He was the co-creator of the Golden-Age Vigilante and Mark Merlin at DC and the artist for much of the Black Terror and Sheena of the Jungle, while also doing much of DC's non-superhero mystery and science fiction stories in the 50s.
Meskin was singled out by Jim Steranko in his History of Comics as one of the outstanding artists of his generation. His artwork is distinguished by its sense of design, dynamism and strong draughtsmanship. Meskin’s storytelling was also exceptional and as Meskin told Steranko, heavily influenced by film, most notably Kitizen Kane which he watched multiple times. He has often been largely overlooked due to not having worked on any high-profile superheroes, although he drew hundreds of stories featuring lesser known characters.
Meskin got his start in comics in 1939 with the famous Eisner and Iger comic-packaging company where he contributed to stories for Sheena Queen of the Jungle from Fiction House. Working for packager Harry ‘A’ Chesler, he drew such MLJ/Archie characters as The Shield, Ty-Gor and Mr Satan before moving to National DC in 1941.
At DC, Meskin drew dozens of characters such as the Vigilante, Wildcat and Starman. Meskin worked concurrently for other publishers during this time including Timely and did the notable Black Terror for Nedor Comics in collaboration with the legendary Jerry Robinson.
Meskin then moved to work in the Simon/Kirby studio where he did a variety of work including westerns and horror stories.
In 1956, he returned to DC where he did most of his remaining work until leaving comics to go into advertising in 1965. Among his more memorable stories at DC were the tales featuring super speedster Johnny Quick, which Meskin animated vividly by drawing Quick in a series of sequential poses in the one panel. He wqs inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013.
Log in to comment