Martin Nodell (/noʊˈdɛl/; November 15, 1915[1] – December 9, 2006)[2] was an American cartoonist and commercial artist, best known as the creator of the Golden Age superhero Green Lantern.

Interested in gaining more steady employment, Nodell created designs for a new character that would become the Golden Age Green Lantern (Alan Scott).

He coupled the imagery with elements from Richard Wagner's operatic Ring cycle[7] as well as Chinese folklore and Greek mythology[6] to create the hero.

I was ushered into Mr. [Max] Gaines office, publisher, and after sitting a long time and flipping through the pages of my presentation, he announced, 'We like it!'

[9]The first adventure, drawn by Nodell (as Mart Dellon) and written by Bill Finger, appeared in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940).

Nodell penciled and virtually always self-inked Green Lantern stories in All-American and All Star until the character got his own title, the premiere issue cover-dated July 1941.

He would continue with it through to #25 (May 1947), very rarely drawing the covers, before being succeeded by a variety of artists including Howard Purcell, Irwin Hasen, and Alex Toth.

In 1950, Nodell left comics to work in advertising and later joined the Leo Burnett Agency in Chicago as an art director.

[11] His only known comics work in the interim are penciling the story "The Glistening Death" in the Avon Comics one-shot City of the Living Dead (1952), reprinted two decades later in the Skywald horror-comics magazine Psycho #1 (Jan. 1971); and "Master of the Dead" in Avon's Eerie (1951 series) #14, reprinted in Skywald's Nightmare #1 (Dec.

His first pieces included a 13-page puzzle-and-activity section in Super Friends Special #1 (1981), and drawing the Golden Age Harlequin in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #10 (Dec.