The Color and Style of Marie Severin

Comic artist and colorist Marie Severin was one of the first women to have a significant role in the comics industry. Her work is celebrated for contributions to the memorable line of EC Comics in the 1950s and as a Marvel mainstay.

Born August 21, 1929, on Long Island in New York, Severin attended a Catholic grammar school and then the all-girl Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School. During her teens she took classes on cartooning and illustration and upon high school graduation, her first job was clerical work for an insurance company in Manhattan.

While she was working on Wall Street, Severin’s brother John, who was an artist with EC Comics, sought her help as a colorist. The staff at EC hadn’t been happy with coloring until she arrived. Using a range of nearly 50 colors plus mixes to intensify them and clarify the artistic designs, Severin was able to identify which colors looked best and sharp next to each other. Her earliest work in comics was EC’s A Moon, a Girl…Romance #9 (October 1949). She went on to color books across the line, including the war comics and the horror titles, as well as doing touch ups on the art and other work on the production end.

Her next venture was at Atlas Comics before she went back to the financial sector, working with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which included drawing and creating TV graphics.

Severin returned to comics in 1959, working for Marvel in productions. She was assigned to Doctor Strange in Strange Tales, following Bill Everett, and then she and Stan Lee co-created the cosmic entity, the Living Tribunal, in #157 (June 1967).

Up until 1972, Severin served as Marvel’s head colorist, before taking on more penciling assignments as well as inking and even lettering. Her work on interiors and covers was featured on titles like Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, Conan the Barbarian, The Cat, and Daredevil. In 1976 she co-created Spider-Woman, designing the original costume, and co-created Howard the Duck villain Doctor Bong in ’77.

During the 1980s she transitioned to Marvel’s Special Projects division to handle non-comic book licensing material. She designed toy maquettes, film and TV tie-in products, and worked on Marvel’s coloring and sticker books. She also drew the Fraggle Rock and Muppet Babies comics for Marvel’s Star Comics imprint.

Through the ’90s and into the 2000s she periodically penciled, inked, and colored a variety of titles. Her first stroke happened in October 2007.

Throughout her career, Severin periodically participated in panels and events focused on women in comics and her work was included in the 2006 Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art exhibit “She Draws Comics.”

Severin’s contributions to comics have also been celebrated through industry accolades. She won the Best Penciller (Humor Division) Shazam Award in ’74, won an Inkpot Award and Comic-Con International: San Diego in ’88, and she received Comic-Con’s Icon Award in 2017. Severin was inducted into the Will Eisner Comics Hall of Fame in 2001 and The Overstreet Hall of Fame 2011.