Ross Andru (; born Rostislav Androuchkevitch, June 15, 1927 – November 9, 1993) was an American comics artist and editor whose career in comics spanned six decades. He is best known for his work on The Amazing Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and The Metal Men, and for having co-created the character called The Punisher.
His most frequent collaborator was comics inker Mike Esposito, with whom he worked on projects over a span of four decades. The two also founded three short-lived comic books companies: Mr. Publications (1951), MikeRoss (1953) and Klevart Enterprises (1970).
Early life and education
Ross Andru was born in Highland Park, Michigan on June 15, 1927, the third of Alexander and Glafire (née Evanoff) Androuchkevitch's three children. Andru grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, raised by Russian émigré parents who came to the US in 1926.
After moving to New York City, Andru graduated from The High School of Music & Art, then in Harlem. One of his classmates and friends was future comics artist Mike Esposito. While students, they collaborated on flip-book animation. Andru joined the US Army in 1945, and was discharged in 1946.
In 1947, Andru attended the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, studying under Burne Hogarth. Again, Esposito was Andru's classmate.
Career
Early work
In 1946, Andru worked for an animation studio in Manhattan drawing artwork for Chiclets chewing gum commercials.
In 1948, Andru's first professional work as a comic strip illustrator was drawing layouts for the Tarzan newspaper strip. As his longtime partner Mike Esposito recalled, he and Andru were attending Burne Hogarth's Cartoonists and Illustrators School in 1947 when "Burne took Ross out of the class because he saw the talent he had and asked him, 'Would you like to assist me on Tarzan? (the newspaper strip for the Sunday page of the New York Daily Mirror). He paid Ross by the month... the G.I. Bill gave him a few bucks to live on. Ross would lay it out then Burne would ink it with his approach... actually change everything and it would look really like Burne Hogarth when he got through with it. Ross (Andru) had a great concept for visuals for the layout, for the storytelling. That's what Burne Hogarth saw in Ross and he developed him to pull all that out, the shots and the depth of field. That only lasted a couple of years, because the strip died in about 1950–51... Ross came to me when I started publishing and we more or less teamed up'."
Partnership with Esposito
A source claims penciler Andru first teamed with inker Esposito in 1949 for the publisher Fiction House, but this is unconfirmed at the Grand Comics Database.
The team's first confirmed collaboration was on the six-page "Wylie's Wild Horses" in Hillman Periodicals' Western Fighters vol. 2, #12 (Nov. 1950), signaling the start of a four-decade collaboration.
They quickly founded their own comics-book company, the name of which is variously rendered as MR Publications, the combined initials of their first names; Mr. Publications, after the company's sole series, the whimsical adventure comic Mister Universe, which ran five issues (July 1951 – April 1952); or the hybrid MR. Publications. The two also co-founded Mikeross Publications in 1953, which through 1954 produced one issue each of the 3D romance comics 3-D Love and 3-D Romance, two issues of the romance comic Heart and Soul, and three issues of the satiric humor comic Get Lost.
Andru and Esposito created early work on Key Publications' Mister Mystery in 1951 and Standard Comics' The Unseen and Joe Yank (the latter credited as "Mikeross").
DC Comics
In September, 1953, the two began a long career as one of DC Comics' primary war story creative teams, alongside the likes of Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, and Jerry Grandenetti. Their partnership at DC Comics began with a story each in All-American Men of War #6, Our Army at War #14, and Star Spangled War Stories #13 (all Sept. 1953). For those titles as well as G.I. Combat and Our Fighting Forces, Andru and Esposito drew hundreds of tales of combat under editor and frequent writer Robert Kanigher's supervision.
From 1957 to 1959, Andru and Esposito shared a studio with fellow comics artists Jack Abel, Art Peddy and Bernard Sachslate, generally credited as either Bernard Sachs or Bernie Sachs.