27.07.1940–16.05.2012
Ernie Chan
Ernie Chan (Ernesto Chan), born in the Philippines, entered American comics in 1972 and became one of the regular artists on “Conan the Barbarian” at Marvel. In the mid-1970s he drew covers for DC Comics, later worked on Batman for many years, and in the 1990s designed characters for Sega video games. He received an Inkpot Award in 1980.
Biography
On the birth certificate of the future artist the surname was Chua. By his own account it was a typographical error, and he had to use it for many years: he could change it to Chan only when he received American citizenship.
Ernesto Chan was born on 27 July 1940 in the Philippines. He began drawing comics at about the age of twenty, still in his home country; no other information about his early years or training could be found. He moved to the United States in 1970 and became a citizen in 1976. According to some accounts, he studied with John Buscema and later worked with him often. His first years in the American industry were spent under the name Chua. In 1972 he started at DC Comics as a penciler on horror and mystery stories: “Ghosts”, “House of Mystery” and “The Unexpected”. By 1974 he was working regularly for Marvel on “Conan the Barbarian”, inking John Buscema’s pencil drawings. He also inked the art of John’s brother Sal Buscema on “The Incredible Hulk”. In 1975–1976 he worked only for DC. For that publisher he drew “Claw the Unconquered”, written by David Michelinie. In “Detective Comics” he drew the first appearances of Captain Stingaree (issue 460, June 1976) and the Black Spider (issue 463, September 1976). Under the name Chua he was DC’s main cover artist from about 1975 to 1977.
Then the balance shifted to Marvel. He penciled individual issues of “Conan” and “Doctor Strange”, worked on “Kull the Destroyer” in 1977, and on “Power Man and Iron Fist” in the 1980s. From about 1978 he worked almost exclusively for Marvel, and in the 1980s “Conan”, including the annuals, remained his main occupation. He mostly stayed away from superhero stories: horror, war tales, sword and sorcery. Batman was the exception, and he worked on it for a long time, including in “Detective Comics”. During these years he lived in Oakland, California. In 1980 he received an Inkpot Award, given at the comics convention in San Diego. For Warren Publishing he inked Carmine Infantino’s drawings in the magazine “Creepy”, issue 88, 1977.
In the early 1990s Chan joined Sega and made characters and artwork for video games, among them “Eternal Champions”. In 2002 he retired, keeping only commissioned work. He returned to comics once more in 2009, drawing the first issue of “The Vat”, an adult webcomic by the writer Andrew Zar.
Ernie Chan died on 16 May 2012. In 2024 he was posthumously inducted into the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame.
Profile notes