Longtime comic book artist John "Jon" D'Agostino died this morning at his home in Ansonia. Jon was born in Italy on June 13, 1929 but his family moved to America when he was a lad and Jon attended the Industrial School of Art in Los Angeles. He broke into comics as a colorist for Timely Comics, which is now known as Marvel, and soon became head of their coloring department for several years. He was skilled in a wide range of crafts and worked over the years as a penciller, a letterer and an inker, primarily on humor material. The bulk of his pencil and ink work was done for Charlton Comics in the fifties and sixties, and for Archie Comics in the years since. He also worked intermittently for Marvel on their Star (children's) line of comics but occasionally on super-hero and adventure books including G.I. Joe and Marvel Two-in-One. He also did many uncredited assists of other artists. He and his friend Joe Sinnott, for example, often assisted each other.
One of Jon's most notable credits was the lettering for Amazing Spider-Man #1 in 1963 and he lettered several other stories for Stan Lee during this period, some of which were credited to "Johnny Dee." At the same time, a letterer named John Duffy lettered a few stories for Marvel. This has led many to assume John Duffy was another pseudonym for Jon D'Agostino. This is not so. Jon D'Agostino was not John Duffy. He also was not Tony D'Agostino, a prominent Italian cartoonist who was no relation.
As mentioned, the bulk of Jon's work in recent years was for Archie Comics, primarily as an inker. He had a slick, organic style that made Betty and Veronica cute and human. I only knew Jon via an occasional phone call but I followed decades of diligent hard work that went too often unnoticed. He was a quiet, dedicated professional who did fine work for well over half a century.