Allen Bellman 1924 - 2020

Allen Bellman, a golden age comic book artist remembered for being one of the first people to draw Captain America, passed away peacefully after a short illness at the age of 95. His beloved wife Roz and family was at his side.

From comicbook.com:

"Bellman war born in June of 1924 and would become one of the earliest artists to draw Captain America. Over the course of his career, he would work on numerous Timely and Atlas Comics, including All Winners Comics, Young Allies, The Human Torch, Sub Mariner Comics. As with so many of the Golden Age artists, he would go on to work on more than just superheroes, with Westerns, jungle adventures, mysteries, and of course war comics creeping into his oeuvre.

"Apparently a modest man, Bellman maintained a personal website that included a history of Timely Comics, in which his name is not actually mentioned, even though many of the comics he worked on are. According to his bio, in smaller lettering at the bottom of that page, 'I eventually became a staff artist at Timely during the Golden Age of comics and worked on titles such as: The Patriot, The Destroyer, The Human Torch, Jap Buster Johnson and Jet Dixon of the Space Squadron, All Winners Comics, Marvel Mystery, Sub Mariner Comics, Young Allies and so much more.'"

Comic book historian and writer Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, who was a friend to the Bellmans, writes:

"Allen was extremely friendly and answered all my initial questions as if the events had happened yesterday, nearly all pertaining to the freelance work of the Atlas period of Marvel’s history, from 1950 to the time Allen disappeared from the newsstands. That was the work I knew and loved. That was the work likely “anyone” knew.

"I was also shocked to learn just how early on Allen had started at Timely at age 18, joining the staff in late 1942 after seeing an ad in the New York Times. On his father’s advice, Allen answered the ad (Timely was then in the McGraw Hill Building on West 42nd St.) and was hired on Columbus Day. His very first assignment? Background artist on Captain America, then being penciled in the main book by the great Syd Shores and inked by Vince Alascia."

This is just a small part of a profile that Dr. Vassallo wrote. It includes his introduction for Bellman's autobiography TIMELY CONFIDENTIAL: WHEN THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS WAS YOUNG, published in 2017.

  All image from Dr. Vassallo's blog.