{{Short description|American comic book artist (1916–1967)}} {{Other people|Robert Powell}} {{Infobox comics creator | image = | caption = | alt = | birth_name = Stanley Robert Pawlowski | birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|10|02}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death-date and age|December 1967|2 October 1916}} | death_place = Huntington, New York, U.S. | cartoonist = | write = | art = y | pencil = | ink = | edit = | publish = | letter = | color = | alias = | signature = | signature_alt = | notable works = | awards = | website = }} '''Bob Powell''' (né '''Stanley Robert Pawlowski''';<ref name="bails">{{cite web|author-link=Jerry Bails|last=Bails|first= Jerry|author2=Hames Ware | url = http://www.bailsprojects.com/bio.aspx?Name=POWELL%2c+BOB | title= Powell, Bob | work = Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999| accessdate = September 11, 2013}}<br /><br /> While {{cite book | last = Ro | first = Ronin | title = Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution | publisher = Bloomsbury USA | year = 2004 |isbn= 1-58234-345-4 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=CFhbqswztWkC&dq=bob+powell+stanislav&pg=PA4 4]}} gives '''Stanislav Pavlowsky''', and {{cite book | title = Will Eisner: A Dreamer's Life in Comics | first=Michael | last = Schumacher | publisher = Bloomsbury USA | year = 2010 | isbn =978-1608190133 | page = [https://archive.org/details/willeisnerdreame0000schu/page/42 <!-- quote=bob powell stanislav. --> 42]}} gives '''Stanislav Pavlowsky''', Bails and Ware note: "family name corrected by his son, Seth R. Powell July 2006."</ref> October 6, 1916<ref name="ssdi">[http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/ssdi/doc/ssdi/v1:112CC2A50E0E58BF Robert Powell] at the Social Security Death Index via GenealogyBank.com. Retrieved on September 23, 2012. [http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/ssdi/doc/ssdi/v1:112CC2A50E0E58BF Archived] from the original on September 23, 2012. Note: [http://www.lambiek.net/artists/p/powell_bob.htm Bob Powell] at the Lambiek Comiclopedia erroneously gives death date as Oct. 1, 1967.</ref> – October 1, 1967)<ref name="ssdi" /> was an American comic book artist known for his work during the 1930–1940s Golden Age of comic books, including on the features "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle" and "Mr. Mystic". He received a belated credit in 1999 for co-writing the debut of the popular feature "Blackhawk". Powell also did the pencil art for the bubble gum trading card series ''Mars Attacks''. He officially changed his name to '''S. Robert Powell''' in 1943.
==Biography== ===Early life and career=== Raised in Buffalo, New York,<ref name="Will Eisner Conversation p146">{{cite magazine|title=Night of the Paper Noir|first=Peter|last=DePree|magazine=Comic Book Marketplace|issue=38–39|date=August–September 1996|publisher=Gemstone Publishing}} Reprinted in {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s2F6SKOBj_0C&q=bob+powell+cartoonist+buffalo&pg=PA146|title=Will Eisner: Conversations|page=146|editor-first=M. Thomas|editor-last=Inge| publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year= 2011|isbn=978-1617031274}} Joe Simon: "Bob was from Buffalo."</ref> Bob Powell in the 1930s moved to Manhattan, New York City, where he studied art at Pratt Institute.<ref name="lam" /> Like many comics artists of the time, he found work at Eisner & Iger, one of the most prominent "packagers" who supplied complete comic books to publishers testing the emerging medium. Powell's first published comic-book art is tentatively identified as the uncredited three-page story "A Letter of Introduction", featuring the famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, in Fiction House's ''Jumbo Comics'' #2 (Oct. 1938). Another of his earliest works, under the pseudonym '''Arthur Dean''', was penciling the adventure feature "Dr. Fung" in Fox Feature Syndicate's ''Wonder Comics'' #1 (May 1939) and subsequently.<ref name="gcd">[http://www.comics.org/credit/name/Bob%20Powell/sort/chrono/ Bob Powell] at the Grand Comics Database</ref>
