Jim Steranko (American, b.1938)

Jim Steranko has established variegated careers in close-up and escape magic, rock n' roll, graphic design, comic books, and illustration. One of the most dynamic innovators of the Silver Age, Steranko mixed the influences of the pulps, surrealism, op art, psychedelia,and high fashion and boldly integrated graphics with the comic book storytelling techniques of Jack Kirby, Wally Wood, Will Eisner, and Bernard Krigstein to forge what he dubbed Supergraphics or "Zap Art." Steranko is perhaps most celebrated for his work at Marvel on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain America, and the X-Men, as well as a string of eye-catching covers. After his monthly comics career wound down in the seventies, Steranko produced his in-depth Steranko History of Comics, the Comixscene and Mediascene pop culture magazines, painted paperback covers, including a series for the Shadow, and also worked on several film-related projects as a conceptual illustrator. In addition to all that, comic lore has it that he was the real-life inspiration for Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle.