950s" in Dolan, p. 91: "Superman's Fortress of Solitude was seen for the first time. The story 'The Super-Key to Fort Superman', by writer Jerry Coleman and artist Wayne Boring, revealed the secrets of the Fortress." and Bizarro World in Action Comics #263 (April 1960) with Otto Binder.McAvennie, Michael "1960s" in Dolan, p. 100: "Writer Otto Binder and artist Wayne Boring introduced an entire world filled with the backward beings, living amid foul, dilapidated conditions."

Boring was the primary Superman comic book penciller through the 1950s. Swan succeeded him the following decade,Daniels "The Superman Family Strength in Numbers", p. 118: "By 1961, Swan's new look would replace Wayne Boring's patriarchal version. Swan's Superman became definitive, and ultimately he would draw, as he says, 'more Superman stories than anybody else.'" though Boring returned for sporadic guest appearances in the early 1960s and then again in late 1966 and early 1967.{{gcdb|type=credit|search= Wayne+Boring|title= Wayne Boring}} One critic wrote of Boring's 1950s Superman art, "Comics legend Wayne Boring played a major role in visually defining the most well known super-hero in the world during the peak of Superman's popularity."{{cite web|last=Vance|first=Michael|url=http://www.starland.com/sus/2000/sus001213.htm|title=Comics Legend Wayne Boring|publisher="Suspended Animation" (column), Starland.com|date=December 13, 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628154641/http://starland.com/sus/2000/sus001213.htm|archive-date=June 28, 2011|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}} Another writer echoed, "Boring's bravura brushwork defined many of its key elements and made Superman look more powerful and imposing, now standing a heroic nine heads tall, and brought a fresh realism, a sleek sci-fi vision and a greater seriousness of tone."

Boring was let go from DC in 1967{{cite journal|last= Gravett|first= Paul|author-link= Paul Gravett|url= http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/articles/article/curt_swan/|title= Curt Swan: A Superman Walked Among Us|publisher= Comic Book Marketplace via PaulGravett.com|volume= 3|issue= 97|date= December 2002|access-date= March 28, 2009|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110717071106/http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/articles/article/curt_swan/|archive-date= July 17, 2011|url-status= live|df= mdy-all}} along with many other prominent writers and artists who had made demands for health and retirement benefits.{{cite journal|last= Barr|first= Mike W.|author-link= Mike W. Barr|title= The Madames & the Girls: The DC Writers Purge of 1968|journal= Comic Book Artist|issue= 5|publisher= TwoMorrows Publishing|date= Summer 1999|location= Raleigh, North Carolina}} From 1968 to 1972, Boring ghosted backgrounds for Hal Foster's Prince Valiant Sunday comic strip and took over the art on writer Sam Leff's 1961–71 United Feature Syndicate strip Davy Jones.{{cite web|last= Agena|first= Eric|url= http://www.comicstripfan.com/Newspaper/DavyJones/DavyJones.htm|title= Davy Jones, by Sam Leff and Al McWilliams|publisher= ComicStripFan.com|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101008192239/http://comicstripfan.com/newspaper/d/davyjones.htm|archive-date= October 8, 2010|url-status= live|df= mdy-all}} Afterward, Boring drew three issues of Marvel Comics' Captain Marvel, then left the field to semi-retire as a bank security guard, though he would continue to draw commissioned work.{{cite book| first= Michael | last=Eury |author-link = Michael Eury | title = The Krypton Companion |publisher = TwoMorrows Publishing|year= 2006|location= Raleigh, North Carolina|isbn = 978-1-893905-61-0|page= 18}} He briefly returned to DC to pencil some stories in All-Star Squadron Annual #3 (1984), Superman #402 (Dec. 1984), and Action Comics #561 and 572 (Nov. 1984 and Oct. 1985).

