Who Is Sheldon Moldoff?

As it turned out, the second artist to draw Ralph for comics was none other than the legendary Sheldon Moldoff.

Moldoff was born on April 12, 1920 in Manhattan, New York and he was raised in the Bronx. Moldoff said he would draw cartoon characters in chalk on the sidewalk, and his neighbor Bernard Baily saw and offered to teach him to draw.

Moldoff's first page
for DC Comics.

Moldoff began drawing comics at age 17, with his first comic book publication being a sports page published in the inside back cover of Action Comics #1. Which, of course, also introduced a little DC character called Superman.

Moldoff said he would save newspaper comic strips and learn to copy their style. When he had to draw Hawkman, he turned to the style of Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon strip to make it work. He would be the first to draw Shiera Sanders as Hawkgirl, giving her a similar design to Hawkman. He would also draw the cover for the first issue of All-American Comics that featured Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern.

Moldoff would serve in World War II from 1944 to 1946, but soon returned to comics. While he'd primarily work with National Comics and the other publishers that would eventually end up merged into DC Comics, he also did work for Quality Comics and Timely Comics (later Marvel), Fawcett and EC, the latter two of which saw him work in the field of horror comics, the shocking titles that would eventually spur the book Seduction of the Innocent and lead to the Comics Code creation. At DC, Moldoff would draw many Batman stories that were actually credited to Bob Kane, imitating his style.

Some of the many DC characters that Moldoff co-created include the original Batwoman and Bat-Girl, Ace the Bathound, Bat-Mite, Mr. Freeze, Calendar Man, the second version of Clayface, Poison Ivy and the Spellbinder. However, despite this, he left DC in 1967 when they refused to offer healthcare and retirement benefits.

Moldoff would continue drawing comics, mainly for promotional giveaways. He would also venture into animation. He would write the animated film Marco Polo Junior versus the Red Dragon. When comics conventions became popular, Moldoff was willing to attend and offer samples of his work to fans. He would win an Inkpot Award in 1991.

Moldoff retired to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his wife Shirley. He died on February 29, 2012, survived by his three children, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.