We recently found out that veteran comic book artist John Calnan passed away at the end of last year at the age of 84. John was kind of a utility infielder for DC Comics from around 1967 to 1982, working on all their books — war, western, romance, super-hero, etc. Sometimes he penciled, sometimes he inked. He drew Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman and was the artist for Metamorpho after artist Ramona Fradon left comic books to draw the Brenda Starr newspaper strip.
Calnan was a graduate of the School of Visual Arts where, like many of his contemporaries, he studied with artist Jerry Robinson and got his first jobs in comics as an assistant to Lone Ranger artist Tom Gill. Mr. Calnan did some work on his own for Classics Illustrated, then went to work in advertising for a time. A co-worker at the ad agency knew some people at DC Comics and that led to Calnan beginning to moonlight for DC. Eventually, the part-time job became the full-time job and vice-versa.
He proved to be a very reliable artist for them — not flashy but really, really useful to have available. DC editor Murray Boltinoff is said to have remarked, "My job would be a breeze if every artist was as good and professional as John Calnan." I never met Mr. Calnan — apparently, relatively few folks who worked in comics ever did — but I greatly respected his skill and dedication and I thought his passing should be noted.