Donato Francisco Rico II (1912-1985) was an American comic book writer and artist for Marvel Comics' predecdessors, Timely and Atlas, and a paperback novelist. 1912 is a leap year starting on Monday. ... 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Artist is a subjective term which describes a person creative in, innovative in, or adept at, their endeavors. ... Marvel Comics NYSE: MVL, (AKA Marvel Entertainment Group, Marvel Characters, Inc. ... Categories: Stub | Books ...

Don Rico created striking wood engravings of gloomy Depression-era life for the W.P.A. Federal Art Project in the mid-to-late 1930s. He began his comics career in 1940 at Victor A. Fox's Fox Publications. He worked on some of the earliest stories of the Golden Age characters Daredevil in Lev Gleason Publications' Silver Streak Comics, helping to establish a character that would go on to a highly celebrated run in his own title under Charles Biro). This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Works Progress Administration (later Works Projects Administration, abbreviated WPA), was created on May 6, 1935 with the signing of Executive Order 7034. ... Superman, the catalyst of the Golden Age, from Superman #14, January-February 1942. ... Leverett Gleason Publications was the publisher of a number of popular comic books during the 1940s and early 1950s, including Daredevil and Boy Comics. ... Charles Biro is an American comic book writer, chiefly known for creating the wartime comic Airboy. ...

Joining the staff at Timely Comics by 1943, Rico variously wrote/drew for characters including Captain America (including the lead story in All Select Comics #1), the Whizzer (including in All-Winners Comics #11), the Destroyer, the Blonde Phantom, the Terror (in Mystic Comics), Venus, and the Young Allies. Captain America, the alter ego of Steve Rogers (in some accounts Steven Grant Rogers), is a Marvel Comics superhero. ... This article refers to the superhero. ... The Destroyer on the cover of Mystic Comics #8 (March, 1942) The Destroyer is a Golden Age of Comics superhero in the Marvel Comics universe, debuting in Mystic Comics #6 (October 1941), an early publication of Marvel predecessor Timely Comics. ... The Young Allies is the name of two superhero teams in the Marvel Universe. ...

Other Golden Age credits include work in America's Greatest Comics and Bulletman (Fawcett Publications), Black Hood Comics and Shield-Wizard Comics (MLJ), Blue Bolt Comics (Novelty Press), Captain Battle and Captain Battle Junior (Lev Gleason), Fantastic Comics and Weird Comics (Fox), Fight Comics and Planet Comics (Fiction House), and National Comics, Smash Comics and Target Comics (Quality Comics). Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company launched in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford H. Captain Billy Fawcett (1883-1940). ... Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Forsythe Jughead Jones. ... Crack Comics #1 (May, 1940), featuring the Clock, previously introduced as the first masked comic book superhero. ...

In the following decade, Rico became one of the six primary writers for Marvel's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics, along with Hank Chapman, Carl Wessler, Paul S. Newman, editor Stan Lee, and future MAD Magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee. Among the Atlas titles for which he wrote are Adventures into Terror, Astonishing, Jann of the Jungle, Jungle Action (where he co-created Leopard Girl with artist Al Hartley), Jungle Tales, Lorna, the Jungle Girl and Lorna, the Jungle Queen, Marvel Tales, Suspense and Strange Tales. Rico, now concentrating on writing, briefly returned to comic art as an illustrator of the Atlas series Bible Tales for Young Folk. Stan Lee and his most famous co-creation, Spider-Man. ... Harvey Kurtzmans cover for the first issue of the comic book Mad Mad is an American humor magazine founded by publisher William Gaines and editor Harvey Kurtzman in 1952. ... Al Jaffee (born March 13, 1921) is a cartoonist, best known for his work in MAD Magazine. ... Allan Hartley (born 1921, Kearny, New Jersey; died May 27, 2003) is an American comic book writer-artist known for his work on Archie Comics, on the 1950s Atlas line, and many Christian comics. ...

