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Frank Giacoia

Name:
Frank Giacoia
Aliases:
  • Phil Zupa
  • Frank Ray
Birth date:
July 6th, 1924
Death date:
February 4th, 1988
Home town:
Unknown
Country:
Unknown
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Frank Giacoia (July 6, 1924 - February 4, 1988) is an American comic book artist known primarily as an inker. He sometimes worked under the name Frank Ray, and to a lesser extent Phil Zupa, and the single moniker Espoia (the latter used for collaborations with fellow inker Mike Esposito).

Giacoia studied at Manhattan's School of Industrial Art (later the High School of Art and Design) and the Art Students League. He broke into comics by penciling the feature "Jack Frost" in USA Comics #3 (Jan. 1942), published by Marvel Comics' 1940s precursor, Timely Comics. His friend and collaborator Carmine Infantino, a classmate at the Art Students League, recalled that

. . . Frank Giacoia and I were in constant contact. One day in '40 we decided to go up to Timely Comics, which later became Marvel, to see if we could get some work. They gave us a script called 'Jack Frost' and that story became our first published work. Frank did the pencils and I did the inking. Joe Simon was the editor and he offered us both a staff job. Frank quit school and took the job. I wanted desperately to quit school and I told my father that it was a great opportunity. He said, 'No way! You're gonna finish school'.

Later in 1941, Giacoia joined the New York City comic-book packager Eisner & Iger, the studio of Golden Age greats Will Eisner and Jerry Iger. His early works includes crime for Ace Comics, horror for Avon Comics,and a multitude of characters for National Publications (the primary company that evolve into DC Comics) including the Flash and Batman.

Other companies for which Giacoia did art during the 1940s and 1950s include Crestwood, Dell Comics, Eastern Color, Fawcett, Harvey Comics Lev Gleason Publications and Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics. For Timely's USA Comics #1 (Aug. 1941), he penciled the debut of the feature "Jack Frost", inked by friend and high-school classmate Carmine Infantino — the latter's first art for comics.

During the 1960s Silver Age of comic books, Giacoia became best known as a Marvel Comics inker, particularly on Captain America stories penciled by the character's co-creator, industry legend Jack Kirby. One of the company's preeminent names, he worked on virtually every title at one time or another.

Giacoia also worked on the newspaper comic strip The Amazing Spider-Man (based on the same-name Marvel comic-book series) from 1978-1981, as well as on the strips Flash Gordon, The Incredible Hulk, Johnny Reb and Billy Yank, Sherlock Holmes and Thorne McBride.

He was recognized for his work in the comics field with a nomination for the Shazam Award for Best Inker (Dramatic Division) in 1974.

Creations by Frank

Masked Marauder

Poseidon

Jack Frost

Issues

December 1947

April 1948

June 1948

September 1948

November 1948

January 1949

March 1949

May 1949

July 1949

November 1949

January 1950

April 1950

July 1950

August 1950

September 1950

October 1950

December 1950

January 1951

February 1951

June 1951

August 1951

March 1952

July 1952

September 1952

October 1952

November 1952

December 1952

Volumes

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1951

1952

1956

1958

1959

1960

1961

1963

1964

1965

Characters