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R.I.P. Jim Mooney

He passed away last Sunday at the age of eighty-eight. Mooney’s roots as an artist date back to Golden Age, where he worked for Timely/Marvel, the Igot/Eisner studio, and ghosted for Bob Kane on BATMAN.

In his post Golden-Age career, he’s best known for his ten year stretch as the primary Silver Age Supergirl artist, his work on the Stan Lee penned AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and his collaborations with Steve Gerber on OMEGA THE UNKNOWN and the MAN-THING.

He’s been in semi-retirement since 1985, (although Wikipedia says he did some strange one-offs, like an issue of ELVIRA: MISTRESS OF THE DARK) but has been active on the convention circuit and his website states that he’s still accepting commissions.

And from all accounts, and I’ve heard several, he was a hell of a nice guy. He will be missed.

22 Comments

He was a great artist, loved his Supergirl.

He drew a great Supergirl and a great Spider-Man. Rest in peace, Mr. Mooney.

David Kirkpatrick

March 31, 2008 at 6:13 pm

That’s really depressing news. He was the first artist I got a commission from when I began collecting original art four or five years ago. He did a cover-level commission of Supergirl and Red K, based loosely on the old 80 page Giant books. He was wonderful to deal with, did a fabulous job, and really made it easy on a novice to the comic-art collecting biz. I’ve picked up a number of other pieces by him since then, but that one will always be special.

David Kirkpatrick
CAF: http://qurls.com?i=33485

Well, dang.

His artwork was lovely and I bet he was, too.

Yeah. Geez. It sucks. He really was the best Supergirl artist ever.

And I apologize for the really stupid typo.

Dan (other Dan)

March 31, 2008 at 7:45 pm

Aw, crud. Too bad.

He did some great work in Alan Moore’s Supreme post-retirement, as well.

He was a great artist, and we’ll certainly miss him.

Man….not Jim Mooney too…..what is going on??? God needs to space this stuff out a little more….or not. Guess he knows what he’s doing.

One thing’s for sure…seems like he’s really stocking up on some great comic talent lately.

Golly, Mister Midnight, isn’t it obvious? With Mooney’s passing coming so close on the heels of Steve Gerber’s, God must be planning an OMEGA THE UNKNOWN revival! Watch your back, Mary Skrenes!

Sorry, did that sound unnecessarily cavalier in its insistence in seeing the ending of a human life totally in brain-damaged fanboy-monkey terms? Cos that *totally* wasn’t my intention at *all.*

Hey Jack, *I* found it funny at least, so no worries. I was a big fan of Mooney’s but I still can’t get too broken up because hey, he was 88 years old which is a good run and also, he had a great career working on huge icons and getting well-known in the industry. He seems to have had a good life, at least professionally.

Wow… I loved his work on ASM.

This sucks.

I’m prett sure he stated in an interview that he had actually never ghosted for Bob Kane, though.

Well, he said here that he did.

CBA: Drawing in Bob Kane’s style?

JIM: This was actually, it was ghosting. Dick Sprang was one of their better production artists, and he’d taken off and wanted to do something else. So Dick took off for Arizona, and DC was looking for someone to fill in. So, that’s where I fit in, and I stayed on Batman for quite a few years, and then I did “Robin, the Boy Wonder” in Star-Spangled Comics, and, let’s see, I worked for some of their House of Secrets and House of Mystery, “Tommy Tomorrow,” almost everything came along, and I handled it for DC. I was with DC on a freelance basis for almost 20 years.

http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/07mooney.html

Rest in Peace Mr. Mooney.

I think he was made to draw teenagers heroes best.
He drew a few issues of legion of Super-Heroes, the Robin stories (loved those), Supergirl… He is the definitive Supergirl artist.

This is probably due to his style of inking, soft not hard lines, I recognized him for his “cute” young faces.

He was a great artist, and from the interviews I read, an interesting gentleman as well. At 88, his death can’t be too surprising, and he did leave a legacy of wonderful art, but he’ll still be missed.

Awww… I feel so sad to read this. As a lover of Supergirl/Ms. Marvel, I always hoped that I’d be able to meet him. I guess now, at least, not in this plane of existence.

Interviews I read of him, he seemed like a genuinely down to earth and pleasant individual.

He seemed to genuinely care about the characters he helped establish, and that came through in his art.

Although he was 88, it’s still a surprise; icons like him always feel like they’ll be with us forever. He’s left us a legacy of artwork and stories, and that’s a part of him, so in many ways, he will be.

I hope with all the collections out there of artists work, someone will put out a tribute to Mr. Mooney.

Prayers and thoughts go out to his family and friends.

I first got to know Jim Mooney’s work from the 1960s version of Dial “H” For Hero in House of Mystery. It was a bizarre, trippy little ’60s DC comic from the Go-go check era and yet Jim Mooney’s art just made it all…work in way that successive artists couldn’t.

He was also great on Spider-Man too.

I join with you to mourn Jim Mooney’s departure. I know he had a great past with comic books in the 40-50-70′s, but I only knew him on Marvel comics, inking the pencils of super-heroes drawings. So long.

The news of Jim’s death makes me terribly sad. 20 years ago in 1988 when I was 10 years old, I was lucky enough to meet and speak to Jim Mooney a few times. As a kid my dad had a flea market spot in Stuart FL(The B&A Flea Market- it still exists today!), and my dad sold Baseball and Football Cards there. I would join my dad each weekend as I liked the idea, sometimes I even put some of my own Spider-Man Comics on the Table.. Jim Mooney came by a few times and he picked up some of the comics I had. He would smile and talk to me, and once told me he was going to bring me something the next time he seen me. I had no idea who he was or what he was talking about. One weekend, he came by and gave me Amazing Spider-Man #76 and on the inside he had signed the comic to me, “To Jim from Jim Mooney” I was shocked to see HE was the artist of this older Spider-Man book and we had the same name!! He told me to hold on to it because it was his personal copy and he didn’t have another one…My amazement to this has remained throught my life. His kind gift it’s part of what’s inspired me to own a comic book business. It’s been one of the greatest stories of my entire life. I’m glad to be able to share it with you.. Unfortunatly the comic Jim Mooney signed to me was stolen sometime in my early 20′s… If anyone’s seen it..I trade any comic I have for it…

RIP Jim Mooney , Thank you for showing me the good in people. Thanks for the inspiration- I will miss you deeply.

Jim Blasko
Las Vegas NV
Formally of Port St Lucie Fl.

This Sunday’s (4-12) Funky Winkerbean has a large re-creation of the first Supergirl cover drawn by Jim Mooney!

What a lovely surprise to see.

Hi! This is kind of off topic but I need some advice from an established blog. Is it hard to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast. I’m thinking about setting up my own but I’m not sure where to start. Do you have any points or suggestions? Appreciate it

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