On Tuesday, May 2, 2017, Jay Disbrow – renowned artist, illustrator, writer, speaker, and author – passed away. He was 91 years old.

Disbrow was born on March 16, 1926 in Neptune, New Jersey. He studied commercial art and illustration at the Famous Artists School in Westport, where he graduated in 1963. During the 1950s, Disbrow served as a comic book illustrator and writer. Initially he worked for Iger Studios, drawing Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Kanga, and other jungle titles. He later became a freelancer with Star Publications.

He worked extensively in pre-Code horror comics, drawing strange creatures for Dark Mysteries, Ghostly Weird Stories, Spook, Startling Terror Tales, Eerie Tales, and more. Recently, some of Disbrow’s pre-Code horror work was recently collected by Craig Yoe in IDW’s Jay Disbrow’s Monster Invasion. In 1979, Disbrow resurfaced with new material in Fantagarphics’ The Flames of Gyro. Meanwhile, in 2000, Disbrow took to the Internet to share Aroc of Zenith - a weekly adventure comic similar to Flash Gordon. Until its completion in December 2005, Disbrow completed 312 strips for Aroc. Outside of the comic industry, Disbrow also served as a government technical illustrator for 27 years.

Disbrow is survived by his wife Amelia Stumpf Disbrow, son Alex Disbrow, and daughter Valerie Trigili.