Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.75 Dan Zolnerowich

No.75 Dan Zolnerowich

Starting like so many artists from the golden age at the Eisner / Iger Workshop, Zolnerowich worked mainly for Fiction House in the 1940s, on such strips as Super American, Suicide Smith, Kaanga, Kayo Kirby, The Hawk and Captain Wings. However he is best known by fandom for his magnificent cover work on the publisher’s flagship title, Planet Comics. Words: Andrew Colman…

Throughout the early period of the book, Zolnerowich’s covers were masterworks in detail, clarity, dynamism and space-age surrealism, with, more often than not, the usual components – a space damsel (often tied to a rocket) in bondage in the process of being saved by the hero from a grotesque monster or legion of deformed space creatures. He also did some equally excellent cover and interior work for sister titles Rangers Comics and Fight Comics. 

He later on moved to Quality and Hillman comics, working primarily on the former’s Blackhawk and Dollman, before illustrating backgrounds on the Spirit strip. As the Golden Age ended, so did Zolnerowich’s career in comics, as he moved into other fields. However his much sought after covers for Fiction House have become one of the touchstones of science-fiction comics fandom.