Jack Abel was an American comic book artist born on July 15, 1927, who built a long and productive career primarily as an inker for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He passed away on March 6, 1996.
Abel entered the industry in 1951 and over the following decades accumulated credits as artist, inker, and letterer across nearly 700 issues. At DC, he served as the principal inker on Superman titles through the late 1960s and into the early 1970s, lending a steady, polished hand to some of the character's most recognizable stories of that era. Titles including Action Comics, Adventure Comics, and Superboy figured prominently in his DC output.
His single most historically significant contribution came at Marvel, where he inked penciler Herb Trimpe's pages for The Incredible Hulk #181 (November 1974) — the issue that marked the first full appearance of Wolverine, now one of the most popular characters in superhero comics. Abel's work on The Incredible Hulk remained among his most-credited associations throughout his career.
He occasionally worked under the pseudonym Gary Michaels. No major industry awards are documented in the available record, but his decades of consistent craftsmanship across two of the medium's dominant publishers — and his quiet presence on a genuinely landmark issue — cement his place in comics history.