Powell also did early work for Fox's ''Wonderworld Comics'' and ''Mystery Men Comics''; Fiction House's ''Planet Comics'', where his strips included "Gale Allen and the Women's Space Battalion";<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nevins |first1=Jess |title=Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes |date=2013 |publisher=High Rock Press |isbn=978-1-61318-023-5 |page=9}}</ref> Harvey Comics' ''Speed Comics'', for which he wrote and drew the feature "Ted Parrish", (pencilling at least once under the pseudonym '''Bob Stanley'''); Timely Comics' one-shot ''Tough Kid Squad Comics''; Quality Comics' ''Crack Comics'' (where he pencilled as '''Terence McAully'''), ''Hit Comics'' (as '''Stanley Charlot'''), ''Military Comics'' (where he signed his pencils for the "Loops and Banks" aviation strip as '''Bud Ernest'''), ''Smash Comics'' (as '''Powell Roberts'''), and ''Feature Comics''.<ref name="gcd" /> Other pseudonyms included '''Rex Smith''' and '''W. Morgan Thomas''',<ref name="gcd" /> as well as '''Buck Stanley''', '''S. T. Anley''', and '''Major Ralston'''.<ref name="lam">[http://www.lambiek.net/artists/p/powell_bob.htm Bob Powell] at the Lambiek Comiclopedia. {{Cite web |url=http://www.lambiek.net/artists/p/powell_bob.htm |title=Bob Powell |access-date=December 25, 2005 |archive-date=July 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726154542/http://www.lambiek.net/artists/p/powell_bob.htm |url-status=bot: unknown }}.</ref>
===Sheena and superheroes=== thumb|Art by Powell on the cover of ''Man in Black'' #4 (March 1958). As part of the Eisner & Iger studio, Powell drew many of the earliest adventures of the jungle-queen Sheena in ''Jumbo Comics''.<ref name="gcd" /> Later, after Will Eisner split off to form his own studio in an arrangement with Quality publisher Everett M. "Busy" Arnold — bringing Powell, Nick Cardy, Chuck Cuidera, Lou Fine and others with him — Powell pitched in to co-write the premiere of "Blackhawk," created by Eisner and Cuidera, in ''Military Comics'' #1 (Aug. 1941). Powell remained uncredited until Eisner and Cuidera, in a 1999 panel, discussed his contribution.<ref name="pov">{{cite web |author-link=Mark Evanier |last=Evanier |first=Mark |url=http://povonline.com/cols/COL306.htm |title=Blackhawk, Part 2 |publisher=(transcript, Part 2, of 1999 Comic-Con International panel with Chuck Cuidera and Will Eisner), P.O.V. Online |date=September 8, 2000 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101217065650/http://povonline.com/cols/COL306.htm |archivedate=December 17, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Eisner in 2005 recalled his studio as "a friendly shop, and I guess I was the same age as the youngest guys there. We all got along. The only ones who ever got into a hassle were George Tuska and Bob Powell. Powell was kind of a wiseguy and made remarks about other people in the shop. One day, George had enough of it, got up, and punched out Bob Powell".<ref>{{cite news|title=Will Eisner Interview | work=Alter Ego | issue= 48 |date=May 2005 | page= 21}}</ref> Eisner on another occasion said his partnership with Everett M. "Busy" Arnold created tensions when Arnold wanted to hire Powell separately: {{Quote|...Arnold had his own line of books, and we were sometimes competitors. He offered Bob Powell an increase on what I was paying him for working on "The Spirit Section", and Bob came to me and said, "I can make more with your partners." I called up Arnold and said, "You want a lawsuit?" Arnold apologized but Powell got very angry, and he said, "You ruined my career! You cut me off." I said, "Well, you want to quit me, and go down the street and work for someone else...well, all right. But you're not going to work for my partner while I'm around." Anyway, we settled it. When I went into the service ... I got a letter from Bob Powell that said, "Well, now that you're in the Army, you might get killed. I want to tell you that I forgive you."<ref name="pov" />}}
Artist Nick Cardy, a colleague at the Eisner studio, said Powell "came in later when I was doing [the 'Spirit Section' feature] 'Lady Luck'. He was sitting behind me. He would help a kid around the block — tell a newcomer to take it easy and that sort of thing".<ref name="2morrows">{{cite news |url=http://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/05cardy.html |title=Spotlight on Nick Cardy: The 1998 San Diego ComiCon Panel Transcript |work=Comic Book Artist |issue=5 |date=Summer 1999 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514004444/http://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/05cardy.html |archivedate=May 14, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Powell became particularly known for his "good girl art" in Magazine Enterprises' ''Cave Girl'', and in Fiction House's ''Jungle Comics'', where he worked on early Sheena stories and later on the zebra-bikini'd jungle adventuress Camilla.<ref name="gcd" />
