John Beatty was born in Whitesburg, Kentucky at around 4am, on May 6th, 1961.

Parents: Father: Richard Beatty [deceased]
Mother: Verta Beatty.
Siblings: two sisters [who shall remain nameless, to protect them].

John had spent less than a year living in Letcher County, Kentucky when  his family moved to Holly Hill, Florida, a small city located in between Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach.  John eventually found them.

John and his family remained in Holly Hill, and John graduated from Mainland Senior High School in 1979 much to the amazement of his friends.  It was already clear that John would persue a career as an artist. (John had, at this point, already made his first “professional sell” and begun working as a professional artist.  John had been hired by Camelot Publishing to do cartoons for computer instruction manuals when he was just 15 years old.  This gig turned into after school employment during John’s high school years.)

John’s goal was to become a comic book artist. While still a little menace himself, John discovered and fell in love with the comic strips “Dennis the Menace” and “Peanuts”.  (Luckily for John the love was returned and no charges were filed.)  It wasn’t until later that John discovered “Super Hero” comic books when a friend who lived up the street sold John a box of comics for $20.00.

This opened a whole new world to the impressionable boy, and John took note of all the different types of characters…and art styles.  While he still cherished his collected paperbacks of “Dennis the Menace” and “Peanuts”, John was soon found buying comic books at the local convenience marts and news stands that were within his bicycle riding area.  (And keep in mind that, that kid could bike with the best of ‘em!)

John continued to read and collect comics into his junior and, God forbid, his senior high school years!  For most kids the knowledge that one was a comic book nerd would have been one of the biggest embarrassments ever. John was lucky to be an “artist” and therefore got a pass from the bullies and others who looked down upon the purchase of such juvenile publications!

Almost every night after school, his part time job and homework (yeah, right), John stayed up to practice his drawing skills. He loved the freedom to create his own characters, and to try and draw established ones that he had a passion for.  (Again, the passion was returned, so no charges were filed.) Art created an outlet for the shy young man. (Yes, at one time Big John Beatty was a shy, quiet fellow!)

Both of John’s parents encouraged him to persue a career as an artist and they made sure that he had the needed art supplies.  (I guess they figured it would be better than him doing drugs and drinking.)  His parents also provided John with stamps and envelopes since that was how contacts were made in the prehistoric days before the internet tubes.  John began to network with other like-minded nerds, er, artists and even discovered that some folks were self-publishing their own comics!

Not long after his discovery of the world of fanzines, John wrote and drew a short comic story starring the hero Crime Smasher.  In short order, the Crime Smasher story was printed in Tim Corrigan’s Super Hero Comics! Another very talented artist named Jerry Ordway had a story published in the same issue.  Ordway was also starting up his own self-published comic book, titled “OK Comics!”  Soon Beatty and Ordway began communicating through the mail.  (It’s interesting to note, that both Ordway and Beatty made it into the ranks of professional comic book artists with each having long careers working on stories featuring the heroes that they had grown up with.)

John also connected with artist Mike Zeck, through the RBCC (Rocket Blast Comics Collector), a “pro-zine” of sorts. Zeck encouraged Beatty to continue drawing.  Zeck even sent xeroxed pencils of his work to Beatty, so John could ink samples for practice and critiques. It was a very magical time, indeed. (Well, at least for Beatty.)

Around this time, John had, for a couple of years, been going to OrlandoCon, an annual comic book convention held in, you guessed it, Orlando, Florida. John and his long time friend, Craig Zablo, would go over and make a weekend of it.

[ Sidebar: Craig and John first met when both were in junior high.  They actually met through John's sisters and Craig was soon a family friend. As the high school years rolled on, Craig and John no longer were hanging out until they met again by accident when John was at a "7-Star" store buying a few comic books.

When John noticed a very pretty girl in front of him paying for her purchase, he immediately began to hide his comic books so she wouldn't see them and wonder why a 17 year old would be buying funny books.  She made her purchase and left the store.  John breathed a sigh and paid for his comics.

As he walked out of the store he heard someone below, "Hey, Beatty!"

John looked over and saw his old buddy, Craig Zablo, sitting in his Mustang.  John walked over to say hello as Craig asked, "What are you buying...comic books?"

"Yes, I have a few here..." John stammered, as he noticed the pretty girl from the store sitting in Craig's fast back Mustang.

"I still collect a few myself." Craig replied. This brought a sigh of relief to the budding young artist.

"Oh...yeah...umm...which ones?"

Craig answered, "MOKF and Conan, mostly"

"Do you know about...about, umm...err...ahh...comic fandom?" John uttered in a low voice as to not bring to much attention to the 'secret' life of a "comic nerd."

Craig looked puzzled and interested at the same time. John began to explain the whole sub-culture that he was involved in. Craig said that he needed to get his girlfriend home but then he'd like to hear, and see more of the stuff John was talking about.

From that day on, Craig and John became best friends and are still to this day.  It's said that friends always revert to their childhood days when they hang out -- that's definitely true with John and Craig.  Just ask their wives or better yet see them at a comic con...just watch them like you would any other animals in a zoo! End Sidebar]

So this particular year John and Craig headed over to OrlandoCon.  John was 17 and decided to take some art samples to show the professional artists, such as Pat Broderick and Bob McLeod (who were living on the west coast of Florida in Tampa).

This was also the con where John met AC Comics publisher and artist, Bill Black!  John showed samples to Bill and was offered inking work on the spot! (John would get to ink Bill’s pencils at a rate of $7.00 per page!!!  John couldn’t have been happier, it was the first day of the show and his dream of becoming a professional COMIC BOOK artist was becoming a reality!)

John’s destiny seemed to lining up rather quickly…  Bob McLeod tagged John to start doing some assistant work, such as filling in blacks and erasing pages. Soon Bob even let John do some background work from time to time!

It was now 1980.  Everything was falling into place and all events were leading up to a big break.   John decided to head down to the annual MiamiCon.  He knew that Marvel Comics’ EIC, Jim Shooter would be there and John planned to show him new samples of his work.  (Shooter had reviewed John’s work the previous year and said John was not quite ready.  Perhaps 1980 would be the year.)  So Beatty presented Shooter with new samples.  Shooter looked over John’s art and said: “If you can come up to New York, I’ll give you a paid try out to work on.”

After picking himself up off the floor…no, wait, that was another show…

John was fairly stunned at the offer and in turn, his friend, Mike Zeck offered to let John stay at his place in Connecticut, if John wanted to make the trip and take up Shooter’s offer.  In July of 1980, John made the journey up and with the help of Mike Zeck got some gigs from both Marvel and DC!

The firewall was broken and John was set to make MILLIONS of dollars, just as his boyhood heroes “Dennis the Menace” creator, Hank Ketcham and “Peanuts” creator, Charles Schulz had done.

Although the story continues, and John is not currently working on a “monthly” he spent 20 years doing so on titles such as Captain America, The Punisher, Secret Wars, The ‘Nam, The Adventures of Superman, Batman, JLA, and many, many more!

Currently, John works for the DC Licensing Department, where style guide art is created. This art is used for many things, including package design, clothing, and other things which DC needs to supply to it’s vendors.

John was married to his lovely wife, Bella Sistoso, in April of 2008.

It’s been a good trip this far and hopefully it will continue to be so!

[Can you tell I wrote this in the third person? ]

*Special thx, to Craig Zablo for the editing and additional biographical information on this entry!*