Russell Heath was born in New York in 1926, and debuted with 'Hammerhead Hawley'in Captain Aero Comics by Holyoke Publishing at the age of sixteen.
In addition to westerns, Heath drew science fiction stories for Avon, romance stories for Lev Gleason and 'Plastic Man' for Quality. In the early 1950s, he was present in EC titles like 'Mad' and 'Frontline Combat', working alongside Harvey Kurtzman, with whom he also worked for Mag Mag and Trump. During the 1950s, he worked for DC/National, where he drew for the full range of adventure features, such as 'Golden Gladiator' and 'Robin Hood' in Brave and the Bold. He also took drawing for war titles again, such as Sea Devils, Our Army at War ('Sgt. Rock') and G.I. Combat ('The Haunted Tank').
Apart from his own comic work, Heath assisted other artists, such as George Wunder on 'Terry and the Pirates', Dan Barry on 'Flash Gordon', Stan Lynde on 'Latigo' and Kurtzman and Elder on 'Little Annie Fanny' in Playboy. From 1981 to 1984, Heath worked on a revived version of 'The Lone Ranger' for the New York Times Syndicate. Since then, Russ Heath has spent most of his time to animated cartoons. He did occasional contributions to comic books like 'Shadow' and 'The 'Nam', however.
A panel from one of Heath's stories for 'Star Spangled War Stories' inspired Roy Lichtenstein's painting 'Blam' (1962).
Text (c) Lambiek
