It is the sad but frequent duty of this weblog to report the passing of another veteran comic book creator. Jack Burnley died Tuesday at the age of 95. He was only active in comics from 1940 until 1947 but during that time, he drew some of the most memorable covers and co-created the popular super-hero, Starman. His renditions of Superman and Batman were among the first, if not the first, to be done outside the control of those characters' creators and his slick, professional approach did much to shape the image of those classic heroes.
Hardin "Jack" Burnley was born in 1911 and unlike many of the early illustrators of comic books, came to the field as an established professional. During the thirties, he worked as a sports cartoonist and illustrator in newspapers, and in the area of advertising specialties. In 1940, he was hired to do material for the World's Fair comic book that DC Comics was producing that year. The cover he drew (seen above) was the first time Superman and Batman ever appeared together in print. He soon began drawing covers for all the DC books, as well as frequent Superman stories to supplement the material being prepared by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. For a time, he penciled both the Batman and Superman syndicated newspaper strips, and he and writer Gardner Fox also launched their own feature, Starman, who appeared in Adventure Comics.
In 1947, Burnley decided a better living could be made back in newspapers and he returned to that field, working for The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph and subsequently for The San Francisco News. He retired from that job in 1976 and moved with his wife Dolores, a former dancer, to Charlottesville, North Carolina Virginia [Correction] in 1981. Jack and Dolores were said to be inseparable in life and their passings showed a similar sense of togetherness. Dolores died in 2003 from complications relating to a broken hip and Jack just died in the same retirement home from the same thing.
I'm afraid I have no personal anecdotes or insights into Mr. Burnley as I never met the man. Always admired his work, though. The guy could really draw and it's a shame that comics lost his talents when they did.