Mike Roy was born in the Province of Québec in 1921. His original name was Joseph Michel Roy but he anglicized his name to Joseph Michael Roy (or Mike Roy for short) in the early 1940s when he stated working for American comic books. Roy studied at the High School of Industrial Art, as well as the Pratt Institute. He began his career in the 1940s, assisting Bill Everett, the creator of the original 'Sub-mariner' at Atlass Comics. He worked through the Funnies Inc. shop, and contributed to comic books by Holyoke Publications ('Hammerhead Hawley'), Archie Comics (funny titles), Hillman Periodical (crime, war and western) and various early DC books.
Akwas
He also appeared in Lev Gleason titles like 'Crime Does Not Pay', 'Crime and Punishment', 'Daredevil' and 'Desperado'. During the first half of the 1950s, Roy produced a large amount of artwork for the romance titles of Better Publications. He later also contributed to many Dell/Western titles.
sample from Warfront
Roy has also worked on newspaper strips. Between 1948 and 1951, he did the 'The Saint' daily and Sunday strip for the New York Herald Tribune. In the 1950s, he made the newspaper strips 'Ken Weston' and 'Nero Wolfe', and assisted on 'Flash Gordon'. In the 1960s followed the acclaimed Native American Sunday strip 'Akwas', and the 'Hoss Laffs' daily and the 'Indian Lore and Crafts' Sunday page. Mike Roy was active until the 1990s, working mainly on educational comics for Custom Comic Services. His final work was 'Screaming Eagle', a hardcover graphic novel for Discovery Comics. Mike Roy also co-founded a museum for Native American and Eskimo art.
