Moon Knight Co-Creator Don Perlin Dies at 94

The Marvel and Valiant comic creator passed away on Tuesday, May 14th.

By Jenna Anderson

Don Perlin, a prolific comic book creator whose work includes co-creating Marvel's Moon Knight, has passed away at the age of 94. The news was broken via a Facebook post from Perlin's daughter, Elaine, who revealed that he passed away peacefully on Tuesday, May 14th. Perlin had a decades-long career in the industry as an artist, writer, and editor, including multiple decades of working with Marvel. 

"I am devastated to report the death of an amazing man," Elaine's post reads. "My father Don Perlin passed away peacefully yesterday at the age of 94. He ws an amazing father husband grandfather and great grandfather. We will all miss him terribly. He was an amazing artist and considered a legend in the comic world. To me he was my best friend. I will miss him so much."

I am devastated to report the death of an amazing man. My father Don Perlin passed away peacefully yesterday at the age...

Posted by Elaine Perlin on Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Born on August 27, 1929 in New York City, Perlin started in the comic industry with a Fox Features story in the late 1940s. Going into the 1950s, he found a groove penciling horror comics for publishers like Atlas (which would become Marvel Comics), and Harvey Comics, as well as war comics for Charlton. He later worked almost exclusively on art for Charlton for eleven years, a tenure that began in 1962. Perlin's time at Marvel began in the early 1970s, eventually leading to him getting a full-time position drawing for the company. 

"I was going for a job interview with another company to do paste-ups and mechanicals," Perlin explained in an interview with NerdTeam30. "This was before computers. I was going in on Monday morning and Sunday morning I got a call from Roy Thomas. I'd been doing some comic book work in the evenings when I got home from working at the different day jobs that I had. Roy had seen some of the horror stories that I had done for DC. He told me about two books that they were looking for artists for and asked if would I be interested? One of them was Werewolf by Night and the other was Morbius, the Living Vampire. When I went to Marvel and spoke to them I was told that Werewolf was a monthly and Morbius was a bi-monthly so I took the monthly book deciding that would be a great job....So, from then on, I worked for Marvel and didn't miss a day. I went from the Werewolf to Ghost Rider and Defenders and Transformers. I worked on most of the characters that Marvel had while I was there. Then I went to Valiant."

This role included illustrating Werewolf by Night from 1974 through 1974, including Werewolf by Night #32, which serves as the first appearance of Moon Knight. His work with Marvel subsequently spanned Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, The Defenders, Transformers, and the Beauty and the Beast miniseries.

By 1991, Perlin left Marvel to join Valiant Comics, where he co-created the character Bloodshot. Other titles he worked on at the company, both as an artist and an editor, included Solar, Man of the Atom, Shadowman, and Magnus Robot Fighter.

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While Perlin went into semi-retirement by the mid-1990s, he occasionally contributed stories to DC and Valiant.

Our thoughts are with Perlin's family, friends, and fans at this time.

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