Dick Ayers as a wonderful gentlemen and I am so glad we developed a friendship with him and Lindy before we lost him. Dick had much to say but came from the generation of “If you don’t have anything nice to say about someone, say nothing.” He told us funny stories about Stan, his children and how they handled his profession. Once, his kid told a teacher, “My Dad draws monsters” and they called him to check on that. Of course, he did draw monsters!
Ayers was one of the big four at Marvel at the beginning. Along with Don Heck his drawings were not as dynamic as Kirby or Ditko and so both them were often not as celebrated by fans. But Dick was a great inker too and made the early comics of the Marvel Universe look in sync.
When we started our visits they first thought that we wanted something from them. But we only wanted to share. I soon gave Dick an abbreviated form of my book (mike Vassallo and Nick Caputo helped) and called it “The Marvel Age of Dick Ayers.”
Nick had found a DVD of 1948 live TV show where did the artwork (showing his hands) in “The Comic Book Murders.” Nick gave it to the Ayers and we watched it with them.
And Mike made arrangements for a giant Ghost Rider cover. Dick Ayers was the co-creator of the first Ghost Rider and then Marvel’s. They got two for one. And he was always proud of the time he spent in the service during WWII.