John Tartaglione

• Born — 14 January 1921 • Died — 12 November 2003 • Nationality — American • Pencil — y • Ink — y • Alias — John Tartag Tartag Tar Leone JT • Notable Works — Collaborations with Jim Steranko The Life of Pope John Paul II

Raised in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, Tartaglione studied at that borough's Pratt Institute, and at the Traphagen School of Fashion in Manhattan. Comics-creator credits were not routinely given in the early days of comic books, up through the 1960s, making a comprehensive listing of Tartaglione's credits difficult to compile. His first confirmed work as a comic-book inker is the six-page story "The Mad Monk!" in Amazing Detective Cases #6 (May 1951), from Atlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel Comics. His first confirmed penciling art is the six-page story "The Man Who Walked The Plank", for the same publisher's Young Men #11 (Oct. 1951). Tartaglione thus began a long association with Marvel that found him penciling suspense, adventure, sports and crime stories, though he was most prolific in romance titles, illustrating more than 120. He signed his work a variety of ways including "Tartag", "Tar", "Leone" and "JT".

With the exception of an occasional item such as the cover of Dazzler #12, Tartaglione returned to penciling for the first time in years with the 64-page Marvel Comics biography The Life of Pope John Paul II (1982), written by Steven Grant and Mieczyslaw Malinski, and inked by Joe Sinnott. A 1984 follow-up profiled Mother Teresa, with the same artists and writer David Michelinie. Comics historian Mark Evanier wrote that Tartaglione at Marvel "became the 'go-to' guy when a project came along that required historical research and/or spiritual themes. He was therefore the perfect artist when, in 1982, Marvel issued a comic-book biography of Pope John Paul II that through various religious channels sold well into the millions, leading to a follow-up book on Mother Teresa". During this period, Tartaglione was on staff at Marvel, doing art corrections. Marginalia includes the Catholic-oriented comic book Treasure Chest, distributed in parochial schools, and religious comics for publisher Ned Pines' Standard/Better/Nedor imprints; inking some Western comics for Skywald Publications' short-lived comic-book line in 1971; and Marvel's adaptation of the movie Dragonslayer (June 1981).

By the early 1990s, Tartaglione had retired to Centerport, New York, but he was lured back to the industry by Personality Comics, a local up-and-coming publisher. Tartaglione's last known comic-book work was inking Ron Randall on the cover and in the 22-page story of Marvel's Wonder Man #29 (Jan. 1994). Tartaglione, who circa 1980 had assisted Alex Kotsky on the newspaper comic strip Apartment 3-G, then turned to inking The Amazing Spider-Man daily comic strip in 2003.

Late in his life, Tartaglione suffered from throat cancer, which had left him unable to speak. He died at home in November 2003; the day before his death Tartaglione had mostly finished inking a week of Spider-Man strips. According to family friend and comics creator Billy Tucci, Tartaglione's artist daughter, Mary Beth, "actually finished this week's inks on the Spider-Man strips today and sent them out, closing out his last job." Aside from his daughter Mary Beth, Tartaglione had a son, John C. Tartaglione, a Centerport painter born in Brooklyn in 1968.