Meet Wayne Banister: Family Man, Artist, and Hard Worker!
Young Wayne photographed in Sunday Best
with little sister Eunice Fischer (née Banister).
Born in Hallstead, Pennsylvania on July 7th 1927, Wayne Banister was the oldest son of Morris Banister (a railroad worker) and Hadley Banister (a housewife). Three years later, the family would welcome their youngest child and Wayne's baby sister Eunice.
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Wayne was artistic from a very early age with helping his mother make hand-crafted
stitch art embroidery. The Banisters would eventually move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1935 after Morris got a job offer with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to electrify their commuter lines. Wayne enrolled in the local school system and excelled in his studies, later graduating Northeast High School in 1945. He also drew cartoons for the school paper The Northeast Home News.
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Saving money after briefly working alongside his father for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Wayne decided to move to New York City and attend art school in 1950. Not only would he learn the tricks to becoming a professional illustrator, but he would discover the creativity of comic book magazines.
During his time at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, Wayne would meet teacher and
comic book artist Jerry Robinson (one of the creators of Batman!). Robinson took special notice of Wayne's art and invited him to attend his comic book cartooning class. These lessons would make Wayne fall in love with the art and never want to leave. A model student, Wayne would also share the class with another comics great: Steve Ditko (co-creator of Spider-Man!).
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After a few years mastering his skills, Wayne was referenced to Quality Comics in 1952 where he was almost immediately hired to draw issues of their romance book Love Letters. He even developed an unreleased series titled Action War Stories for the company. Wayne also took freelance work for ad agency Ogilvy, Benson, and Mather.
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But, after several tries to break into art, it became clear to Wayne that comics were the best way to spread his creative wings. Dedicating himself full time to comic book art, Wayne would join EC Comics in 1955 only to be let go almost immediately because of financial struggles in the company.
Wayne (Age 21) on vacation at the Pocono Mountains. Looks like fun!
Uncle Wayne with his beloved nephew: baby Vincent Fischer.
Moving on from EC in 1955, Wayne was referred by classmate Steve Ditko to Charlton Comics. There, Wayne created miscellaneous short stories for the remainder of the 1950s with art featured in Cowboy Western Comics, Outlaws of the West, Submarine Attack, and Sweetheart Diary.
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In 1959, Wayne would also develop his science fiction comic strip The Tomorrow Commander. Following the adventures of a space pilot, it told the story of an astronaut from the future exploring outer space. With just nine completed strips and running in only fifteen newspapers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the strip was Wayne's second favorite original creation.
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Following the end of syndication for The Tomorrow Commander, Wayne would leave Charlton in 1962 to focus on other opportunities. Struggling to find more comic work, the artist returned to the world of advertising. Never a quitter though, Wayne kept an eye on the funny page business so he could keep making the books he loved. It wasn't until 1964 that Wayne threw his hat back in the ring.
After a successful advertising stint, Wayne took notice of the more mature storytelling of Marvel Comics during the early 60s. The artist was even more surprised when he learned that his pal Steve Ditko worked there. In 1964, Ditko was already one year into his work on Spider-Man for Marvel Comics. Impressed, Wayne reached out to Steve to ask if there was any work at Marvel. Knowing Wayne to be a good artist, Steve convinced editor/writer Stan Lee to arrange an interview. After meeting with Stan, Wayne was unfortunately rejected.
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But, Wayne was not defeated. Inspired by Marvel's style of comics, Wayne formed his own publishing imprint called Banister Publications. It was there that he wrote and drew his final original project and comics work: the superhero comic Mister Infinite. Centered around a teenager named Cooper Campbell who gets incredible powers from a lab experiment gone wrong, the series lasted just one issue with only 10,000 copies ever being made. Wayne often described this book as the best project of his entire career.
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Unfortunately, the controversial reception to Mister Infinite and the instability of his art career forced Wayne to retire from comics and art permanently
Always the lady killer! Wayne on a date at the beach. The poor woman got cut out of the picture but at least they got a good snapshot of Wayne's sandwich.
Wayne the legend! Looking good for only 54!
Wayne would eventually move back to Philadelphia and became a truck depot supervisor. Closer to his sister Eunice and her family, Wayne could always be found manning the barbecue grill with a beer in hand at every family party. He would often tell stories about his time in New York or explain to the kids about how to draw better.
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Wayne sadly passed away at the age of 56 in 1983. He had no wife or children, but he was
remembered by his loving sister, her husband, nephew, niece, and his many great-nephews and nieces as we try to keep his legacy alive!