In the realm of superhero comics, Powell co-created the patriotic character personifying the Spirit of '76, in Harvey's ''Pocket Comics'' #1 (Aug. 1941). It would become a long-running feature in Harvey's ''Green Hornet Comics''. Powell also penciled a Golden Age Captain America story, "The Sorcerer's Sinister Secret", in Timely's ''All Winners Comics'' #4 (Spring 1942), and pencilled a chapter of the historic ''All Winners Comics'' #19 (Fall 1946).<ref name="gcd" /> He drew the backup feature "Mr. Mystic" in Eisner's "The Spirit Section", a 16-page comic-book insert for Sunday newspapers, from the feature's inception in 1940 until Powell entered the U.S. Army Air Forces for his World War II military service in 1943,<ref>[http://www.toonopedia.com/mrmystic.htm Mr. Mystic] at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. [https://archive.today/20240525134723/https://www.webcitation.org/62hcanjLz?url=http://www.toonopedia.com/mrmystic.htm Archived] October 25, 2011.</ref> the same year he officially changed his name to '''S. Robert Powell'''.<ref name="lam" />
As comics historian and critic Tom Heintjes wrote, {{Quote|After ''The Spirit'', perhaps the best drawn feature in the section was Powell's 'Mr. Mystic'. Eisner created Mr. Mystic by retooling his Yarko the Great, which had been syndicated overseas. After running through Eisner's scripts, Powell wrote and drew the feature until he was drafted a couple of years later. (A very good artist, Powell was a journeyman writer who tried but never managed to sell Eisner on some ''Spirit'' scripts, a situation that rankled Powell for some time.) 'Mr. Mystic' was cut from the Sunday section's lineup in 1944, by which time Fred Guardineer was handling its production.<ref name="Heintjes">{{cite news | last = Heintjes | first = Tom | url = http://www.adventurestrips.com/spirit/spirit_origin_heintjes_4.html | title = The Spirit: Writing the Rules | work = The Spirit: The Origin Years | issue=4 |publisher = Kitchen Sink Press via AdventureStrips.com | date= November 1992 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080516184742/http://www.adventurestrips.com/spirit/spirit_origin_heintjes_4.html | archivedate= May 16, 2008}}</ref>}}
===Post-war Powell=== [[File:CaveGirl1.jpg|thumb|''Cave Girl'' #1 (1988), AC Comics' reprint of Magazine Enterprises' ''Cave Girl'' #11 (1954). Cover art by Powell.]] Following his discharge, Powell formed his own studio and drew for numerous comic-book publishers. His work in the 1950s included features and covers for Street and Smith's ''Shadow Comics''; Magazine Enterprises' ''Bobby Benson's B-Bar-B Riders'', based on the children's television series, and all four issues of that publisher's ''Strong Man''; and, for Harvey Comics, many war, romance, and horror stories, as well as work for the comics ''Man in Black'', ''Adventures in 3-D'' and ''True 3-D''.<ref name="gcd" />
Howard Nostrand, who joined as one of Powell's assistants in 1948, recalled working alongside fellow assistants "George Siefringer, who [drew] backgrounds [and] Martin Epp, who inked, lettered and helped George on backgrounds. I started out inking and then got into doing backgrounds ... and then penciling."<ref name="nostrand18">{{cite news| author-link=Howard Nostrand | first = Howard | last= Nostrand | title =Nostrand by Nostrand| work = Graphic Story Magazine | issue = 16 |date= Summer 1974 | page= 18}}</ref> Features on which they worked during this period included "Red Hawk" in Magazine Enterprises' ''Straight Arrow''; and, for Fawcett Comics, work in ''Hot Rod Comics'', an adaptation of the film ''The Red Badge of Courage'', and "a couple of Westerns" including the movie-spinoff feature "Lash LaRue".<ref name="nostrand18" />
In 1961, Powell became art director for the satirical magazine ''Sick'', working there until his death. On a freelance basis, he worked on Topps' 1962 ''Mars Attacks'' trading cards, doing the final pencil art based on early pencils roughs by Wally Wood; Norman Saunders then did the final painted art. Powell had previously worked with Saunders and others on Topps' 1961 ''Civil War News'' series of cards.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.normansaunders.com/ToppsList.html |title=Topps Card Checklist |publisher=NormanSaunders.com |accessdate=September 18, 2012 |archivedate=July 16, 2012 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716232048/http://www.normansaunders.com/ToppsList.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
During this 1960s period that fans and historians call the Silver Age of comic books, Powell also drew a handful of stories for Marvel Comics featuring the superheroes Daredevil, Giant-Man, the Hulk and the Human Torch.<ref name="gcd" />
