{{Short description|Comic book artist}}{{Infobox comics creator | image = File:Arthur Peddy.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Peddy during World War II | alt = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|12|26}} | birth_place = | death_date={{Death date and age|2002|05|15|1916|12|26}} | death_place = Norwalk, Connecticut, US | nationality = American | area = | cartoonist = | write = | art = | pencil = x | ink = x | edit = | publish = | letter = | color = | alias = Kenneth Julian | signature = <!-- very optional --> | signature_alt = | notable works = Phantom Lady<br/>Jann of the Jungle<br/>Justice Society of America<br/>Heap | awards = | website = }} '''Arthur F. Peddy'''<ref name=lam>[https://www.lambiek.net/artists/p/peddy_arthur.htm Arthur Peddy] at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160407230739/https://www.lambiek.net/artists/p/peddy_arthur.htm Archived] from the original on April 7, 2016.</ref> (December 26, 1916 – May 15, 2002)<ref name=alterego132p31>{{cite news| title= Remembering Arthur Peddy: A Talk with the Godlen Age Artist's Stepson, Michael Posner| first= Richard J.|last=Arndt| page=31|work=Alter Ego|issue=152| date=May 2015| publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing}} First two pages [https://issuu.com/twomorrows/docs/alterego132preview online].</ref><ref name=ssdi>[https://familysearch.org/search/collection/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3AArthur~%20%2Bsurname%3APeddy~%20%2Bbirth_year%3A1916-1916~&collection_id=1202535 Arthur F. Peddy] at the U.S. Social Security Death Index via FamilySearch.com. Retrieved on March 10, 2017. Click on subject's name for full record with birthplace.</ref> was an American comic book and advertising artist best known for co-creating Quality Comics' superhero character Phantom Lady and Atlas Comics' jungle girl character Jann of the Jungle. He also was known for a stint as penciler of the superhero team the Justice Society of America for what later became DC Comics.

Peddy began his art career during the late-1930s and 1940s that period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books and remained active in the medium into the 1970s, when he began concentrating on commercial art and advertising.

Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's 1965 painting ''Sound of Music'' is based on a Peddy comic-book panel.

==Early life and career== Arthur Peddy entered the fledgling comic book field in 1938 at Eisner & Iger, one of a handful of "packagers" that would produce outsourced comics on demand for publishers experimenting with the new medium, and continued there after Eisner departed in 1940 and it became the S. M. Iger Studio.<ref name=bails /> Peddy's first known comic-book work was the four-page Western feature "Waco Kid" in publisher Fox Comics' ''Mystery Men Comics'' #1 (cover-dated Aug. 1939). For that publisher as well as for Fiction House and Quality Comics, he drew seafaring stories, jungle adventures, science-fiction stories and other genre tales. With writer Toni Blum. he shared the pen name '''Lance Blackwood''' on at least one story starring Merlin the Magician, a descendant of Arthurian Merlin, in Quality's ''National Comics'' #8 (Feb. 1941). On his own he initially used the pseudonym '''Kenneth Julian''' for the police feature "Rookie Rankin" in Quality's ''Smash Comics'' before reverting to his real name.<ref name=gcd>[https://www.comics.org/credit/name/Peddy/sort/chrono/ Arthur Peddy] and [https://www.comics.org/credit/name/Art%20Peddy/sort/chrono/ Art Peddy] at the Grand Comics Database.</ref>

With an unknown writer, Peddy co-created the female superhero Phantom Lady in Quality's ''Police Comics'' #1 (Aug. 1941) and continued to draw her adventures through issue #13 (Nov. 1942).<ref name=gcd /><ref>[http://www.toonopedia.com/phanlady.htm Phantom Lady] at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. [https://archive.today/20150414052127/http://toonopedia.com/phanlady.htm Archived] from the original on March 10, 2017.</ref>

Peddy enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, during World War II, serving in the Signal Corps with what his stepson in 2014<!--interview conducted in 2014, published in 2015--> recalled as the 530th 63rd Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion, Company B, 19th Tactical Command, 9th Air Force, throughout the European Theater of Operations through 1945, rising to the rank of technical sergeant.<ref name=alterego-p32>Posner in Arndt, p. 32.</ref> His comics work, perhaps stockpiled, continued to appear in Quality and Fiction House comic books through at least cover-date August 1943.<ref name=gcd />

==Postwar through 1960s== After the war, for Hillman Periodicals, Peddy had runs penciling the aviator hero Airboy and the muck-monster the Heap variously from 1946 to 1948.<ref name=gcd /><ref>"Arthur Peddy Checklist" in Arndt, p. 42.</ref>

In 1947, Peddy additionally began penciling for All-American Publications, one of the companies that would evolve into DC Comics. With inker Bernie Sachslate,<ref name=bails-esposito> {{cite web|authorlink=Jerry Bails |last1=Bails |first1=Jerry |first2=Hames |last2=Ware |url=http://www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=ESPOSITO%2c+MIKE |title=Esposito, Mike |access-date=June 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070511073307/http://www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=ESPOSITO%2C+MIKE |archive-date=May 11, 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref> generally credited as Bernie Sachs, he formed the Peddy and Sachs Studio, which lasted through 1953 and included inker Jack Abel for a time.<ref>Bails, Ware, ''Who's Who'', "[http://www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=PEDDY+AND+SACHS+STUDIO Peddy and Sachs Studio].</ref> Features on which they worked include the superhero adventure "Dr. Mid-Nite", the swashbuckler "The Black Pirate" and the aviator feature "Hop Harrigan", all in the flagship title ''All-American Comics'', and the superhero feature "Wildcat" in ''Sensation Comics''. Peddy penciled a run of the superhero team the Justice Society of America in ''All-Star Comics'' #42-57 (Sept. 1948 – March 1951).<ref name=gcd /><ref>"Arthur Peddy Checklist" in Arndt, p. 41.</ref> Starting in 1951, he worked primarily for Fawcett Comics and Ziff-Davis for two years, followed by a plethora of publishers including Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursor of Marvel Comics, as well as St. John Publications, Avon Comics and others.<ref name=gcd />

