COMIC ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: DICK SPRANG
Richard W. Sprang was born on July 28, 1915, in Fremont, OH. Starting as a teen, he worked as an illustrator for pulp magazines like Columbia and Street & Smith. By 1934, he had joined a Toledo, Ohio, newspaper, where he honed his skill in meeting tight deadlines. Moving to New York City in 1936, he worked with pulp publishers and even contributed to the Lone Ranger radio show. However, with the decline in pulp sales, Sprang pivoted to comics, launching a “packaging house” with Norman Fallon and Ed Kressey to produce stories for comic publishers.
Sprang's team created characters such as Power Nelson in Prize Comics #1, Shock Gibson, and Sky Wizard for Miracle Comics #1. His big break came in 1941 when he submitted samples to DC Comics. Editor Whitney Ellsworth, anticipating Batman creator Bob Kane’s possible draft, commissioned Sprang for Batman stories to maintain production continuity.
Sprang’s first full work on Batman was the cover of issue #19 (Aug-Sept 1943), as well as several interior stories. However, like many artists of the time, he worked as a “ghost” under Bob Kane’s byline. In 1944, Sprang married commercial artist Lora Ann Neuslis, who later contributed to DC Comics’ work under the name Pat Gordon. The couple moved to Sedona, Arizona, in 1946, where Sprang pursued a passion for Western exploration, even discovering an ancestral Puebloan structure.
After divorcing in 1951, Sprang continued as a prominent Batman artist for the next 20 years, gaining recognition as Kane’s “favorite” ghost artist due to his imaginative layouts and character designs, reminiscent of Dick Tracy artist Chester Gould. In 1955, he began drawing Superman in World’s Finest Comics, staying until his retirement in 1963.
Sprang lived to see a resurgence of interest in his work. He recreated some of his covers as paintings, returned briefly to DC Comics in 1987, and completed covers for Detective Comics #622–624 in 1990. He also produced two limited edition lithographs of Batman for Warner Bros. Studio Stores in the mid-1990s. In 1999, he was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
Dick Sprang passed away on May 10, 2000, leaving an enduring legacy. Known for creating the original design of The Riddler and meeting extreme deadlines due to writer Bill Finger’s frequent delays, Sprang remains one of the true legends of the comic industry.
