Salvatore A. "Sal" Trapani (April 30, 1927—July 14, 1999) was an American

comic-book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and written narrative, ...

artist active from the 1940s

Golden Age of comics The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era in the history of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many ...

through the 1960s

Silver Age The Ages of Man are the historical stages of human existence according to Greek mythology and its subsequent interpretatio romana, Roman interpretation. Both Hesiod and Ovid offered accounts of the successive ages of humanity, which tend to pr ...

and into the 1980s. He is best known as a journeyman

inker The inker (sometimes credited as the finisher or embellisher) is one of the two line artists in traditional comic book production. After the penciller creates a drawing with pencil, the inker interprets this drawing by outlining and embellishing ...

and occasional

penciller A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations. In the American comic book industry, the penciller is the first step ...

for a variety of comics publishers.

Biography

Early life and comics career

Sal Trapani was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York City in 1927. He attended the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

and counted school co-founder

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 ...

among his early influences. His earliest recorded comic book credits include short filler pieces in

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 ...

Comics in 1949.Airboy Comics #v6#9
at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information use ...

. Through the following decades, Trapani racked up credits on hundreds of comic book stories for

Gillmor Gillmor may refer to: People *Arthur Hill Gillmor (1824–1903), Canadian farmer, lumberman and politician * Dan Gillmor, American technology writer * Daniel Gillmor (1849–1918), Canadian merchant and politician * Helen W. Gillmor (born 1942), Un ...

Charlton Charlton may refer to: People * Charlton (surname) * Charlton (given name) Places Australia * Charlton, Queensland * Charlton, Victoria * Division of Charlton, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in New South Wales ...

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

, Gold Key, ACG and others. His most notable credit is as co-creator of the character

Nukla Nukla is a fictional character published by Dell Comics in the mid-1960s. He was created by writer Joe Gill and artist Sal Trapani (with uncredited assistance from others artists, including Dick Giordano). The character made his debut in ''Nukla' ...

. Trapani replaced character co-creator

Ramona Fradon Ramona Dom Fradon (; October 2, 1926 – February 24, 2024) was an American comics artist known for her work illustrating Aquaman and ''Brenda Starr, Reporter'', and co-creating the superhero Metamorpho. Her career began in 1950 and lasted until ...

for an extended run on the superhero title

Metamorpho Metamorpho (Rex Mason) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon, the character debuted as the lead feature in The Brave and the Bold, ''The Brave and the Bold'' (January 1965). ...

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

, beginning in 1966. Trapani also provided inks for many

Steve Ditko Stephen John Ditko. Page contains two reproductions from school yearbooks. A 1943 Garfield Junior High School yearbook excerpt lists "Stephen Ditko". A 1945 Johnstown High School yearbook excerpt lists "Stephen J. Ditko" under extracurricular ac ...

-illustrated stories published by Charlton, ACG, and Dell, and regularly used Ditko as one of his many ghost artists. Trapani was also a prolific inker for

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

in the 1970s, providing embellishments for The Incredible Hulk, The Defenders, Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, and many others. Trapani provided the inks on the Man-Thing story that first introduced

Howard the Duck Howard the Duck is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Steve Gerber, based very loosely on his college friend Howard Tockman, and artist Val Mayerik. Howard the Duck firs ...

, in ''

Adventure into Fear ''Adventure into Fear'' is an American horror comic book series published by Marvel Comics from cover dates November 1970 through December 1975, for 31 issues. This is its trademarked cover title for all but its first nine issues, though the serie ...

'' #19, written by

Steve Gerber Stephen Ross Gerber (; September 20, 1947 – February 10, 2008) was an American comic book writer and creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck. Other works include '' Man-Thing'', ''Omega the Unknown,'' ''Marvel Spotlight ...

and pencilled by

Val Mayerik Val Mayerik (born March 29, 1950) is an American comic book and commercial artist, best known as co-creator of the satiric character ''Howard the Duck'' for ''Marvel Comics''. Biography Early life and career Val Mayerik was born in Youngstown, ...

Animation

Trapani also worked as a designer and storyboard artist for animated cartoons. In the 1960s he was employed by Cambria Productions in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. From 1962 to 1964 he is credited as art director on 29 episodes of Cambria's

Space Angel ''Space Angel'' is an animated science fiction television series produced in the United States from early 1962 through 1964. It used the same Synchro-Vox lip technique as ''Clutch Cargo'', the first cartoon produced by the same studio, Cambria P ...

TV show. The famously low-budget animation process patented by Cambria was basically an animated comic strip with film of actors’ mouths speaking their lines superimposed over the still images. The images were largely created by cartoonist

Alex Toth Alexander Toth (; June 25, 1928 – May 27, 2006) was an American cartoonist active from the 1940s through the 1980s. Toth's work began in the American comic book industry, but he is also known for his animation designs for Hanna-Barbera through ...

and inked by Trapani.

Involvement in Old Time Radio Fandom

Trapani was a lifelong enthusiast of the

Golden Age of Radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...

and as a fan and collector of radio dramas he was instrumental in kickstarting the organized fandom for so-called Old Time Radio. He helped to organize one of the first OTR conventions and gifting 100 radio shows to convention organizer Jay Hickerson: "In 1970, at one of the parties, a guest told me of a friend, Sal Trapani, who had recordings of those radio shows, which intrigued me. I contacted Sal, and we subsequently met. After that initial meeting, Sal gave me 100 shows on 4-1/4 track reels. Thus, my collection of old-time radio shows began." According to brother-in-law

Dick Giordano Richard Joseph Giordano (; July 20, 1932 – March 27, 2010) was an American comics artist and editor whose career included introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes and serving as executive editor of DC Comics. Ear ...

, Trapani also created a radio studio in his garage and produced programs with friends.The Thunder Agents Companion, Jon B. Cooke, TwoMorrows Publishing, 2005, pgs. 99–100.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trapani, Sal American comics artists American comics writers American writers of Italian descent Golden Age comics creators Silver Age comics creators 1927 births 1999 deaths Marvel Comics people