Collection: Gil Kane (1926-2000) Artist Biography and Art Gallery Collection

Gil Kane born Eli Katz on April 6, 1926 in Latvia was an American Comic Book Artist Legend who worked through the Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper and Modern Ages of Comics. The creator of Hal Jordan, Iron Fist, Abin Sur, Atom, Guy Gardner and Sinestro to name a few whose career spanned the 1940's to the 1990's where he worked at every major comics company and on almost every character. Gil Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and co-created Iron Fist with Roy Thomas for Marvel Comics. He was involved in such major story lines as that of The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98, which, at the request of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, bucked the then prevalent Comics Code Authority to depict drug abuse, and ultimately spurred an update of the Code. He additionally pioneered an early graphic novel prototype, His Name is...Savage, in 1968, and a seminal graphic novel, Blackmark, in 1971. In 1997, Gil Kane was inducted into both the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame and the Harvey Award Jack Kirby Hall of Fame.

Gil Kane's earliest known credit is inking Carl Hubbell on the six-page Scarlet Avenger superhero story "The Counterfeit Money Code" in MLJ's Zip Comics #14 (1941), on which he signed the name "Gil Kane". Other early credits include some issues of the company's Pep Comics, sometimes under pseudonyms including Stack Til and Stacktil, and, in conjunction with artist Pen Shumaker, Pen Star. He used his birth name on rare occasions, including on at least one story each in the Temerson / Helnit / Continental publishing group's Terrific Comics and Cat-Man Comics. In 1944 he did his first work for the future Marvel Comics, as one of two inkers on the 28-page "The Spawn of Death" in the wartime kid-gang comic Young Allies #11 (1944), and the future DC Comics, as the ghost artist for Jack Kirby on the Sandman superhero story "Courage a la Carte" in Adventure Comics #91 (1944). After serving 19 months in the Armed Forces, All-American Publications editor Sheldon Mayer hired him in 1947, for a stint that lasted six months. He contributed again to the "Sandman" feature in Adventure Comics and, as penciler Gil Stack and inker Phil Martel, to the "Wildcat" feature in Sensation Comics. Around this time, he worked with director Garson Kanin when he was involved in TV, drawing storyboards. In 1949, Kane began a longtime professional relationship with Julius Schwartz, an editor at National Comics, the future DC Comics.

Gil Kane drew stories for several DC series in the 1950's including All-Star Western and The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog. In the late 1950's, freelancing for DC Comics precursor National Comics, Kane illustrated works in what fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books, creating character designs for the modern-day version of the 1940's superhero Green Lantern, for which he pencilled most of the first 75 issues of the reimagined character's comic. Kane and writer John Broome's stories for the Green Lantern series included transforming Hal Jordan's love interest, Carol Ferris, into the Star Sapphire in issue #16. Black Hand, a character featured prominently in the "Blackest Night" storyline in 2009-2010, debuted in issue #29 (1964) by Broome and Kane. The creative team created Guy Gardner in the story "Earth's Other Green Lantern!" in issue #59 (1968). With writer Roy Thomas, Kane helped revise the Marvel Comics version of Captain Marvel, and revamped a preexisting character as Adam Warlock. Kane and Thomas co-created the martial arts superhero Iron Fist, and Morbius the Living Vampire. Kane and writer Gerry Conway transformed John Jameson, an incidental character in The Amazing Spider-Man series, into the Man-Wolf.

During the 1970's and 1980's, Gil Kane did character designs for various Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears animated TV series including The Centurions which he co-created with Jack Kirby. In 1974 he contributed to redesigning the obscure Marvel Comics character the Cat into Tigra, and three years later created the newspaper daily comic strip Star Hawks with writer Ron Goulart. The strip, which ran through 1981, was known for its experimental use of a two-tier format during the first years. During this decade he also illustrated paperback and record-album covers, drew model box art, and co-wrote, with John Jakes, the 1980 novel Excalibur! He drew the John Carter, Warlord of Mars series for Marvel beginning in June 1977.

Gil Kane drew for publishers including Topps Comics, for which he illustrated a miniseries adaptation of the film Jurassic Park; Malibu Comics, for which he and writer Steven Grant created the superhero Edge for a 1994-95 miniseries; Awesome Entertainment, in which he illustrated Alan Moore's four-page Kid Thunder story "Judgment Day: 1868" in Judgment Day Alpha #1 (1997); and DC, for which he drew several Superman stories. He was one of the many creators who contributed to the Superman: The Wedding Album one-shot wherein the title character married Lois Lane. He and his former apprentice Howard Chaykin worked together again on a three-part story for Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #24-26 (1991-1992) and the Superman: Distant Fires one-shot (1998).Kane collaborated with writer Mark Waid on The Life Story of the Flash graphic novel. He designed the set of the 1997 Santa Monica Playhouse production of the play Lovely!.

Though Gil Kane's last full comic during his lifetime was Awesome's 40-page Judgment Day: Aftermath #1 (1998) — written by Moore and featuring the characters and teams Glory, Spacehunter, Youngblood and others in individual tales — his final narrative works, all for DC, were penciling the two-page "Antibiotics: The Killers That Save Lives" in Celebrate the Century: Super Heroes Stamp Album #5 (1999); portions of seven pages and the cover, all shared with humor artist Sergio Aragonés, of DC's Fanboy #2 (1999); and a two-page pastiche of 1970's Hostess Fruit Pie superhero ads, "The Star Sheriffs", in Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins #2 (Sept. 1999). His last published comics art during his lifetime was a one-page illustration in Dark Horse Comics' Sin City: Hell and Back #4 (1999) He remained active as an artist until his death on January 31, 2000, in Miami, Florida from complications of lymphoma. The Artwork of Gil Kane is currently credited in 1,931 separate Comic Book issues.