Comic Books Illustration Obituary

Vic Carrabotta – RIP

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D. D. Degg November 24, 2022 1 minute 1 comment

Comic book artist Vic Carrabotta has passed away.

   
Victor Salvatore (Vic) Carrabotta
June 24, 1929 – November 22, 2022

Vic’s family and friends are sharing the news of his death on Facebook and Twitter.

From the CBR obituary:

Victor “Vic” Carrabotta, one of the last surviving comic book artists to have worked for Marvel in the 1950s, including a story in the very first issue of Journey Into Mystery, has passed away at the age of 93.

Carrabotta became a regular presence at Marvel [doing] science fiction, horror, fantasy, westerns and war comics.

Vic’s comic book career ran from 1952 to 1958, mostly with Marvel comics of that era.

In the late 1950s, though, the comic book industry suffered a major downturn, with Marvel practically eliminating its freelancers entirely, and like many other comic book artists, Carrabotta had to move into another industry. And also like many comic book artists, he found work in advertising.

Carrabotta would have a very successful advertising career over the next thirty/forty years, including serving as an art director for some major advertising companies.

Daniel Best interviewed Vic in 2009 and his advertising days came up.

From there I got out of comics altogether. I was living in the South and travelled to Atlanta and got a job in a printing house called Stein Printing Company. There were using me as an illustrator doing little booklets and I really learned the printing industry in those days … Then I went to New York and I went from doing my own advertising stuff to doing storyboards and became the senior Art Director with Alden Advertising Agency in New York … one of the years I was out of work I was offered a job with Mother Earth News Magazine, the owner of that was John Shuttleworth and it was located in Henderson, North Carolina. I worked there, but that didn’t last too long, so I moved back to New York and worked for Reader’s Digest as an art director.

Fine Art America has a selection of Vic’s comic and non-comic illustrations.

Victor “Quick Vic” Carrabotta, now semi-retired, is a living icon of the Golden Age of American comics, mainstay of graphic design and storyboarding from New York to Los Angeles, and accomplished artist and artistic director. After graduating from what would become the School of Visual Arts in New York, Victor went on to serve his country with the Marines. From there, he began a long and illustrious career in the creative arts spanning eight decades. Some highlights include his original design concepts and storyboarding for such Disney projects as 101 Dalmatians and Pirates of the Carribean, development and direction of marketing campaigns for such diverse customers as Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, AT&T, Reader’s Digest, and even the Mother Earth News.

Atlas Tales has an index of Vic’s 1950s Marvel work
with some splash pages that can be supersized.

More about Vic at his own website.

Vic has been on The Daily Cartoonist’s Senior Strippers list for the past four years, 
sadly we will miss him on the next roll call.