Tony Tallarico

Tony Tallarico was an American comic book artist and children's book illustrator. Born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York City, he attended the city's School of Industrial Art, the Brooklyn Museum Art School and the School of Visual Arts. He started out in comics in the early 1950s, working as a penciler and inker for companies like Charlton, Trojan and the David C. Cook Publishing Company. Tallarico was present at Gilberton with art for their Classics Illustrated, Classics Illustrated Junior and World Around Us series, including the comic book adaptation of H.G. Wells' 'The Food of the Gods' in 1960. He drew the one shot satirical political comic book 'Great Society Comic Book' (1966) and it's follow-up 'Bobman and Teddy', written by D.J. Arneson, for Parallax Comic Books. His main output was however created for Dell Comics and Charlton Comics. He drew Dell's short-lived comic book 'Lobo' in 1965-66, the first to star an African-American hero, and also worked on the company's 'Frankenstein' and 'Dracula' titles. His Charlton work includes superheroes like 'Blue Beetle' and 'Jigsaw' but also TV-related comics like 'Bewitched' and 'Bobby Sherman'. Tallarico teamed up with penciler Bill Fraccio and additionally contributed to the Warren magazines Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, for which they used the joint pen names Tony Williamsune or Tony Williamson. Tallarico left the comic books field in 1973. From then on, he has focused on illustrating children's books for a variety of publishers, including the 'Where Are They?' series. He has additionally made educational books about drawing, as well as puzzle and game books.