Marc Swayze, R.I.P.

We continue to lose members of the First Generation of comic book creators. Marc Swayze, who worked on Captain Marvel and co-created Mary Marvel, has died at the age of 99. He went to work for Fawcett Publishing, publishers of the Captain Marvel comics, in 1941. Apart from his time in the service, he drew for Fawcett until 1953 when the company folded its main comic line, though for a few years in there he also assisted on Russell Keaton's newspaper strip Flyin' Jenny, then tried unsuccessfully to keep it flying after Keaton died.

At Fawcett, Swayze drew super-heroes who were either Captain Marvel or were related to Captain Marvel but in his last few years there, Fawcett was cutting back on such material and Swayze worked on romance and horror titles. When Fawcett ceased publishing and sold some of its books to Charlton, Swayze went along with them for a time but the business was crashing and Charlton paid so poorly that he decided to get out. He retained a fondness for the industry though, as evidenced in his columns for Roy Thomas' Alter Ego entitled "We Didn't Know It Was The Golden Age." Here's a link to an obituary in his hometown newspaper.
                  Ecco il ricordo del grande Marc nel giornale della sua città!