Early life and career Abel's published work stretches to 1951, when he penciled and inked
horror stories for such
anthology series as Mr. Publications' (
Mike Esposito and
Ross Andru's company)
Mister Mystery, and
Atlas Comics'—the 1950s forerunner of
Marvel Comics—
Journey into Unknown Worlds, and
Western tales in
Prize Comics' aptly title
Prize Comics Western. He inked
science fiction,
romance, and
war comics for Atlas,
American Comics Group,
Avon Comics,
Harvey Comics, and
Hillman Periodicals, and later in the decade became a prolific penciler for the DC war titles
All-American Men of War,
Our Army at War,
Our Fighting Forces, and
Star Spangled War Stories. Writer
Hank Chapman and Abel co-created the character Sgt. Mule – whose name, "Millie", meant she was actually not a
mule (male) but a
hinny (female) — appeared with various keepers including Private Mulvaney (
Our Army at War #149 and 160,
Star Spangled War Stories #136); Private Skinner (
G.I. Combat #104); and Private Smith (
Our Army at War #117). for his 1963
pop art lithograph Crak!. Similarly,
Torpedo...Los! is based on Abel's art in the Haney-written story "Battle of the Ghost Ships?", in
Our Fighting Forces #71 (October 1962).
DC and Superman Abel inked hundreds of DC stories, and eventually was chosen to succeed longtime "Superman family" inker
George Klein as
Curt Swan's embellisher on "
Legion of Super-Heroes" in
Adventure Comics (most issues, #369–380, June 1968–May 1969);
Superman (most issues, #208–219, July 1968–Aug. 1969); "Superman" in
Action Comics (#368–379, Oct. 1968–Aug. 1969), and occasional issues of
Superboy. As Colan recalled, "He did a lot of
Iron Man with me. He had a very slick line, which was okay on
Iron Man, of course. Iron Man was made of iron, so you want it to look like metal. But when it came to stone and dark corners and garbage [laughs], he wasn't the man for that". Later, under his own name, he would embellish Colan on some issues of
Daredevil and
The Tomb of Dracula (including the introduction of
Blade, in #10); Trimpe on
The Incredible Hulk;
George Tuska on
Iron Man; and
Paul Gulacy on
Master of Kung Fu, among other work. From the mid-1970s, Abel inked not only for Marvel and again DC (including its
Teen Titans and
The Flash), but for the smaller companies
Gold Key (
Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, ''Grimm's Ghost Stories
, Mighty Samson
, the licensed title The Twilight Zone); Charlton Comics (Ghost Manor
, Ghostly Haunts
, Haunted
, Midnight Tales
); Atlas/Seaboard Comics (IronJaw
, Morlock 2001
); and Skywald Publications (The Heap, and additionally the black-and-white horror comics magazines Nightmare
and Psycho''). Baseball-fan Abel, who in the 1970s rented studio space at
Neal Adams and
Dick Giordano's
Continuity Associates, organized the Continuity
softball team that played league games in
Central Park. After suffering a serious stroke in 1981, Abel rehabilitated his paralyzed right hand to the extent that he was able to ink and draw again—which he did through the rest of the 1980s, primarily for Marvel.
Comic strips Outside comic books, Abel inked
John Celardo from 1967–1969 on the
syndicated comic strip Tales of the Green Beret, written by
Robin Moore. ==Awards==