Batman #307
John Calnan was an American commercial artist, who also worked for comic books. He was educated at the School of Visual Arts, where one of his teachers was 'Batman' artist Jerry Robinson. His first comic book work was inking Tom Gill's pencils on 'Lone Ranger' for Dell Publications. He then did some work for Gilberton's 'Classics Illustrated' series, before becoming an advertising art director and TV producer for agencies. He returned to comics in 1966, mainly doing work for DC Comics.
Introduction comic from The Witching Hour #23
Calnan did a lot of work for anthology titles like 'The Unexpected' (1970-1980), 'Ghosts' (1971-1979), 'The Witching Hour' (1971-1976), 'G.I. Combat' (1976-1977) and 'House of Mystery' (1973, 1977-1978). He drew stories with 'Superman' and 'Metamorpho' for Action Comics (1972, 1977), and had a run on 'Batman' with writers David Vern and Len Wein from 1977 to 1979. With Wein, he introduced the character of businessman, entrepreneur and inventor Lucius Fox to the 'Batman' universe in issue 307. His 'Superman' work further includes back-up features like 'Misadventures of Superbaby', 'The Private Life of Clark Kent' and 'Krypto' for 'The Superman Family' (1977-1982) and 'The New Adventures of Superboy' (1980-1981). Both a penciller and an inker, Calnan has worked with such artists as Dick Giordano, Rich Buckler and Tex Blaisdell.
Calnan retired in 1996, but continued doing work for friends and the occasional commission job. He passed away on 27 December 2016 at the age of 84.
Metamorpho (Action Comics #417)