Boring died of a heart attack, following a brief comeback announced in one of his last published works, penciling a Golden Age Superman story written by Roy Thomas and inked by Jerry Ordway in Secret Origins vol. 2 #1 (April 1986).Manning, Matthew K. "1980s" in Dolan, p. 218: "The heroes of the DC Universe got a little more exposed thanks to the new ongoing effort Secret Origins, a title offering new interpretations to the backgrounds of some of comics' biggest icons. [Its] debut issue featur[ed] the origin of the first true super-hero – the Golden Age Superman – by writer Roy Thomas and illustrator Wayne Boring." His final work was All-Star Squadron #64 (Dec. 1986) a recreation of Superman #19.[http://www.comics.org/issue/42115/ All-Star Squadron #67] at the Grand Comics Database

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In 1985, DC Comics named Boring as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great.{{Cite comic|writer= Marx, Barry|cowriters= Cavalieri, Joey and Hill, Thomas|artist= Petruccio, Steven|editor= Marx, Barry|story= Wayne Boring Superman Remodeled|title= Fifty Who Made DC Great|date= 1985|publisher= DC Comics|page= 26}}

He was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2007.{{cite web|url= http://www.comic-con.org/awards/hall-fame-awards|title= Will Eisner Hall of Fame|publisher= San Diego Comic-Con International|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140329174828/http://comic-con.org/awards/hall-fame-awards|archive-date= March 29, 2014|url-status= live|df=mdy-all|access-date= May 17, 2014}}

Comics work (interior pencil art) includes:

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• Action Comics #35–36, 121, 132, 134, 137–138, 141–142, 144, 146–147, 150–152, 158–168, 171, 173–175, 178–182, 184, 186–188, 190–192, 194–196, 198–200, 202–204, 206–207, 209–211, 215–216, 218–219, 221, 223–227, 229–241, 243, 245–246, 248, 250, 257–258, 261–264, 266–268, 275–276, 342–344, 346, 348–353, 355–357, 561, 572 (1941–1967, 1984–1985)
• Adventure Comics #42–43, 285 (1939, 1961)
• All-Star Squadron #64, Annual #3 (1984–1986)
• Secret Origins vol. 2 #1 (Superman) (1986)
• Showcase #10 (Lois Lane) (1957)
• Silver Age 80-Page Giant #1 (2000)
• Superboy #7 (1950)
• Superman #5, 7–8, 10, 53–110, 112–115, 117, 119–122, 124–130, 132–136, 138–143, 150, 155, 189–190, 200, 229, 402 (1940–1970, 1984)
• Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #2, 4, 6–8, 10, 13 (1958–1959)
• Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #43 (1960)
• Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #12, 14, 18–19, 22 (1986)
• World's Finest Comics #14, 35–38, 44–46, 48, 50, 52–53, 59, 62–63, 65, 68–69, 181 (1944–1968)

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• Astonishing #4 (1951)
• Captain Marvel #22–24 (1972–1973)
• Creatures on the Loose #19 (Gullivar Jones, Warrior of Mars) (with Gil Kane) (1972)
• Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #16, 19 (1987)
• Thor #280 (1979)

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• {{cite web|url= http://www.wayneboring.com/|title= Wayne Boring|publisher= (fan site)|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110907062802/http://www.wayneboring.com/|archive-date= September 7, 2011|url-status= dead}}
• {{comicbookdb|type=creator|id=1639|title=Wayne Boring}}
• [http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/creator.php?creatorid=60 Wayne Boring] at Mike's Amazing World of Comics
• [http://www.maelmill-insi.de/UHBMCC/namb24.htm#N1678 Wayne Boring] at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators

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{{succession box|title= Superman penciller|before= Win Mortimer|after= Curt Swan|years= 1948–1967}}

{{succession box|title= Action Comics penciller|before= Al Plastino|after= Curt Swan|years= 1949–1961}}

{{succession box|title= Action Comics penciller|before= Al Plastino|after= Curt Swan|years= 1966–1967}}

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Category:1905 births

Category:1987 deaths

Category:20th-century American artists

Category:American comics artists

Category:Artists from Minnesota

Category:DC Comics people

Category:Golden Age comics creators

Category:Minneapolis College of Art and Design alumni

Category:Artists from Ridgefield, Connecticut

Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni

Category:Silver Age comics creators

Category:Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees