Carmine Infantino (; May 24, 1925 – April 4, 2013) was an American comics artist and editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creations are the Black Canary and the Silver Age version of the Flash with writer Robert Kanigher, Elongated Man with John Broome, the Barbara Gordon incarnation of Batgirl with writer Gardner Fox, Deadman with writer Arnold Drake, and Christopher Chance, the second iteration of the Human Target, with Len Wein.
He was inducted into comics' Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2000.
Early life and family
Carmine Infantino was born via midwife in his family's apartment in Brooklyn, New York City. His father, Pasquale "Patrick" Infantino, born in New York City, was originally a musician who played saxophone, clarinet, and violin, and had a band with composer Harry Warren. During the Great Depression, he turned to a career as a licensed plumber. Infantino's mother, Angela Rosa DellaBadia, emigrated from Calitri, a hill town northeast of Naples, Italy.
Infantino attended Public Schools 75 and 85 in Brooklyn before going on to the School of Industrial Art (later renamed the High School of Art and Design) in Manhattan. <!--Infantino does not reference the following in his Comics Journal interview -- the only reference for this piece, which needs more citations: He started his comics career in the 1940s, after DC Comics editor Sheldon Mayer advised him to continue studying and practicing, then give DC another try later.--> During his freshman year of high school, Infantino began working for Harry "A" Chesler, whose studio was one of a handful of comic-book "packagers" who created complete comics for publishers looking to enter the emerging field in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books. As Infantino recalled: