1. Henry Allan Hartley known professionally as Al Hartley, was an American comic book writer-artist known for his work on Archie Comics, Atlas Comics, and many Christian comics, especially under the Spire Christian Comics imprint.
16 Facts About Al Hartley
1. 2.
Al Hartley received an Inkpot Award at the 1980 San Diego Comic-Con.
3.
Al Hartley was born in Kearny, New Jersey, the son of Hazel Hartley and Congressman Frederick Allan Hartley, Jr.
4.
Al Hartley had a brother, Jack, and a sister, Lorraine.
5.
Al Hartley knew I wanted to draw from the time I could hold a crayon.
6.
In 1949, Al Hartley began freelancing for editor Stan Lee at Timely Comics, the progenitor of Marvel Comics.
7.
Walker eventually would be integrated into mainstream Marvel Universe continuity in the 1970s as the supernatural superheroine Hellcat, long after Al Hartley had left the character.
8.
Also for Atlas, Al Hartley co-created Leopard Girl with writer Don Rico in Jungle Action, and drew such features as "The Black Rider" in Wild Western, and "Cliff Mason, White Hunter" in Jungle Tales.
9.
Al Hartley had done a short-lived gag-panel cartoon, Suburbia, the year before.
10.
In 1967, feeling "sterile, numb, and filled with fear", Al Hartley became a born again Christian, as did his wife, Hermine.
11.
At the time, he was among several artists who drew the black-and-white, "nudie cutie" secret-agent feature "Pussycat" that ran in some of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman's men's magazines; Al Hartley told the publisher that he couldn't continue.
12.
Al Hartley began writing and drawing for Archie Comics, infusing some of the stories with his Christian beliefs.
13.
Al Hartley later received a call from publisher Fleming H Revell, for whom he then freelanced a comic-book adaptation of David Wilkerson's The Cross and the Switchblade in 1972, quickly followed by adaptations of God's Smuggler by the pseudonymous Brother Andrew and The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom.
14.
Inspired, Hartley helped launch the Spire Christian Comics line, and pitched Archie president John L Goldwater to let him license the Archie characters.
15.
Al Hartley never 'preached' in those pages; he just had Betty share her feelings, good and bad.
16.
Al Hartley died May 27,2003, aged 81, at Health Park Medical Center in Fort Myers, Florida.