Daniel Barry (July 11, 1923 – January 25, 1997) was an American
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...
. Beginning in comic books during the 1940s with
Leonard Starr
Leonard Starr (October 28, 1925 – June 30, 2015) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist, and advertising artist, best known for creating the newspaper comic strip ''Mary Perkins, On Stage, On Stage'' and reviving ''Little Orphan Annie'' ...
,
Stan Drake
Stanley Albert Drake (November 9, 1921 – March 10, 1997) was an American cartoonist best known as the founding artist of the comic strip '' The Heart of Juliet Jones''.
Born in Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of N ...
and his brother
Sy Barry
Seymour "Sy" Barry (born March 12, 1928) at the
Marvel
Marvel may refer to:
Business
* Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company
** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment
** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe
** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...
Revolution brought attention to the
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby (; born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comics artist, comic book artist, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew ...
style. This style was characterized by careful attention to lines and the clear delineation of textures.
Work
Barry's early comics work included ''
Airboy
Airboy is a fictional Golden Age of comic books, Golden Age aviator hero of an American comic book series initially published by Hillman Periodicals during the World War II, before ending his initial run in 1953. The hero was the costumed identi ...
'', ''
Doc Savage
Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a polymathic scientist, explorer, detective, and warrior who "right ...
'', ''
Blue Bolt
Blue Bolt is a fictional American comic book superhero created by writer-artist Joe Simon in 1940, during the period fans and historians refer to as the Golden Age of Comic Books.
Publication history
Initially published by Novelty Press, ''B ...
'', as well as covers for the ''
Captain Midnight
''Captain Midnight'' (later rebranded on television as ''Jet Jackson, Flying Commando'') is an American adventure franchise first broadcast as a radio serial from 1938 to 1949. The character's popularity throughout the 1940s and into the mid-19 ...
'' comic book.Bill Woolfolk and Leonard Frank, ''Captain Midnight. Volume 2: Captain Midnight saves the world''. Milwaukie, OR. Dark Horse Books, 2014. (p.153). After a period serving in the Air Force, Barry returned to comics. Barry assisted
Burne Hogarth
Burne Hogarth (born Spinoza Bernard Ginsburg, December 25, 1911 – January 28, 1996) was an American artist and educator, best known for his work on the ''Tarzan (comics), Tarzan'' newspaper comic strip and his series of anatomy books for artis ...
with the ''
Tarzan
Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer.
Creat ...
''
daily strip
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays. They typically are smaller, 3–4 grids compared to the full page Sunday s ...
; from 1947 to 1948 Barry took over the ''Tarzan'' strip. In 1951 Barry revived the ''
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...
''
daily strip
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays. They typically are smaller, 3–4 grids compared to the full page Sunday s ...
. Barry was initially assisted with the strip by
Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book ''Mad (magazine), Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ...
, who wrote the scripts while Barry provided the illustrations. Comics historian Drew Friedman noted "Barry and Kurtzman had a famously uneasy and brief partnership, but their version of ''Flash Gordon'' remains outstanding". Later, other writers including Harry Harrison, Bob Kanigher, Sid Jacobson, Larry Shaw and Bill Finger contributed scripts to Barry's ''Flash Gordon'' series. In addition, at various times during his tenure, he was assisted in his artwork by a number of artists including Bob Fujitani, Fred Kida, and
Frank Frazetta
Frank Frazetta (born Frank Frazzetta ; February 9, 1928 – May 10, 2010) was an American artist known for themes of Fantasy art, fantasy and science fiction, noted for comic books, mass market paperback, paperback book covers, paintings, p ...
. When artist
Mac Raboy
Emmanuel "Mac" Raboy (April 9, 1914 – December 12, 1967) was an American comics artist best known for his comic-book work on Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Jr.Brent Frankenhoff & Maggie Thompson ''The Greatest Comic Book Covers Of All Time'' ...
died in 1967, Barry assumed responsibility of the ''Flash Gordon''
Sunday strip
The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in some Western newspapers. Compared to weekday comics, Sunday comics tend to be full pages and are in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, t ...
also. He also drew ''
The Amazing Spider-Man
''The Amazing Spider-Man'' is an ongoing American superhero American comic book, comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its title character and main protagonist. Being in the Earth 616, mainstream continuity of t ...
'' from July 1986 to January 1987. He created the official poster for the 1980 movie version of ''Flash Gordon''. After moving to Cleveland, Georgia, he was assisted in his work by artist Gail Beckett. In 1990, he left ''Flash Gordon'' altogether when the syndicate,
King Features
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...
, asked him to take a cut in pay. He drew the daily ''
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...
'' comic strip for two weeks in 1986.
His last work was for
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...
, where he wrote and drew many ''
Indiana Jones
''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise consisting of five films and a prequel television series, along with games, comics, and tie-in novels, that depicts the adventures of Indiana Jones (character), Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, ...
'' and ''
Predator
Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...
'' comic books. In recognition for his work, he was awarded the
Inkpot Award
The Inkpot Award is an honor bestowed annually since 1974 by Comic-Con International. It is given to professionals in the fields of comic books, comic strips, animation, science fiction, and related areas of popular culture, at Comic-Con Internati ...