Early life Born in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, Nodell was the son of Jewish immigrants. He attended the
Art Institute of Chicago. When he was 18 years old, he moved to
New York City, where he attended
Pratt Institute. As Nodell himself described in 2000: The first adventure, drawn by Nodell (as Mart Dellon) and written by
Bill Finger, appeared in
All-American Comics #16 (July 1940). Nodell continued to use the pseudonym through at least
All Star Comics #2 (Fall 1940). He said in 2000 he had used the pen name since, "Comics were a forbidden literature, culturally unacceptable. It wasn't something you were proud of." Nodell penciled and virtually always self-inked Green Lantern stories in
All-American and
All Star until the character got his own title, the premiere issue cover-dated July 1941. He would continue with it through to #25 (May 1947), very rarely drawing the covers, before being succeeded by a variety of artists including
Howard Purcell,
Irwin Hasen, and
Alex Toth.
Timely Comics '' #93 (Aug. 1949). Cover art by Nodell. Nodell left All-American in 1947 and joined
Timely Comics, the 1930s–40s forerunner of
Marvel Comics, where he drew postwar stories of
Captain America, the
Human Torch, and the
Sub-Mariner. His work there was rarely signed, making identification difficult, though comics historians have confirmed that Nodell drew two well-known covers: the first issue of
Marvel Tales, Timely's
horror-comics revamp of the company's flagship series
Marvel Mystery Comics; and the penultimate issue (#74) of Captain America's book, which for its last two issues became the horror-oriented ''
Captain America's Weird Tales''.
Post-1950s career In 1950, Nodell left comics to work in advertising and later joined the
Leo Burnett Agency in Chicago as an
art director. In 1965, Nodell's design team developed the long-running
flour-company mascot the
Pillsbury Doughboy. His only known comics work in the interim are penciling the story "The Glistening Death" in the
Avon Comics one-shot City of the Living Dead (1952), reprinted two decades later in the
Skywald horror-comics magazine
Psycho #1 (Jan. 1971); and "Master of the Dead" in Avon's
Eerie (1951 series) #14, reprinted in Skywald's
Nightmare #1 (Dec. 1970). and a one-page illustration of Scott and
Superman in the
one-shot Superman: The Man of Steel Gallery #1 (Dec. 1995). At 80, Nodell penciled his final comic-book work, the whimsical, 10-page
Harlan Ellison adaptation "Gnomebody", scripted by
John Ostrander and Ellison and inked by
Jedediah Hotchkiss, in
Dark Horse Comics' ''Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor Quarterly'' #1 (Aug. 1996).
Personal life Nodell met his future wife, Carrie, at
Coney Island in
Brooklyn,
New York, in September 1940. They were married December 1, 1941, and afterward moved to
Huntington,
Long Island, to move in with Nodell's brother Simon, an engineer at
Republic Aviation. They lived there for two years before moving back to
Brooklyn,
New York City. Nodell died on December 9, 2006, in a nursing home in
Muskego, Wisconsin, of natural causes at the age of 91. They had two sons: Spencer, who lived in
Waukesha, Wisconsin at the time of his father's death, and Mitchell. ==Awards==