Archie Archives: Prom Pranks and Other Stories

Bob Montana is an American comic book artist, known as the creator of the characters from Archie Comics. He began drawing caricatures of the customers in his father's restaurant while still a kid. After high school, Montana attended art schools in Boston, Manchester and New York City and eventually graduated in 1940. From there, he entered the work field of the free lance illustrator, drawing for different comic houses and illustrating covers for comic books such as Batman, and serving as the assistant of Bob Wood. He shared a studio on Union Square in New York with Harry Lucey, with whom he worked on the early Archie comics. Montana's early credits for MLJ include features like Danny in Wonderland, The Fox and Inspector Bentley. He also made illustrations for Crime Does Not Pay and contributed Lunar and Spark Stevens to Victor Fox's publications. MLJ then assigned Montana to work up the story line and characters for the Archie comic, based on a radioplay by Henry Aldrich. Montanas puckish red-headed 1940s version of Tom Sawyer was a big hit and Montana continued to draw stories with the character until his death in 1975.