Comic books and comic strips
Roussos entered comics in 1939 as letterer of the Spanish-language version of the newspaper panel Ripley's Believe It or Not,[1] despite not being able to read Spanish.[2]
The following year, Bob Kane and Bill Finger hired him to assist inker Jerry Robinson on Batman stories. Roussos' duties included drawing backgrounds, inking, and lettering,[3] starting as early as Batman #2 (Summer 1940). At the same time, he did similar duties on Target and the Targeteers.[2] He and Robinson would eventually leave the Kane studio to work directly for National Comics (the future DC Comics) on Batman and other characters. Roussos worked on features starring the Vigilante, Johnny Quick, Superman, and Starman. His most notable DC work was as penciller, inker, colorist, and letterer[2] of the Detective Comics backup feature "Air Wave", on which he experimented, on at least one story, with using only shades of gray for color.[1] He also was the co-creator, along with Jerry Siegel, of Superwoman (the character first appeared in "Lois Lane -- Superwoman", Action Comics #60).[4]
Other companies for which Roussos drew during the 1940s Golden Age of comic books included Marvel-precursor Timely Comics, as well as Avon Publications, Standard/Better/Nedor, Family, Fiction House, Hillman Periodicals, Lev Gleason Publications, and Spark. He also did 16 internationally distributed educational pamphlets for General Electric, receiving a World War II draft deferment to do so.[1] The survey "The 20 Greatest Inkers of American Comic Books" placed Roussos at #15, saying he "was so adept with a brush in his hand that his co-workers appointed the nickname 'Inky' to him. His style was often thick, heavy with blacks, and sported nice contrasts which complimented [sic] one of his prime collaborators in the ' 50s, Mort Meskin."[5]
After a brief attempt to open an art school with colleague Mort Meskin, Roussos added comic strips to his repertoire, assisting artist Dan Barry's Flash Gordon, Charles Flanders' The Lone Ranger, Dan Heilman's Judge Parker and Sy Barry's The Phantom, and succeeding Fred Kida as artist on Judge Wright from 1947 until the strip's demise the following year. Roussos unsuccessfully pitched syndication companies his own comic strips, such as the science fiction feature 2001 A.D. in 1945, the archeology strip Azeena in 1967, and Transisto, with Batman creator Bill Finger, in the late 1960s.[1]
Comic-book clients during the 1950s included that decade's Marvel precursor, Atlas Comics, along with Crestwood, EC Comics and St. John Publications. For EC he did stories in Crime SuspenStories, Tales from the Crypt, Weird Science and Weird Fantasy.[1]
