John was born either January 14th or 19th in 1921. I keep seeing both dates mentioned.

He passed away five years ago, on November 12th, 2003, but not before leaving us artwork that will be remembered for years to come.

Most articles on John mention his best seller, "The Life Of Pope John Paul II", where he was the penciller. If not that publication, then they cite his other well known comic book work, "Mother Theresa of Calcutta".

Myself, I saw his name in the credits of many Marvel Comics during the years, but mainly as an inker. He had a good run as inker on Dick Ayers' pencils on Sgt Fury & His Howling Commandos, issues #27-42, from 1966-1967.

John had actually started in the 1950's when credits weren't always shown in the publications. He was known as a good romance artist during that period.

So it wasn't any surprise that he did a great job on "Beach Blanket Bingo" comic book, which was in the Dell Comics 'Movie Classics' series that was published in 1965. I picked that one to showcase here because I am also an Annette Funicello fan.  But don't get my wife Tina started on that topic, LOL!

But then again, John also drew the Presidential Comics 'John F Kennedy' and 'Lyndon B Johnson'. This man was a versatile artist!

I kind of lost track of John's work for a while, as he was out of comic books doing a comic strip. Unfortunately I never met him at any of the Comic Cons I attended, so never got to thank him in person for the works that he created.

However, I am attempting to remedy this today by blogging this post in his honor. Thanks John for the memories!