Marvelous Inspirations

Thanks to Metafilter for linking to this piece. The guy who runs this website has pieced together all of the documented inspirations for various members of the Marvel family.

When Fawcett Publications decided to create their answer to Superman, they gave the job to writer Bill Parker and artist C.C. Beck. Parker handled creating the concept of the character, while Beck came up with the artistic interpretation of the initial cast of characters. Beck generally used familiar movie stars of the time as the physical templates for the new characters.

After the demise of Fawcett Publication's comic book line in 1953 and with the rise of comic book fandom in the early 1960s, former Fawcett comic book writers and artists came forward through interviews to confirm the inspirations for the various Marvel Family characters.

Some of these look so obvious, I can hardly believe I escaped seeing the resemblance before. Have a look and smack your forehead repeatedly as I have been doing.