Peddy and fellow comics artists George Evans and Edd <!--"Edd" is correct--> Ashe, spearheaded by comics artist Bernard Krigstein, were among the founders of the industry's short-lived attempt at a labor union in 1952, The Society of Comic Book Illustrators. Peddy served as vice president under Krigstein, with Harry Harrison as secretary, Larry Woromay as treasurer, and Ross Andru, Ernie Bache, John Celardo, Morrie Marcus and Bernard Sachs as members-at-large. The organization went defunct shortly after publication of its third and final newsletter in June 1953.<ref>{{cite book| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=J1t8g_yX1wcC&q=%22arthur+Peddy%22&pg=PA178| title=Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books |first1= Jean-Paul |last1=Gabilliet |first2=Bart (translator)| last2=Beaty |first3= Nick (translator)|last3= Nguyen |publisher=University Press of Mississippi| year=2009|isbn= 978-1604732672|pages=177–179}}</ref>

The following year, Peddy and writer Don Rico created Atlas' jungle girl character Jann of the Jungle in ''Jungle Tales'' #1 (Sept. 1954).<ref>[https://www.comics.org/issue/11556/#99507 ''Jungle Tales'' #1] at the Grand Comics Database. Note: Prior to confirmation appearing in ''Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Jungle Adventure'' Volume 2 (Marvel, 2011) {{ISBN|978-0785150121}}, some reference sources had credited artist Jay Scott Pike</ref> He was among several comic-book artists who contributed to the short-lived, black-and-white, satiric-humor magazine ''Lunatickle'', published by Whitestone Publishing and edited by Myron Fass, in 1956,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jAMmDAAAQBAJ&q=%22arthur+peddy%22&pg=PA330 | title=Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor in America|authorlink= Bill Schelly |first=Bill |last=Schelly | publisher=Fantagraphics Books | location =Seattle, Washington| year= 2015|isbn=978-1606997611|page=330}}</ref> but otherwise continued to pencil standard color comics across a number of genres. He gradually specialized in war comics and romance comics for publisher DC Comics through 1957, and thereafter drew almost exclusively romance comics for DC's ''Falling in Love'', ''Girls' Romances'', ''Heart Throbs'' and ''Secret Hearts'' through at least 1968. His romance work continued on in reprints into the mid-1970s.<ref name=gcd />

==Commercial and advertising art== Throughout the 1960s, Peddy began adding commercial and advertising art to his workload, primarily storyboards for television commercials, for products including Campbell Soup, Chevron, Hills Bros. Coffee, Pepsi, Pine Sol, Burger King. Quaker Oats, and DuPont.<ref>Posner in Arndt, p. 37.</ref> From 1970 to 1979, he worked for the advertising firm BBDO.<ref name=bails>{{cite web |authorlink=Jerry Bails |editor-last1=Bails |editor-first1=Jerry |editor-first2=Hames |editor-last2=Ware |url=http://www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=PEDDY%2c+ART |title=Art Peddy |work=Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312053725/http://www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=PEDDY%2c+ART |archive-date=March 12, 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=March 10, 2017 }}</ref>

==Personal life== Peddy married the widowed Joanne Posner in April 1987, becoming stepfather to her sons Michael and Bruce Posner.<ref>Arndt, pp. 31-32.</ref>

He died May 15, 2002, in Norwalk, Fairfield County, Connecticut.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://crestleaf.com/p/50ba98d9651a69e4d4546dc8/arthur-f-peddy |title=Arthur F. Peddy|publisher= Crestleaf.com|access-date= March 10, 2017|archive-date=March 12, 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170312053549/http://crestleaf.com/p/50ba98d9651a69e4d4546dc8/arthur-f-peddy|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Legacy== Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's 1965 painting ''Sound of Music'' is based on a Peddy comic-book panel.<ref>{{cite web|title=Arthur Peddy |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/deconstructing-roy-lichtenstein/40837883 |publisher=Deconstructing Lichtenstein |first=David |last=Barsalou |date=2000 |archive-date=March 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170310050249/https://www.flickr.com/photos/deconstructing-roy-lichtenstein/40837883 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imageduplicator.com/main.php?decade=60&year=64&work_id=247# |title=''Sound of Music'' |publisher=The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation |access-date=March 10, 2017 |archive-date=July 12, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160712111023/http://imageduplicator.com/main.php?decade=60&year=64&work_id=247%23 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20130517102427/http://arthurpeddy.com/ Arthur Peddy official website]. Archived from [http://arthurpeddy.com/ the original] on May 17, 2013. *[http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID=3469 "Arthur F. 'Art' Peddy"] at ComicBookDb *{{cite web|url=http://comics.lib.msu.edu/rri/prri/peb.htm#peddy |title=Peddy, Arthur F., 1916-| publisher=Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection, Michigan State University Libraries |access-date=March 10, 2017| archive-date= March 5, 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305014327/http://comics.lib.msu.edu/rri/prri/peb.htm | url-status=live}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peddy, Arthur}} Category:American comics artists Category:Golden Age comics creators Category:1916 births Category:2002 deaths