It's being reported that comic book artist Frank McLaughlin passed away last night at the age of 84.
Laughlin broke into comics around 1960 working both on staff and freelance for Charlton Comics in Connecticut. For a time, he was the Art Director there. He quickly formed a friendship (and intermittent creative partnership) with Dick Giordano that would last until Giordano's passing in 2010. They often assisted each other and many jobs that were credited by one show handiwork — sometimes, overwhelmingly so — of the other.
Older fans recall McLaughlin from JudoMaster, a short-lived super-hero title that he did for Charlton in 1967, tapping into his personal expertise in the martial arts. Over the years, Frank assisted on newspaper strips including The Heart of Juliet Jones, Nancy and Brenda Starr, but most of what he did was to ink comic books for DC and Marvel. Paul Levitz, who ran things at DC Comics for a long time, posted this on Facebook…
Frank was a total professional, always to be counted on for a solid job no matter how tight the deadline was, and no matter how dense the underlying pencils were. I was particularly a fan of how his line complimented the pencils of Dick Dillin and Irv Novick, two of DC's busiest pencillers in the years when they and Frank worked on stories I wrote or edited.
Frank also taught comic art at various schools. I did not know him well but never heard anyone in the entire field say anything but good things about him. And he sure leaves behind a huge body of work that readers enjoyed for years and will continue to enjoy in reprints.