Carl Burgos

Carl Burgos; born Max Finkelstein, was a Comic book Artist and Scriptwriter. Max Finkelstein was born in New York City to Russian Jewish parents in 1916. In 1934, he went to Art School in Manhattan. He dropped out a year later. He then got a job working for Harry A. Chesler who made comic books. In 1938, Finkelstein started drawing Chesler’s comics using the pen name Carl Burgos. In 1939, he started drawing (and writing scripts for) his own comics. His friend Bill Everett then convinced him to help someone named Lloyd Jacquet to start his own comic company called Funnies. Then a man named Martin Goodman hired Funnies to make superheroes for Timely Comics. So Burgos created The Human Torch (and Everett created The Submariner.)

In 1942, Burgos, using the name Max Finkelstein, joined the US Army and was in World War Two. After the war, Burgos went back to working for Timely Comics and wrote some Captain America stories. Then Timely changed its name to Atlas Comics and Burgos sometimes drew for Atlas Comics. He also started working for Archie Comics.

In the 1960s, Atlas Comics changed its name to Marvel Comics. A Marvel writer named Stan Lee named a character from the Fantastic Four Human Torch. Burgos sued Marvel for this but didn’t win. After that, Burgos wrote some stories for Marvel about The Fantastic Four and Ant-Man.

Burgos died of cancer in the 1980s.

Category:1916 births
Category:1984 deaths
Category:American comics artists
Category:American comics writers