Tom Sutton

Thomas F. "Tom" Sutton (April 15, 1937 – May 1, 2002) was an American comic book artist who sometimes used the pseudonyms Sean Todd and Dementia. He is best known for his contributions to Marvel Comics and Warren Publishing's line of black-and-white horror-comics magazines, particularly as the first story-artist of the popular character Vampirella.

Biography

Early life and career

Tom Sutton was born and raised in North Adams, Massachusetts, where father Harry was a plumbing, heating and air conditioning shopkeeper, and a machinist and gunsmith for General Electric and others. He had a half-sister "seven or eight years older than I am" from his widower father's first marriage. Influenced by EC Comics and the comic strip art of Milton Caniff, Alex Raymond and Hal Foster, Sutton drew nude art for paying schoolyard classmates.

He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after graduating from high school in 1955, and worked on art projects while stationed at Fort Francis E. Warren, near Laramie, Wyoming. Later, stationed at Itami base in northern Japan, Sutton created the Caniff-style adventure strip F.E.A.F Dragon for a base publication. Sutton's first professional comics work, it led to a long-hoped-for placement on the military's Stars and Stripes newspaper.