Longtime comic book artist Tom Palmer passed away yesterday at the age of 81. Born in New York in 1942, Palmer initially went down the path of realistic illustration and portraits but he was also a tremendous fan of comic books, especially the old EC books he'd devoured as a teenager. Working in advertising in the sixties, he chanced to meet Jack Kamen, who had drawn for EC, and began asking Kamen how one might go about getting into comics. Kamen was out of that world by then but he introduced Palmer to his fellow EC artist Wally Wood, who was still involved in that field.
Palmer assisted Wood briefly, then got a recommendation from him to see Sol Brodsky, who was then the guy at Marvel who took a look at new talent. Brodsky arranged for Palmer to pencil an issue of Doctor Strange, which Stan Lee thought was competent but unexciting so they assigned the next issue to Gene Colan to pencil. Palmer was disappointed to be "fired" after one issue but he accepted an offer to ink Colan's work…and when they saw what he did with it, he became a regular inker of Colan's work, there and then for a long run on the Tomb of Dracula comic. Fans also praised his work inking John Buscema on The Avengers (and elsewhere) and Neal Adams on The X-Men (and elsewhere).
In fact, Palmer was so popular as an inker that he was rarely given the chance to pencil a comic book — or better yet, pencil and ink. When he did, the results were so good, some of us wished he'd do more of that. He remained very much "in demand" for the rest of his career and his son, Tom Palmer Jr., followed him into the business as an editor. A very talented man.