An illustrator, cartoonist, writer and publisher, James Steranko was a highly active comic-book page artist in the 1960s, especially known for his drawing in Marvel Comic's Nick Fury. Born in Pennsylvania and remaining in that state, he is credited for injecting surrealism, psychedelia and op art into comics. His success was recognized in 2006, when he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Before gaining recognition for comics, he worked many jobs: magician, carnival pitchman, escape artist, photographer, guitar player and advertising art director. In the 1960s, during the "superhero boom", he designed and sold several characters to the Harvey company, working with editor Joe Simon, but...