Ric Estrada
Ric Estrada (February 26, 1928 – May 1, 2009) was a Cuban American comics artist who worked for companies including the major American publisher DC Comics. He also worked in comic strips, political cartoons, advertising, storyboarding, and commercial illustration. Biography. Early life and career. Ric Estrada was born in Havana, Cuba. He made his first professional sale, an illustration used on the cover of the Cuban magazine "Bohemia", at the age of 13. Estrada attended the University of Havana. Through his uncle, Sergio Carbo, Estrada met writer Ernest Hemingway; the two men facilitated Estrada's move to New York  City in 1947 to further his artistic studies and start a career. Estrada there attended the New York Art Students League, New York University, and the School of Visual Arts. Estrada's first New York home was in Greenwich Village where he met fellow artists such as Lee J. Ames, Dan Barry, Sy Barry, Frank Frazetta, Andre LeBlanc, Mort Meskin, Pete Morisi, Don Perlin, and George Roussos. Comic books. In the 1950s, Estrada penciled and inked "Bunker", the first comic-book story to feature an African-American hero, and "Rough Riders". Both stories were for the EC Comics series "Two -Fisted Tales". He drew for Dell Comics, Hillman Periodicals, St. John Publications, and Ziff-Davis. In the late fifties he drew almost half the satirical articles of the first two issues of the "Mad" magazine imitator "Frantic". After that he moved to Germany, where he stayed for three years. He did political cartoons for the "" in the morning and did storyboards for the advertising company Deutschen Documentar in the afternoons. In 1967 and 1968, he drew stories for Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazine "Eerie". Much of Estrada's comic book career after returning from Germany was  spent working for DC Comics. Though superheroes were not his preference Estrada worked on Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, and Richard Dragon, and he co-created Lady Shiva and Power Girl. Estrada drew detective comics, romance comics, war comics and a few horror stories for DC. In 1976, Estrada's work was in such high demand from DC that he illustrated the premiere issues of "six" separate titles that year: "All Star Comics", "Blitzkrieg", "Freedom Fighters", "Isis", "Karate Kid", and "Super Friends". Estrada's preference was for the war stories. Among the war titles he worked on for DC  Comics was "G.I. Combat", for which he illustrated a number of stories in the ongoing features "Blitzkrieg" and "Robert Kanigher's Gallery of War", both written by Robert Kanigher. While working on "G.I. Combat" #169 (Feb. 1974), Estrada filled a page shortage with an account from the "Book of Ether", a short book of scripture contained in the Book of Mormon. That story came to the attention of Hugh W. Pinnock, who was in charge of creating a comic-style adaptation of the New Testament for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in 1980 Estrada drew  all the pictures for that book. Comic strips and animation. Estrada drew the "Flash Gordon" syndicated newspaper comic strip in sporadic stints from the 1950s to the 1970s. In the 1980s, he collaborated on the animated television series "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe", "Galtar", "The New Adventures of Jonny Quest", and "Bionic Six". Death. Estrada died May 1, 2009, at 81, after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. Awards. Ric Estrada received an Inkpot Award in 2000.