C.C. Beck

Charles Clarence Beck (1910–1989) joined Fawcett Publications as a staff illustrator in 1933 and became the visual architect of its entire superhero line.

He deliberately chose cartoony over realistic rendering: clean confident outlines, minimal shading, a bright and whimsical world. That choice defined how the character read – lighter, funnier and more childlike than the Superman it was accused of imitating. At its peak the title outsold Superman.

In later life Beck wrote an unapologetically cranky column called The Crusty Curmudgeon, attacking the drift of comic art towards photorealism. He was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Kirby Hall of Fame in 1997.