The Dick Ayers Story: An Illustrated Autobiography

    (Mecca, 2005)
™ and © 2005 Dick Ayers

Cramming a whole life, especially one that includes the storming of Normandy and any number of injuries and ailments, into a few books isn't easy, so accept that Dick Ayers’ autobiography is going to flash from scene to scene with a lot of expository dialogue and take it as an aside to you, the reader, what's going on, rather than Dick casually explaining to his dates what's new.

This volume deals with childhood, the Air Force years and a post-war job search that’s largely heart-breaking for all its missed opportunities even while the author finds success through diligence. Also, dames. Lots of dames!

— Brendan McGinley

From the Comics Buyer’s Guide:

The Dick Ayers Story is not your average autobiography. But, then again, Dick Ayers is not your average kind of guy. He writes, he draws, and he letters his own work. In his own words, this is a “Labor of Love,” and that is clear. Ayers tells his story, from birth on, in meticulous detail. His first drawing lessons on his nursery wall, his struggle with color blindness, his near loss of his left arm due to gangrene, his war years as radio repairman and plane-nose art painter, his failed romances because he was a “comic-book artist,” his successes with Funnyman, Jimmy Durante, and The Haunted Horseman, up to 1951.

The passion, the disappointments, and the success he finally earned by the work of his pencil are all here. Read it, folks. The art is all Dick Ayers. Produced over a period of years, it shows the lavish attention he is known for. An essential book for any Golden or Silver Age comics fan? Without a doubt.

— Tim Lasiuta
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