HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CARMINE INFANTINO!
Happy Birthday Carmine!
Here at RoboPicto Comics we like to Celebrate the Legends of the industry, the reason we can do what we do. Carmine would have been 99 years young today. He sadly passed away in 2013.
USA COMICS #3, First Infantino Published Work!
Born and raised in New York City, he was a true Titan of the industry. His first published work was inking Frank Giacoia on the Jack Frost story in USA #3, he was only 16 years old! From that story Editor Joe Simon offered both Giacoia & Infantino staff jobs, Giacoia quit school and started working. However, Infantino told his dad how great of an opportunity this was but his dad insisted that school comes first and if he did well in school the jobs would come. Infantino made the right call, finished school and had an incredible career which lasted nearly 8 decades.
In the 40s Carmine worked for a wide variety of publishers including Timely, Fawcett, Holyoke, & DC. His first published work with DC was Flash #86 where he introduced Black Canary with writer Robert Kanigher. His first Flash work came in All-Flash #31, a character he would help revive in the later 50s. After the downfall of superheroes in the late 40s, Infantino started working for Joe Simon & Jack Kirby at Prize Publications, drawing everyone's favorite Detective (And by that I mean myself) Charlie Chan! In 1956 Infantino would change the industry forever, DC editor Julius Schwartz teamed up Infantino with writer Robert Kanigher again to attempt to bring back Superheroes with updating the Flash from a Bucket wearing blue collar look to what we know the Flash today as the Scarlet Speedster.
Infantino came up with the sleek Red costume with the yellow lighting bolt. Many regard this as the start of the SIlver age and it helped usher Superheroes back into the public eye. Infantino would go on to work on many of the DC titles and in 1966 he was tasked with doing the entire run of covers for DC. Soon Infantino would be promoted to editorial director, in 1970 Infantino signed Marvel All-star Jack Kirby where he gave him the title Jimmy Olsen.
Infantino would go on to become the publisher at DC, later on in his career Infantino would work for many companies from Warren to Marvel & DC. He was an amazing talent and one of the forefathers of the modern comic industry. Happy Birthday Carmine!
