Gil Kane
Gil Kane, born Eli Katz on April 6, 1926, in Riga, Latvia, was a prominent comic book artist and illustrator who played a significant role in the evolution of the comic industry. Immigrating to the United States in 1929, Kane developed a passion for comics, inspired by characters from Tarzan to Flash Gordon. He began his career in the comics field while still a teenager, working for various publishers and honing his craft as a self-taught artist. Kane is particularly celebrated for his contributions during the Silver Age of Comics, where he revitalized characters like The Atom and Green Lantern and created over a thousand cover illustrations.
His versatility allowed him to work across different genres, including mysteries, science fiction, and superheroes, and he is credited with creating the character Morbius for Spider-Man and Iron Fist. In addition to comic books, Kane ventured into animated television and co-created the comic strip Star Hawks. His innovative work earned him multiple accolades, including induction into the Eisner and Harvey Award Halls of Fame. Gil Kane's legacy continues to influence the comic book industry, leading to his recognition as a pivotal figure in its history. He passed away on January 31, 2000.
Gil Kane
Illustrator
- Born: April 6, 1926
- Birthplace: Riga, Latvia
- Died: January 31, 2000
- Place of death: Miami, Florida
Biography
Gil Kane is the pseudonym of Eli Katz, who was born into a Jewish family on April 6, 1926, in Riga, Latvia. The family came to the United States in 1929 and settled in Brooklyn, New York. Kane quickly became enamored of comic books and was especially enthralled with the adventures of Tarzan, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Dick Tracy and the comic strip Terry and the Pirates.
While a student at The High School of Industrial Arts (now The High School of Art and Design), Kane began working in the comics industry to help support his family. He worked for MLJ, a comic book publisher, drawing panel borders in an assembly-line production facility crowded with pencilers, inkers, letterers, and background artists. Kane was hired, fired and rehired many times, often because of paper and personnel shortages during World War II, and was an employee or freelancer at several comic book shops, including Binder, Street and Smith, Quality, Holyoke, Timely Comics, and DC National.
Largely a self-taught artist, Kane dropped out of school at age sixteen to work full-time. He eventually was promoted to inker and penciler and was given his first real creative job: working on the strip Inspector Bentley of Scotland Yard in Pep Comics. Working alongside such artists as Jack Kirby and Joe Kubert, Kane also drew such comic series as Archie, The Scarlet Avenger, The Shield and Dusty, Boy Commando, Newsboy Legion, and Sandman.
In 1944, Eli enlisted in the army and served in the Philippines. After the war he returned to DC Comics and his work as a comic book artist. He used many different pseudonyms, including Pen Star, Scott Edward and Gil Stack, before settling on Gil Kane, which he used for the rest of his long career. While working full-time at DC, he also freelanced, illustrating across a range of comic genres, from mysteries to science fiction, from superheroes to Westerns.
In the late 1950’s, Kane was instrumental in helping revitalize the comics industry, ushering in what is known as the Silver Age of Comics in the 1950’s and 1960’s by creating new characters or reinvigorating previous characters from the Golden Age of the 1930’s. He created new looks for The Atom and Green Lantern while drawing both covers and interior strips for dozens of popular comic books; he would complete more than one thousand cover illustrations during his lifetime. He continued to draw Thunder Agents for Tower Comics and Flash Gordon for King; he also worked for Marvel Comics, drawing The Hulk, Conan, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Avengers, and many others. Kane is credited with creating the villain Morbius for Spider-Man and the early martial artist, Iron Fist. Kane and writer Archie Goodwin collaborated on the science-fiction-fantasy epics His Name Is Savage and Blackmark, which are generally considered to be the first graphic novels.
During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Kane lived in California, designing characters for a number of animated television series. In 1977, he and writer Ron Goulart created the comic strip Star Hawks, which ran until 1981. He returned to comics late in life, collaborating on such releases as Richard Wagner’s the Ring of the Nibelung, Edge, and Superman: Distant Fires. Kane was often honored for his work; he received multiple National Cartoonists Society Awards and the Shazam Award and was inducted into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame and the Harvey Award Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1997. Kane died on January 31, 2000.