Stan Goldberg, 1932-2014

Stan Goldberg in 2009, with the new cover art for IDW’s retrospective compilation of his work.

Stan Goldberg, illustrator and colourist whose career spanned more than sixty years at Marvel and Archie Comics, died on 31 August of complications from a stroke he had suffered two weeks previously. He was 82. Born in the Bronx, New York on 5 May, 1932, Goldberg graduated from Manhattan’s School of Industrial Art and began his career in comics in 1949, at Timely – the company which would later be known as Atlas, then as Marvel. He began as a staff colourist for Timely, and in two years had become head of the colouring department. He also occasionally illustrated stories for Atlas’ burgeoning horror line, in titles such as Marvel Tales. Throughout the 1950s, Goldberg oversaw the colouring of all of Atlas’ titles, and, by his own account, coloured the cover of every issue himself.

The two faces of Goldberg’s Millie the Model…

In 1958, when Atlas lost its distributor and had to severely cut back on its output, Goldberg went freelance and took the opportunity to enroll at New York’s School of Visual Arts to enhance his storytelling skills. When Atlas began to transition to Marvel in the early 1960s, Goldberg was responsible for the costume colour choices for the majority of Marvel’s iconic heroes and villains, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, and Spider-Man. He also became one of the main illustrators of Marvel’s female-targeted teen-humour and romance comics, including Kathy, the Teenage Tornado and Millie the Model, the latter of which changed direction in 1963 from an outright comedy to a more soap-operatic approach.

… Pre- and Post-“New Look”.

By 1967, the Millie franchise was flagging, and the decision was made to revamp the character in an unashamed imitation of the Archie series. The “New” Millie the Model proved so popular that two spin-off series followed in 1969; Mad About Millie and Millie’s Rival, Chili. However, by the mid-1970s, Marvel had cancelled their “girl’s line”, and Goldberg, after a couple of years drawing DC’s teen books – including Swing With Scooter, Debbi’s Dates and Binky – made the move to Archie Comics, where, having honed his skills illustrating numerous imitators, he finally cut his teeth on Archie himself, as well as the many companion titles such as Betty & Veronica, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Josie & The Pussycats, and scores more. He also illustrated the Archie newspaper comic strip from 1975 until 1980. In addition to his countless pages for the regular Archie line, Goldberg became the go-to guy for special projects; in 1990, in a one-shot tie-in with an Archie TV movie, To Riverdale and Back Again, Goldberg illustrated the nostalgic flashbacks of a grown-up Archie Andrews at his high school reunion (the “contemporary” segments were drawn by Gene Colan). In 1995, he was reunited with old friend John Buscema on Archie Meets the Punisher, a bizarre yet skilful inter-company crossover in which Marvel’s merciless vigilante tracked an evil Archie Andrews lookalike to Riverdale! Despite fans’ worst expectations, the one-shot scripted by Batton Lash was both a satisfying story in itself and respectful of both characters’ realities. When the New York Times ran a six-page story, “I’ll Take Manhattan”, starring Betty Cooper, in their 2003 Fashion of the Times magazine supplement, Goldberg was the chosen illustrator, and he also drew the six-issue Will You Marry Me? story arc which began in 2009’s Archie 600. Over the course of this “Imaginary Tale”, Archie dreams of a near future where, in different timelines, he marries first Veronica Lodge, then Betty Cooper. This story, the biggest headline-grabber of Goldberg’s career, was also among his last assignments, as his final work for Archie Comics was published in 2010. Goldberg has never chosen to elaborate on the reasons behind his departure from Archie, after more than 40 years, beyond observing in 2012 that, if it was up to him, he would still have been working there.

Goldberg’s last comics work, “That Parker Boy”, will be published in October.

After leaving Archie, Goldberg drew a variant cover for Marvel’s FF 1 in 2011, inked by another old Marvel Bullpen Buddy, Joe Sinnott, and an Archie parody in issue 183 of The Simpsons. In 2012, he worked for Papercutz on graphic novels starring Nancy Drew and The Three Stooges (two different projects – not teamed-up!) .

He is survived by his wife, the former Pauline Mirsky, whom he married in 1962, and by two sons, Stephen and Bennett, and four grandchildren. His daughter Heidi predeceased him in 1984.

For decades Stan Goldberg’s work was uncredited, and, even when he gained a byline in the 1960s, working in the (then) fan-despised genres of romance and comedy, his  dedication, professionalism and draughtsmanship often went ignored. However, by the 1990s, he had started to gain long-overdue recognition for his contribution to the medium. He was honoured with an Inkpot Award in 1884, and was inducted into the (American) National Cartoonists’ Hall of Fame in 2011, receiving that organization’s Gold Key Award in May 2012. In his later years, he was a regular attendee at conventions, where many of his fans had the opportunity to tell him, at last, how much they had enjoyed and appreciated his work.

Stan Goldberg’s final work, like his first, was for Marvel Comics. A Peter Parker story, “That Parker Boy”, scripted by his longtime friend and Archie-collaborator Tom DeFalco and inked by Scott Hanna, will be published in October 2014 in Marvel Comics’ Marvel 75th Anniversary Special.