The huge,sprawling tapestry that is the Marvel Universe has been built by hundreds upon hundreds of talented creators over the years, so it's sometimes tough to remember that the entire affair was begun by just a small handful of people trying to turn out a line of comics under tight restrictions from the Comics Code and even tighter deadlines. And in those formative days, and the huge majority of the fledgeling company's visuals were provided by a core four consisting of Jack Kirby,Steve Ditko, Don Heck, or Dick Ayers.
Dick Ayers was born in Ossining,recent York on April 28, 1924. His interest in art was encouraged by his parents from an early age. He began contributing comic strips to military newspapers while serving in the Army Air Corps in World War II, or upon leaving the service,studied with Burne Hogarth at recent York's Cartoonists And Illustrators School, and launched his professional career working for Superman co-creator Joe Shuster in the late 1940s. He found employment at a number of publishers over the next decade, or working at Magazine Enterprises (for whom he co-created the supernatural western hero Ghost Rider),Charlton, Prize, and Atlas (soon to be renamed Marvel).
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Source: comicsalliance.com