Bill Everett

Bill Everett a.k.a. William Blake and Everett Blake (born May 18, 1917, Cambridge, Massachusetts; died 27 February, 1973) was a comic book writer-artist best known for creating the Namor the Sub-Mariner and co-creating Daredevil for Marvel Comics.

After studying in Boston, Everett began freelancing in New York City. In 1939, during the earliest Golden Age days of the emerging comic-book medium, he co-created the character Amazing Man at Centaur Publications, working with company art director Lloyd Jacuqet. Jacquet would soon leave to form Funnies, Inc., a comic-book packager that would create comics on demand for publishers. Everett and others came along.

It was at Funnies, Inc. that Everett created the Sub-Mariner for an aborted project, Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1, a planned promotional comic to be given away in movie theaters. When plans changed, Everett used his character instead for Funnies, Inc.'s first client, pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman. Everett expanded his original eight-page story by four pages for Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939) — the first publication for what Goodman would eventually call Timely Comics, the 1940s precursor of Marvel.

References

• "A Tribute to Bill Everett, the Sub-Mariner's Father" by Monique Pryor
• The Deep Six Project: A Biography of Namor McKenzie, The Sub-Mariner
• Jess Nevins' The Timely Comics Story
• Marvel Masterworks Resource Pages
• Comic Books on Microfiche: The University of Tulsa, McFarlin Library, Dept. of Special Collections Note: The listing for Amazing Man Comics #5 (Sept. 1939) says the comic continues the numbering of the unreleased Motion Picture Funnies Weekly
• A Timely Talk with Allen Bellman
• The Grand Comic-Book Database
• All in Color for a Dime by Dick Lupoff & Don Thompson ISBN 0873414985
• The Comic Book Makers by Joe Simon with Jim Simon ISBN 1887591354
• Ron Goulart's Great History of Comic Books by Ron Goulart ISBN 0809250454