Mart Nodell

[dlw66]

Green Lantern creator Mart Nodell passed away Saturday (Dec. 9 2006) at the age of 91. He was also the creator of the Pillsbury Doughboy advertising icon.

In another thread I was discussing some autographs that I've collected. I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. Nodell a few times at the Chicago Con. He was always very pleasant, although in recent years one could tell that he didn't always have all his faculties about him. The autograph he signed for me was accompanied by a sketch of the Golden Age Green Lantern's power battery, and is a treasured part of my Les Daniel's DC coffee table book.

[The Night Phantom]

According to the obituary Mark Evanier posted in his blog, Nodell briefly worked at Timely in the late 1940s and there drew three future Avengers (and Invaders): Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, and the Human Torch.

[The Night Phantom]

I confess I was a little surprised to see the headline-link “Green Lantern creator dead at 91” on CNN.com’s main page. I figured Green Lantern might be a little too obscure for mainstream news—especially given that Nodell created Alan Scott, not one of the GLs that the general public is more likely to have encountered in various TV cartoons. (The obituary doesn’t really make the distinction: “After its cancellation in 1949, the series was reborn in 1959 with a revised story line, and it has been revived several times.”) And CNN shows a photo of Nodell standing by an illustration of Alan Scott—a nice touch!