John Costanza


John Costanza is an artist and letterer who has worked in the American comic book industry. He has worked for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He was the letterer during Alan Moore's acclaimed run on Swamp Thing. The bulk of Costanza's art assignments have been for funny animal comics and children-oriented material.

Biography

Costanza began his career in 1965, working as Joe Kubert's assistant on the syndicated newspaper strip Tales of the Green Berets. Costanza soon started to work for comic books, both as an artist and a letterer. He started out with contributing to DC titles like G.I. Combat and House of Mystery in the period 1968-1971. He began freelancing for Marvel in 1972, at first under the alias Jon Costa. He would soon become one of the company's premier letterers, working on flagship titles such as Fantastic Four and The Amazing Spider-Man, and lettering special projects such as the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Silver Surfer novel published by Fireside Books in 1978.
During the 1970s he produced comics with Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies characters for Western Publishing.
For Marvel in 1980s, Costanza drew comics with Heathcliff, the Get Along Gang, and Hugga Bunch.
In the 1990s, he returned to Warner Bros. comics, this time for DC's Looney Tunes and Animaniacs titles. He also did stories with Roger Rabbit and Mickey Mouse for Walt Disney Studios. Costanza has also drawn issues of Matt Groening's The Simpsons comics.

Lettering

Costanza's lettering has been recognized by both peers and fans. The Academy of Comic Book Arts named him Best Letterer of 1974, and in 1986 and 1987 he won the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Letterer for his work on Swamp Thing.