SIENKIEWICZ, BILL 573
War II, instigated a complicated set of lawsuits in 1946 to regain control over Superman
and the new character Superboy. Siegel and Shuster settled with their employer,
National Allied Publications, the primary direct forerunner of DC, over Superboy, but
were also summarily fi red. Th eir last comics collaboration, “Funnyman” (1947) did not
catch on. Siegel returned to write a host of un-credited Superman stories for DC dur-
ing the late 1950s and 1960s. He also did limited work for Marvel Comics. Siegel
worked in children’s television, was the comic director for Ziff -Davis, and created (with
Paul Reinman) Th e Mighty Crusaders for Archie Comics. He also worked on the Dis-
ney Duck comics, mostly for the Italian comic, Mondadori Editore. In 1975, after a long
national campaign by fellow comics creators to coincide with the fi rst Superman movie,
Siegel and Shuster were given a pension settlement that also returned their names to
the masthead of every incarnation of Superman.
Siegel was married twice: fi rst, to Bella Lifshitz, with whom he had a son, Michael.
He later married Joanne Carter, the original model for Lois Lane, and had a daughter,
Laura.
Selected Bibliography: Daniels, Les. Th e Complete History of Superman. San Francisco:
Chronicle, 1998; Jones, Gerard. Men of Tomorrow. New York: Basic, 2004.
Brad J. Ricca
SIENKIEWICZ, BILL (1958–). Born Boleslav Felix Robert Sienkiewicz in Blakely,
Pennsylvania, and growing up in New Jersey, Bill Sienkiewicz is an innovative graphic
novel artist and writer. Descended from the Nobel Prize-winning Polish novelist
Henryk Sienkiewicz (Quo Vadis), he started drawing when he was about four or fi ve
and has stated that he was infl uenced by Curt Swan and Jack Kirby. As an adult, Sien-
kiewicz worked at construction sites in order to aff ord attending the Newark School of
Fine and Industrial Arts in Newark, New Jersey.
Sienkiewicz started his comic book career doing the art for Marvel’s “Moon Knight,”
which was the back-up story in the Hulk Magazine, starting with issue #13 in 1978.
Moon Knight received its own series in November 1980, and Sienkiewicz did the
majority of the inside art and covers for the 30-issue run. From 1984 to 1986, Sien-
kiewicz established himself as a masterful cover artist when he was the primary artist
on Marvel’s New Mutants written by Chris Claremont. Sienkiewicz’s impressionistic
covers stood out among other superhero titles of the time, which classically depicted an
action from inside the book. Instead, he simplifi ed his fi gures to their iconic traits—the
heroes were shadowy fi gures with identifi able characteristics. On many of his covers
and in his interior pages, lines, often white, radiated from the center, conveying frenetic
action as well as psychological turmoil, a trademark of his style throughout his career.
In January 1986, he teamed up with writer Frank Miller to produce Marvel Graphic
Novel issue #24 titled Daredevil: Love and War. Miller, after having produced the
seminal Dark Knight Returns, was a great fi t for Sienkiewicz’s experimental art; they
produced the eight-issue Elektra: Assassin (August 1986–June 1987), which pushed
