Ayers entered the comics industry with unpublished work done for
Western Publishing's
Dell Comics imprint. "I approached them," Ayers said in a 1996 interview. "I had a story written and drawn. They wanted to wrap a book around it.... I got into it, but Dell decided to scrap the project. ... It was an adventure thing, boy and girl; the boy wanted to be a trumpet player. The girl kept feeding the
jukebox and he'd played along to
Harry James or whatever sort of thing. ... It didn't make it, but it got me started where I wanted to be in the business."
Magazine Enterprises Following this, in 1947, Ayers studied under
Burne Hogarth in the first class of Hogarth's new institution, New York City's
Cartoonists and Illustrators School (renamed the
School of Visual Arts in 1956).
Joe Shuster, co-creator of
Superman, would visit the class, and Ayers eventually ventured to his nearby studio. "Next thing I knew," Ayers said in the same interview, "I was penciling a bit here and there." There, Sullivan "let me try the
Jimmy Durante [humor] strip. I submitted my work and got the job." With writer Ray Krank, Ayers created the
horror-themed Western character
Ghost Rider in
Tim Holt #11 (1949). The character appeared in stories through the run of
Tim Holt,
Red Mask,
A-1 Comics, ''Bobby Benson's B-Bar-B Riders
, and the 14-issue solo series The Ghost Rider'' (1950–1954), up through the introduction of the
Comics Code Authority. The character's genesis came, Ayers recalled in 2003, when Sullivan "describe[d] what he wanted in the Ghost Rider" and told Ayers to see the 1949 Disney animated feature
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, one segment of which adapted
Washington Irving's story "
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", featuring the Headless Horseman. "[A]nd then he told me to play the
Vaughn Monroe record "
(Ghost) Riders in the Sky". And then he started talking about what he wanted the guy wearing." After the trademark to the character's name and motif lapsed,
Marvel Comics debuted its own near-identical, non-horror version of the character in
Ghost Rider #1 (Feb. 1967), by writers
Roy Thomas and
Gary Friedrich and original Ghost Rider artist Ayers.
Atlas Comics In 1952, while continuing to freelance for Magazine Enterprises, Ayers began a long freelance run at
Atlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner of
Marvel Comics. He drew
horror stories in such titles as
Adventures into Terror,
Astonishing,
Journey into Mystery,
Journey into Unknown Worlds,
Menace,
Mystery Tales,
Mystic,
Strange Tales, and
Uncanny Tales. artist
Jack Kirby at Atlas shortly before Atlas transitioned to become
Marvel Comics. As Kirby's second regular Marvel inker, following
Christopher Rule, Ayers would ink countless covers and stories, including on such landmark comics as most early issues of
The Fantastic Four, in addition to a slew of
Western and "
pre-superhero Marvel" monster stories in
Amazing Adventures,
Journey into Mystery,
Strange Tales,
Tales of Suspense, and
Tales to Astonish. Ayers revealed in 1996, however: Ayers and
inker John Severin. Ayers went on to ink scores of Kirby Western and monster stories, including such much-reprinted tales as "I Created the Colossus!" (
Tales of Suspense #14, Feb. 1961), "Goom! The Thing from Planet X!" (
Tales of Suspense #15, March 1961), and "Fin Fang Foom!" (
Strange Tales #89, Oct. 1961). As Marvel introduced its
superheroes in the early 1960s, Ayers inked Kirby on the first appearances of
Ant-Man (
Tales to Astonish #27 & 35, Jan. & Sept. 1962),
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (issues #1-3, May-Sept. 1963), and the revamped
Rawhide Kid (beginning with
The Rawhide Kid #17, Aug. 1960); on the second and several subsequent early appearances of
Thor (
Journey into Mystery #84-89, Sept. 1962 - Feb. 1963); on
Fantastic Four #6-20 (Sept. 1962 - Nov. 1963), and the spin-off
Human Torch solo series in
Strange Tales (starting with its debut in issue #101); and
The Incredible Hulk #3-5 (Sept. 1962 - Jan. 1963), among other series. Writer
Gary Friedrich's story for issue #72 (Nov. 1969) was heavily rewritten and partially redrawn due to concerns about possible copyright infringement of the film
Casablanca. Ayers and Friedrich collaborated on the
Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders series for Marvel as well. Ayers drew a comics adaptation of
Killdozer, a
made for TV science-fiction
horror film, in
Worlds Unknown #6 (April 1974). The film itself was adapted from a 1944
novella of the same name by
Theodore Sturgeon.
DC Comics In 1976, Ayers began working for DC Comics. He and writer
Bob Haney oversaw the renaming of
Star Spangled War Stories to a self-titled series for the
Unknown Soldier.
Michael Fleisher and Ayers launched
Scalphunter, a new lead feature for
Weird Western Tales as of issue #39 (March–April 1977). Other series which Ayers drew included
Jonah Hex,
Kamandi, and the "Gravedigger" feature in
Men of War.
Gerry Conway and Ayers created a series called
The Deserter in 1978 but the project was never published due to
DC cutting back its publishing output.
Later career In the 1980s, Ayers, inked by
Chic Stone, drew four editions of the promotional, annual comic-book series initially cover-titled
TRS-80 Computer Whiz Kids and, thereafter,
Tandy Computer Whiz Kids, published by
Archie Comics for
Radio Shack:
The Computer Trap (March 1984),
The Computers That Said No to Drugs (March 1985),
The Answer to a Riddle (March 1987), and
Fit to Win (March 1988). He also drew approximately 30 sports-star biographies for
Revolutionary Comics between 1990 and 1994. Ayers' work continued into the 2000s. He contributed a pinup page to the 2001 comic
The Song of Mykal, published privately by the comics shop Atlantis Fantasyworld, did inking on "Doris Danger" stories in the magazine
Tabloia #572-576, and drew a pinup page in the comic ''Doris Danger's Greatest All-Out Army Battles!'' He wrote and drew the eight-page "Chips Wilde" Western story in the benefit comic
Actor Comics Presents #1 (Fall 2006), provided a sketch for the benefit comic
The 3-Minute Sketchbook (2007), and contributed to the tribute comic
The Uncanny Dave Cockrum (2007). In 2009, he drew a half-page biographical illustration of a 1940s character in the reference guide
Marvel Mystery Handbook 70th Anniversary Special.
Illustrated autobiography Starting in 2005, Ayers "published an ambitious and unusual three-volume graphic memoir,"
The Dick Ayers Story: an Illustrated Autobiography, through Mecca Comics. Each volume of this autobiography is approximately 120 pages, with volume one covering his life from 1924–1951, volume two from 1951–1986, and volume three 1986–2005. Ayers wrote, drew, and lettered all three volumes. ==Personal life==