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 freelance 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 in 1941 and 1942. Montana's early credits for MLJ include features like 'Danny in Wonderland', 'The Fox' and 'Inspector Bentley' for MLJ. 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. Montana's puckish red-headed 1940s version of Tom Sawyer was a big hit.
Archie (from Quebec paper Le Soleil, 20/12/1953)
During World War II, Montana spent four years in the Army Signal Corps. He subsequently returned to Archie Comics, and mainly worked on the daily and Sunday 'Archie' for King Features from 1946 until his death in 1975. Dan DeCarlo then took over the 'Archie' strip.
