JACK BURNLEY

After co-creator Joe Shuster, Jack Burnley (1911 – 2006) became the first artist to draw Superman. In fact, he also drew the very first cover where Superman, Batman and Robin were all three featured together (World’s Fair Comics #2).

Previously a sports cartoonists and clearly a superior draftsman, Burnley took over Action Comics in 1940 and was often assigned to covers for both that series and the Superman title. In 1941, he began working on his own comic book feature, ‘Starman’ (a character he co-created with Gardner Fox), which appeared in Adventure Comics. He also penciled the Batman Sunday strip and, for a short time in 1944, he penciled both it and the Superman Sunday pages.

Though Burnley left DC in 1947 to return to sports cartooning, he nevertheless left behind a rich legacy with some of the most memorable Superman covers from the Golden Age.