American comic book writer, artist, and editor Sheldon Mayer was born on 1 April 1917, in New York City. Shelly Mayer's first comic artwork was created when he was an assistant for several New York newspaper cartoonists, including Ving Fuller, between 1932 and 1935. In 1935, he became one of the earliest contributors to comic books when he wrote and drew 'J. Worthington Blimp' and 'The Strange Adventures of Mr. Weed' for the early comic books of Major Nicholson. He joined the McClure syndicate, where he ghosted on George Storm's 'Bobby Thatcher'. Together with McClure editor M. C. Gaines, he began All American Comics in 1939, which was later taken over by National Periodicals, the future DC Comics. Mayer worked as an editor at DC until 1948, and helped acquire many of the great comic titles, such as 'Green Lantern' and 'Wonder Woman'.
As a comic artist, Sheldon Mayer created many great comics and gags for All American and DC, one of which was 'Scribbly', a semi-autobiographical strip about a boy cartoonist. The strip first appeared in Popular Comics in 1936, then in The Funnies, until it got its own title for a five-year run in 1939. In 1948, Sheldon Mayer retired from his editorial work to devote all his time to making comics, and enriched his comics oeuvre with characters like 'The Red Tornado', 'Dizzie Dog' and 'The Three Mouseketeers'. In 1956, he began his second big comic book title, 'Sugar and Spike', about the adventures of two little children.
In 1971, failing eyesight forced Sheldon Mayer to abandon many of his running comics, but it did not prevent him from creating new characters, such as Black Orchid, and stories for 'Weird War Tales'. After his eyesight was corrected, he continued at his old productive pace, and worked on 'Rudolph' and a comic adaptation of the Bible. Sheldon Mayer died in 1991, at the age of 74.
