On Sunday, the great comic book artist Nick Cardy died at the age of 93. Cardy was one of the best artists working in the business during his peak, from the 1960s through the 1970s. Although his name might not be as famous of some of the other artists of his time, he was enormously respected by others in the field, as many tributes and kinds words were issued online and through Twitter in the past few days about Cardy.
Born Nicholas Viscardi, Nick Cardy came to comic books after returning from World War II. Although he began working for DC Comics in the 1950s, this was a relatively dormant time for superhero comic book publishing, and Cardy drew westerns and crime books. As superheroes became more popular in the 1960s, Cardy was given more work on these titles. He became associated with Aquaman after he drew the six years of the first solo series for the character, starting in 1962. Cardy also became linked to the Teen Titans after he drew the first issue of the original series in 1966. Later on, Cardy drew the offbeat western title, Bat Lash.
In addition to the outstanding art that Cardy provided in those books and others through the 60s and 70s, he became one of the best and busiest cover artists at DC at the time. Cardy's draftsmanship, insight into compelling points of view and strong sense of body language made many of his covers classics that are cited as some of the best covers of the period. In addition to Aquaman and The Teen Titans, Cardy illustrated many covers featuring Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman. Cardy also was involved in the Batman newspaper comic strip of the late 1960s. He was also one of DC's best romance comics artists during those years.
Cardy left comic books in the 1970s to illustrate in other fields, such as advertising and magazines. His contribution was not forgotten, though, since he was enormously influential on comic book readers and artists who grew up in the late 1960s and 1970s. In 2005, he was elected to the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.
