Scott Edelman is reporting the death of comics artist George Tuska, on 15 October 2009. Born 26 April 1916 in Hartford, Connecticut, he studied at the National Academy of Art before starting work, in 1939, as an assistant on the comic strip Scorchy Smith. He also worked for comics packager Eisner & Iger, and on titles such as Jungle Comics, Mystery Men Comics, Shark Brodie, Spike Marlin, Wings Comics, and Wonderworld Comics. Later, he moved on to Captain Marvel Adventures and Hercules.
Tuska took time off from comics to serve in the World War II, and upon his return to civilian life, took up where he left off. Among other jobs, he returned to Scorchy Smith (and was one of the last writer-artists of the series, which ran until 1961). He also drew the comic strip Buck Rogers from 1959 to 1967.
During the Silver Age, Tuska freelanced mostly for Marvel, starting with Tales of Suspense #58 (1964), and moving on to titles such as Ghost Rider, Power Man, Sub-Mariner, The X-Men, and the Planet of the Apes movie tie-in series. He worked on almost every issue of Iron Man from #5 (September 1968) to #106 (January 1978). Later in his career, he worked for DC on titles such as Superman, Superboy, and Challengers of the Unknown. He also drew The World’s Greatest Superheroes Present Superman comic strip from 1978 to 1993.
Scott Edelman talks about the one time he worked with Tuska (on Marvel’s Captain Marvel, January 1978), in this post. Comic Art Community has a small gallery of Tuska’s work on this page. And TwoMorrows Publishing has a brief interview with Tuska from 2001 on this page.