Russ Manning
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Russ Manning or Russell Manning (1929-1981) was a comics illustrator and designer who created the Magnus, Robot Fighter comics and illustrated many other comics and comic strip series such as Tarzan and Star Wars.
Born in California he studied at the Los Angeles Art Institute. During his Army service in Japan he drew cartoons for the newspaper of his military base.
In 1953 he went to work for the now defunct Dell comics and illustrated stories for the wide variety of comics published by this company.
From 1965 to 1972 he was responsible for all of the illustrations for the Tarzan series and was later put to work on the "Tarzan" daily newspaper strip.
In 1963 Manning created the "Magnus, Robot Fighter" comics for Gold Key comics and drew the first 21 issues until 1968.
In this action series set in the year 4000, Manning drew a rare combination of clean, airy cityscapes, shiny robots and well rendered humans. Most professional Science Fiction illustrators could do realistic looking technology or well formed, anatomically convincing humans, but seldom both, as Russ Manning did. In an era where many science fiction illustrations showed interstellar spaceships with antique looking fins reminiscent of V-2 rockets of World War II, Manning offered exotic craft with a strange sheen on them, and limited numbers of intriguing protrusions.
In his later years he drew the illustrations for the Star Wars newspaper strips and comics.
The Russ Manning Award is named for him.