I have no details but I am informed by two separate sources that longtime comic book illustrator John Tartaglione passed away within the last week. "Tartag," as his friends called him, was born in 1921 and he received his art training at Pratt Institute and the Traphagen School of Fashion. Details on his career are sketchy — I don't recall ever seeing an interview with him anywhere — but he seems to have broken into comics around 1941 as an errand boy and production artist for Harvey Comics, followed by several years doing likewise for Bernard Baily, who was then running a studio that produced comic art for various publishers. There is then a gap in his known history but around 1954, solo Tartaglione work began appearing in Atlas Comics like Journey Into Mystery and Spellbound. For the most part, he was a "quiet" artist, generally uncomfortable with the more grisly horror or outrageous superhero features. He illustrated a great many romance comics for Atlas (which later became Marvel) and for DC, and was often called upon for special projects of an educational or religious nature. In the sixties, Tartag work turned up in Treasure Chest, Classics Illustrated and in an array of Dell Comics, including Burke's Law, Ben Casey and the Dell comic book biographies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.
In the late sixties, he moved back to Marvel where he was used primarily as an inker for Werner Roth's X-Men art, Gene Colan's Daredevil work and Dick Ayers on Sgt. Fury. He did good, professional work but reportedly lamented the dearth (to him) of more uplifting assignments in comics. Again, he became the "go-to" guy when a project came along that required historical research and/or spiritual themes. He was therefore the perfect artist when in 1982, Marvel issued a comic book biography of Pope John Paul II that through various religious channels, sold well into the millions, leading to a follow-up book on Mother Teresa. During this time, Tartag occasionally worked on staff at Marvel, colored for Harvey Comics and assisted on the newspaper strip, Apartment 3-G. Mostly though, he increased his non-comic work — mostly oil painting and portraiture — and had been concentrating on that area until his recent passing.
And that's really everything I know about John Tartaglione. If anyone reading this can offer additional details, please do. It's a life and career that have gone woefully unchronicled.