Newsletter

Gil Kane self portrait

Jan. 31, 2000 --Gil Kane, best known as the Silver Age comic book artist of the Atom, Green Lantern, the Hulk, Captain Marvel and Spider-Man, has died at age 73. Kane died January 31, 2000 in Miami, Florida, of cancer.

A self-taught artist, Kane worked from age 16 right up until he recently became ill. He was known for his dynamic figures and innovative fight scenes between superheroes.

Fans and collectors revered Kane's Silver Age work (from 1956 to 1969). During that period, he redesigned the costumes of Green Lantern and Captain Marvel and helped make the old superheroes familiar to new generations of readers.

Born Eli Katz in Latvia on April 6, 1926, Kane came to New York with his family when he was three. He grew up reading comics and pulp novels, and later served in the Army toward the end of World War II.

Kane worked extensively for DC and Marvel but also free-lanced for other publishers. He illustrated many of DC's genres from mysteries and westerns to science fiction.

He didn't became famous until the late 1950s when DC revived Green Lantern with Kane at the helm. He soon added a Silver Age revival of the Atom as well. Moving to Marvel, Kane drew the Hulk, Conan the Barbarian, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Captain America, the Avengers and others and became a model for new comic artists who studied his style. He liked to ink his own work, instead of leaving the details to assistants.

In the 1980s, Kane spent about five years in Los Angeles, working on animation concepts for Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears. But he soon returned to comics in 1990, drawing new versions of Superman.

Kane is survived by his wife, Elaine; son, Scott; and two stepchildren, Eric and Beverly.