Comic book artist Allen Bellman has passed away.
Isadore Allen Bellman
June 5, 1924 – March 9, 2020
comic book artist, graphic designer
Allen Bellman was one of the few remaining comic artists of the “Golden Age” of comic books. He contributed from the World War II years through the Korean War years, mostly with the Timely/Atlas (now Marvel) group.
Throughout the 1940’s, Allen was part of the fabled Timely bullpen, soon situated on the 14th floor of The Empire State Building. From 1943 until 1948, Allen toiled primarily on superhero comics, scattered among titles including Captain America Comics, All-Winners Comics, All-Select Comics and Marvel Mystery Comics. Characters that were delineated by his brush include the aforementioned Patriot, The Destroyer, Captain America, Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch.
By the end of 1949, Timely fired the entire bullpen. Allen joined the Lev Gleason staff, turning out crime, romance and western stories for Charlie Biro. Superheroes had been on the downswing since the end of the war and by the dawn of this new decade were all but replaced by a diverse newsstand of genre comics. Within a year he was back freelancing for Stan Lee among the myriad of horror, sci-fi, crime, war, western and romance titles that abounded in the early 1950’s. This work, all penciled and inked (and usually signed) by Allen, is the best work he ever did in comics.
Allen left comic books and went into graphic design
and a career with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel art department.
Late in life Allen was “discovered” by comics fans and became a regular and popular guest on the comic convention circuit. A gig that both he and the fans enjoyed.
Allen’s Facebook page has been flooded with condolences and memories from family, friends, and fans.
A Monomythic interview/profile from four years ago.
Allen was a part of our Senior Strippers club.
Yow! I had a copy of that greeting cards book. Every now and then I think of the page in it that was funny (to be fair, in 8th grade, I thought a dozen of them were funny).
If somebody else murdered the farmer, they could have put the top back on, too. It would make more sense to question him more closely than to just arrest him like that. Dang kid detectives!
Here’s a whole story illustrated by Bellman, from 1950. It starts on page 41.
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=29364