As commentator and columnist Fred Hembeck described Powell's brief tenure at Marvel, {{Quote|Powell bowed with what was then only the latest — but not last — Giant-Man revamp in ''Tales to Astonish'' #65 (March 1965), and was in charge of the exceedingly disappointing meeting between the Human Torch, the Thing, and the Beatles (''Strange Tales'' #130, also March 1965). In all, the former Eisner associate would pencil the final five [Giant-Man] plots (working over [[Jack Kirby|[Jack] Kirby]]'s layouts on the last four), also pencil the last five Torch/Thing duo deals ... did layouts for Wally Wood's last three ''Daredevil'' issues ... and would wind up his days at Marvel pencilling two Hulk stories (''Tales To Astonish'' #73 and #74, November and December 1965, both over Kirby breakdowns — one inked by himself, and the second by Mike Esposito).<ref>{{cite web |author-link=Fred Hembeck |last=Hembeck |first=Fred |url=http://comics.ign.com/articles/607/607335p1.html |title=Episode 7: Case of the Missing Marvelite |publisher=The Fred Hembeck Show (column), IGN.com |date=April 26, 2005 |accessdate=January 14, 2011 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100925215722/http://comics.ign.com/articles/607/607335p1.html |archivedate=September 25, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}
In comic strips, Powell drew writer Bessie Little's short-lived ''Teena-a-Go-Go'' (1966)<ref name="comicstrip" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2007/11/obscurity-of-day-teena-go-go.html |title=Obscurity of the Day: Teena A Go Go |first=Allan |last=Holtz |publisher=Stripper's Guide |date=November 14, 2007 |accessdate=September 18, 2012 |archivedate=September 19, 2012 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120919010450/http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2007/11/obscurity-of-day-teena-go-go.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and the similarly short-lived ''Bat Masterson'' strip (1959–1960).<ref name="comicstrip">{{cite web |url= http://www.bpib.com/comicsproj/biogP.html| title= Bob Powell|publisher= (entry) The Comic Strip Project, "Who's Who of Comic Strip Producers"|editor-first1= Paul|editor-last1= Leiffer|editor-first2= Hames|editor-last2= Ware|accessdate= September 18, 2012| archivedate= June 9, 2011|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20110609013317/http://www.bpib.com/comicsproj/biogP.html|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
Sources differ on the date of Powell's death. The Social Security Death Index confirms his birth date as October 2, 1916, but gives his death date only as December 1967.<ref name="ssdi" /> A standard reference source, the Lambiek Comiclopedia, gives a birth date (October 6, 1916) at odds with the U.S. government record, and a death date of October 1, 1967.<ref name="lam" />
== Legacy == Some Powell’s work has been reprinted and collected, beginning with full comic-book reproductions by Bill Black’s AC Comics. In 2011, Yoe Books released ''Bob Powell’s Terror''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://yoebooks.com/horror-books/9-bob-powell-s-terror.html|title=Bob Powell's Terror|publisher=Yoe Books|access-date=2020-02-06}}</ref> In 2014, Kitchen Sink Books and Dark Horse released ''The Complete Bob Powell's Cave Girl'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/23-405/Bob-Powell-s-Complete-Cave-Girl-HC|title=Bob Powell's Complete Cave Girl |publisher=Dark Horse Comics|access-date=2020-02-06}}</ref> followed in 2015 by ''The Complete Bob Powell's Jet Powers''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/31621/bob-powells-complete-jet-powers-hardcover|title='Bob Powell's Complete Jet Powers' Hardcover|publisher=ICV2|language=en|access-date=2020-02-06}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist | 2}}
==External links== *[http://www.wildwoodcemetery.com/creators.shtml "Bob Powell"] at Wildwood Cemetery: The Spirit Database. Accessed January 15, 2010. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101031191200/http://www.wildwoodcemetery.com/creators.shtml WebCitation archive]. *{{cite web|url=http://members.tripod.com/originalvigilante/mrmystic.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20060629073115/http://members.tripod.com/originalvigilante/mrmystic.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2006-06-29 |title=Mr. Mystic|publisher=(fan site)}} *[http://www.samuelsdesign.com/comics/pages/goodgirl-romance/tasexclub.htm Classic Good Girl & Romance Covers: "I Joined a Teen-Age Sex Club", ''First Love Illustrated'' #13, 1951] (original art by Powell and inker Howard Nostrand). [https://web.archive.org/web/20100813095834/http://www.samuelsdesign.com/comics/pages/goodgirl-romance/tasexclub.htm WebCitation archive]. *{{cite web | archivedate=December 27, 2008 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20081227121458/http://www.marsattacksfan.com/showcase.htm |title=Martian Art | publisher = Zelda's Mars Attacks Home Page (fan site) | date= July 16, 2006| url = http://www.marsattacksfan.com/showcase.htm }} Includes unused Powell ''Mars Attacks'' sketch.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Bob}} Category:1916 births Category:1967 deaths Category:American comic strip cartoonists Category:Golden Age comics creators Category:Marvel Comics people Category:Pseudonymous comics artists Category:Silver Age comics creators