Rico wrote only two stories for Marvel during the 1960s Silver Age — a Doctor Strange story in Strange Tales #129 (Feb. 1965), and, scripting a plot by Stan Lee, the Iron Man story that debuted the Black Widow, in Tales of Suspense #52 (April 1964). On both, he used the pseudonyn N. Kurok, later explaining he hadn't wanted his paperback-book publisher to know he was taking on lower-paying comic-book work [1]. Showcase #4 (September-October 1956), often thought the first appearance of the first Silver Age superhero, the Barry Allen Flash. ... Doctor Strange, a fictional character, is a sorcerer featured in Marvel Comics. ... Strange Tales is the name of several comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics. ... Iron Man is a Marvel Comics superhero. ... The Black Widow is the name of several fictional characters published by Marvel Comics. ... Tales of Suspense was a comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics. ...

In 1977, Rico, cartoonist Sergio Aragones and television and comic-book writer Mark Evanier co-founded the Comic Art Professional Society (CAPS). Rico also worked with Aragones as scripter for the artist-plotter's detective strip "T.C. Mars" in Joe Kubert's magazine Sojourn. Rico and Aragones had been two of the 16 comic-book professionals given the lifetime-achievement Inkpot Award at the 1976 Comic-Con International in San Diego. In 1979, Rico drew the cover and wrote an introduction for a 128-page anthology of black-and-white reprints, The Magnificent Superheroes of Comics [sic] Golden Age #1 (Vintage Features). Sergio Aragonés (born 1937) is a cartoonist and writer. ... Mark Evanier (born March 2, 1952 in Santa Monica, California) is an American writer. ... Joe Kubert is a legendary comic book artist who went on to found the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. ... Comic-Con International, commonly known as the San Diego Comic Con, is an annual comic book convention held during the summer in San Diego, California. ... San Diego County in the Southwest corner of California. ...

Rico co-wrote, with Don Henderson, the story basis for the bisexual-vampiress horror movie Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (U.S.-Mexico, 1975), by director Juan Lopez Moctezuma and scripter Malcolm Marmorstein.

His other pseudonyms include Dan Rico, Donella St. Michaels, Donna Richards, and Joseph Milton.

Quotes

Allen Bellman [2]: "Don and some of the other artists didn't bother with Syd Shores. who was the unofficial bullpen director. Rico was the ringleader of this 'ignore Shores' group. He was always causing small problems in the office and [publisher Martin] Goodman knew this, and hence the name 'Rat Rico' he referred to Don with."

Gil Kane [3]: "Timely was my second job after MLJ. ... Stan was the editor at 19 years old but all the day-to-day managing of the work was done by Don Rico, who also did most of the hiring and firing."

Paperback Novels

• Nikki (Midwood Books, 1963)
• The Unmarried Ones (Beacon Signal Sixty, 1964)
• The Sad Gay Life (Lancer Books imprint Domino Books, 1964; under pseudonym Donna Richards)
• The Odd World (Domino Books, 1954; under pseudonym Donna Richards)
• The Last of the Breed (Lancer/Magnum, 1965)
• The Big Blue Death (Lancer Books, 1965; under publishing-house pseudonym Joseph Milton)
• Lorelei (Belmont Books, 1966)
• The Prisoner (Lancer Books, 1966; under pseudonym Donella St. Michaels)
• The Girls of Sunset (Lancer Books, 1966)
• Counterspy (Lancer Books, 1966)
• Nightmare of Eyes (Lancer Books, 1967)
• The Man From Pansy (Lancer Books, 1967; Buzz Cardigan series)
• The Daisy Dilemma (Lancer Books, 1967; Buzz Cardigan series)
• The Passion Flower Puzzle (Lancer Books, 1968, Buzz Cardigan series)
• Casey Grant Caper #1: The Ring-A-Ding Girl (Paperback Library, 1969)
• Casey Grant Caper #2: the Swinging Virgin (Paperback Library, 1969)
• Casey Grant Caper #3: So Sweet, So Deadly (Paperback Library, 1970)
• The House of Girls (New English Library, 1969)

ALSO

• Copyright: How to Register Your Copyright and Introduction to New and Historical Copyright Law by Walter E. Hurst, illustrated by Don Rico (Seven Arts Press, 1977)

Rico Golden Age Reprints

• Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (Dec. 1967): The Destroyer in "The Beachhead Blitz" (from All-Winners Comics #12)

External links

• Official site
• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• The Grand Comic Book Database
• "Esoteric Atlas: Bible Tales for Young Folk" by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo
• "Vincent Fago and the Timely Funny Animal Dept." by by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo
• Secret Identities