Carl Gafford was a colorist who worked for several decades in the comics industry.
19 Facts About Carl Gafford
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Carl Gafford worked for a number of publishers during his career, including Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Topps Comics.
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Carl Gafford was a member of comics fandom as a teen, writing and drawing his own ditto machine fanzine Minotaur from 1968 to 1972, as well as contributing art and writing to other fanzines and the amateur press alliance CAPA-alpha beginning in December 1970.
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Carl Gafford had an itinerant path through higher education, attending Western Connecticut State University for two years, the University of Massachusetts Boston for one year, and San Francisco State University for one year.
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Carl Gafford began his professional career at DC Comics as an assistant proofreader in the production department in March 1973, and was promoted to full proofreader at the end of the year with the retirement of Gerta Gattel.
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Carl Gafford was promoted to assistant production manager in August 1974 and began work on DC's in-house fanzine, The Amazing World of DC Comics, doing editing, writing, production work and color separations.
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Carl Gafford moved to San Francisco in September 1976, then to Los Angeles in 1977 to color and write for the Hanna-Barbera comics produced for Marvel Comics.
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Carl Gafford went to work in Marvel Comics' production department, first as a freelancer then as the staff typesetter.
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Carl Gafford left Marvel in January 1981 and began freelancing for both DC and Marvel, one of the few colorists to work at both companies at the same time.
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Carl Gafford returned to staff at DC in the summer of 1981 as the proofreader, then by year's end had become Len Wein's assistant editor on Justice League, The Flash, Teen Titans, and the Batman books.
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Carl Gafford returned to freelance coloring for DC and Marvel in summer 1982.
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In June 1990, Carl Gafford began working for Disney Comics, producing a series of comics based on Mickey Mouse, Goofy, new TV cartoon shows like Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers and Duck Tales, and the continuation of Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories from Gladstone Publishing.
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Carl Gafford freelanced for Dark Horse Comics and Innovation while at Disney, and did some editing of the final Disney Comics publication, an Aladdin miniseries, while helping to transition the end of the Disney Comics line, returning the license to Gladstone Publishing.
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In March 1993, Carl Gafford moved back to New York to help Jim Shooter launch his new Defiant Comics line.
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In June 1993, Carl Gafford was hired by former Marvel editor Jim Salicrup for the new line of Topps Comics, produced by the sports trading card publisher Topps.
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Carl Gafford was laid off from Topps at the end of January 1997 along with other staffers, including editor-in-chief Salicrup.
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Carl Gafford wrote and drew original comics stories reminiscent of 1950s and '60s superhero genres which saw print in Big Bang Comics: two stories were redrawn by other artists, but the final one featured Gafford's own art, the last to appear in print.
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Carl Gafford and his first wife Sharon had a son, William, born in May 1985.
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Carl Gafford died July 13,2020, from complications related to diabetes.