Born November 23, 1894, Christopher Rule worked as a comic book artist across a stretch of decades that took him from the industry's formative wartime years through the genre explosions of the 1950s and beyond. An American artist whose career spanned at least from 1944 into the 1960s, he accumulated credits on more than 200 issues, touching a notably wide range of genres along the way.
Rule's place in comics history rests chiefly on his role as the first regular inker for Jack Kirby at Marvel Comics during the Silver Age — a period when Kirby's penciling was reshaping superhero storytelling, and a skilled inker's ability to translate that energy onto the printed page carried real weight. Beyond that foundational collaboration, Rule built a substantial body of work across westerns, romance, jungle adventure, and other popular genres of the era. His most frequently credited titles include *Kid Colt Outlaw*, *Black Rider*, *Miss America Magazine*, *Love Tales*, and *Jann of the Jungle*, a range that reflects the breadth of material artists were expected to handle during comics' mid-century peak.
Rule died April 6, 1983. His work on Kirby's early Silver Age output keeps his name relevant to scholars tracing how that transformative era actually reached readers on the printed page.
Kid Colt Outlaw (1949) · 28
Miss America Magazine (1944) · 24
Love Romances (1949) · 11
My Own Romance (1949) · 8
Misterios del Gato Negro (1953) · 7
Western Outlaws and Sheriffs (1951) · 6
Love Adventures (1949) · 6
All True Crime (1949) · 6
Journey into Mystery (1952) · 6
Patsy and Hedy (1952) · 6
Jann of the Jungle (1955) · 6
Tales of Suspense (1959) · 6
Crime Cases Comics (1950) · 5
Gunsmoke Western (1955) · 5
Tales to Astonish (1959) · 5
Crime Must Lose (1950) · 4
Amazing Detective Cases (1950) · 4
Lorna the Jungle Girl (1954) · 4
Strange Worlds (1958) · 4
Race for the Moon (1959) · 4
Amazing Stories of Suspense (1963) · 4
Millie the Model Comics (1945) · 3
Nellie the Nurse Comics (1945) · 3
Men's Adventures (1950) · 3
Crime Can't Win (1950) · 3
Journey into Unknown Worlds (1950) · 3
World of Fantasy (1956) · 3
Forbidden Worlds (1950) · 3
Starlight Romances (1951) · 2
Space Squadron (1951) · 2
Adventures into Terror (1950) · 2
Adventures into Weird Worlds (1952) · 2
Western Tales of Black Rider (1955) · 2
Cuentos de Brujas (1951) · 2
The Mighty Marvel Western (1968) · 2
Western Gunfighters (1970) · 2
Secrets of the Unknown (1962) · 2
Hedy De Vine Comics (1947) · 1
Annie Oakley Comics (1948) · 1
Cowboy Romances (1949) · 1
Hedy of Hollywood Comics (1950) · 1
Teen Town Comics (1951) · 1
Western Desperados (1951) · 1
Love Confidences (1951) · 1
Terrific Mystery (1951) · 1
Colossal Comics (1951) · 1
Worlds Greatest Comics (1950) · 1
Wonderful Adventures (1951) · 1
Young Men on the Battlefield (1952) · 1
Girl Confessions (1952) · 1
Actual Confessions (1952) · 1
War Adventures (1952) · 1
Lorna the Jungle Queen (1953) · 1
Strange Suspense Stories (1955) · 1
El despertar del mundo (1955) · 1
All Star Adventure Comic (1959) · 1
Mr. District Attorney (1958) · 1
Sheriff Classics (1964) · 1
Where Monsters Dwell (1970) · 1
Giant-Size Man-Thing (1974) · 1
Tomb of Darkness (1974) · 1
Star Wars Weekly (1978) · 1
The Empire Strikes Back Weekly (1980) · 1
Marvel Monsters: Monsters on the Prowl (2005) · 1
Comandos Esforzados (1956) · 1
Kid Colt Outlaw Giant (1960) · 1
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Information drawn in part from Wikipedia and the Grand Comics Database. Portrait by Martin Falbisoner / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).