Irv Novick

Irv Novick (April 11, 1916 – October 15, 2004) was an American comic book artist with a career spanning six decades from the Golden Age through the Bronze Age. Born in the Bronx, New York, Novick co-created The Shield — the first patriotic superhero in American comics, predating Captain America by more than a year — at MLJ Comics in 1940. He later spent decades at DC Comics under editor Robert Kanigher, working extensively on war titles before becoming one of the signature Batman and Flash artists of the Bronze Age. His war comics panels were directly appropriated (without credit or compensation) by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein for his celebrated 1963 painting Whaam!, a fact that brought belated attention to Novick's work. He received the Inkpot Award in 1995.