John Powers Severin was a comic-book artist whose work ranged from the anarchistic satire of Mad and Cracked magazines to the gritty heroics of “Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos.”
Severin, who died Feb. 12 at age 90 in his Denver home, worked until he was 89, when he drew an issue of “Witchfinder Lost and Gone Forever” for Dark Horse Comics that was published this year.
During a career of more than 60 years, he gained a reputation for attention to detail and historical knowlege that made his work a resource for other artists striving to capture period costumes and arcana, said comic-book and television writer Mark Evanier.
“Jack used to always say if you ask Johnny Severin what a soldier’s belt buckle looks like, he draws you an army,” said Evanier, who wrote “Kirby: King of Comics,” a biography of comic-book creator Jack Kirby.
Severin’s six children knew that their father’s work routine — and attitude toward his kids — bore little resemblance to those of other fathers in the Long Island neighborhood where they grew up, said daughter Michelina Van Gemert, 56.
“He was always home, and he always had discussions with us. There was no subject we wouldn’t discuss,” she said. “Other kids didn’t see their fathers until they came home from work. They didn’t have conversations with their fathers. I would come home from school and say, ‘I need to do a paper on the Peloponnesian War,’ and my father would say, ‘I have three books on it.’ ”
Severin was born in 1921 in Jersey City, N.J., and moved to Long Island as a child. He attended High School of Music and Art, a Manhattan alternative public school now known as Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.
His father designed artwork that appeared on packaging for cosmetic company Elizabeth Arden, Van Gemert said.
While still in school, Severin contributed cartoons to Hobo News, a monthly paper distributed by the homeless.
He served in the Army during World War II and broke into comics in 1947, when Kirby and his partner Joe Simon hired him to draw for Crestwood Publications’ Prize Comics.
“Right from the moment (Severin) started, he did beautiful work. His line work and anatomy were flawless, and he was able to draw a historic type of art better than anyone who worked in the business,” said Chuck Rozanski, president and founder of Mile High Comics, the largest comic-book retailer in the country.
Severin rented studio space in Manhattan with Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Elder, a pair of fellow Music and Art graduates. All three worked for EC Comics. In 1952, Kurtzman, an editor at EC Comics, launched a new comic for the company, “Mad.”
Severin was one of the five original artists for the comic, which later became Mad magazine.
He illustrated features for Mad until 1954. Then he got an offer from Cracked, where he worked for years. “It was a good living,” Van Gemert said. “He supported six children through 12 years of Catholic school.”
In the mid-1950s, he went to work for Atlas Comics, a company that later became Marvel Comics, publisher of “The Incredible Hulk,” “Kull the Conqueror” and others.
There, he worked with his sister Marie, a colorist who worked on his drawings. “Marie colored a lot of his work in comics over the years,” Evanier said. “They collaborated a number of times.”
In 1970, Severin moved to Denver, where he worked as a freelance comic illustrator and cartoonist.
Severin’s artwork brought the Incredible Hulk and other comic legends to life. “As a penciler, John Severin had no equal. He had an art style that was uniquely and distinctly his own,” Stan Lee, former president of Marvel Comics and a friend of Severin’s, said in a release.
Today, Severin’s work can fetch far more than the scattering of coins needed to buy the books when they were new. “I had No. 45 ‘Sgt. Fury’ in near-mint condition just recently, and I got $75 for that, and I only had it for about six days,” said Shawn Carey, owner of Aamazing Fantasy Comics in Littleton.
Copies of Severin’s original art sell for thousands of dollars.
Severin had been surprised by collectors’ interest in his work, Van Gemert said. “My father never really thought about it,” she said. “He drew for a living. The fact that there are fans out there he thought was amazing.”
Van Gemert and her siblings saw many of the comics when they were new. Every month, she said, the kids would get a box of comic books. “We would open them up and read what we wanted and throw them away,” she said. “I could probably not be working now if I had kept them.”
In addition to daughter Van Gemert and sister Marie, Severin is survived by his wife of 60 years, Michelina; five other children; 13 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
