In 1966, readers of Marvel Comics' "Strange Tales" #151 found a new artist pencilling the "Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD" strip. They could not have realized that they were seeing the work of a graphic artist soon to be viewed as the most innovative comics creator of the period, and one of the most influential artists in the history of the comics.

James Steranko was born November 5, 1938 in Reading, PA. His early interest was in magic, and while in his teens spent summers with circuses and carnivals working as a sideshow magician and escape artist. Many years later Jack Kirby created a comics series titled "Mr. Miracle" based on his exploits. Steranko also wrote several books about sleight-of-hand techniques he developed. He abandoned his career as a magician at age 21 in an attempt to become a professional musician.

Throughout this period Steranko worked as a freelance newspaper artist, eventually getting a position in the art department of a printing firm and learning commercial printing techniques. Eventually he became an art director at an advertising firm, practicing commercial design and copywriting by day while moonlighting as a musician.

This strip was half of the comic book "Strange Tales", which also featured the popular "Dr. Strange" series. "Nick Fury" was an attempt to cash in on the super-spy craze of the '60's. It had had a series of artists including Jack Kirby, Johnny Severin and John Buscema.

Initially Steranko filled in layouts created by Marvel workhorse Kirby, but soon took over the series and began to play with his new medium in surprising and innovative ways. Steranko emphasized the series' sci-fi aspects, employing an amazing variety of graphic tricks including unusual points of view, moire screens and Benday dots, and completely reorganizing the composition of frames on the page. The Fury strip turned into a tour de force of graphic effects that had never been so thoroughly explored in the comics. His work became a major influence on contemporary comics artists.

Steranko's reputation was built on less than 30 comics stories; his Nick Fury work, a couple of issues of "Captain America" and "X-Men", and a short story in "Tower of Shadows" among others.