Marie Severin, a comic book artist and colorist best known for her work on Marvel titles including The Incredible Hulk, Kull the Conqueror and the humor title Not Brand Ecch, has died. She was 89.
Severin’s death followed her move into hospice care after a second stroke this week; she suffered her first in 2007. Her death was announced on Facebook by longtime friend and former Marvel staffer Irene Vartanoff.
Severin initially entered the industry as a colorist for EC Comics when her older brother, the late comic book artist John Severin, was working for the company and needed someone to color his pages. She would go on to color titles across the company’s line until it folded, then ended up at the nascent Marvel Comics in the late 1950s, when she served as a production and paste-up artist and colorist before going on to pencil and ink stories in her own right. She served as Marvel’s head colorist until 1972, when she left the position to concentrate on penciling and inking.
In addition to her interior artwork, Severin designed the original costume for Spider-Woman, and designed and illustrated merchandise for Marvel’s special projects division. In the 1980s, she was one of the core artists on the short-lived “Star Comics” line, aimed at younger readers.
Outside of her Marvel portfolio, she contributed to titles for DC, Claypool Comics and Fantagraphics. She was named the Best Humor Penciler in 1974’s Shazam Awards and won the Inkpot Award at 1988’s San Diego Comic-Con. In 2001, she was inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame.
