As a comic book inker teamed with his childhood friend Ross Andru, he drew for such major titles as The Amazing Spider-Man and Wonder Woman.

[4] Esposito graduated from The High School of Music & Art, then in Harlem, where one of his classmates and friends was future comics artist Ross Andru,[5] with whom he would collaborate on flip-book animation.

[5] Drafted into the U.S. Army on September 15, 1945,[4] before finishing high school,[8] he served at Camp Dix and Camp Crowder until it was discovered he could draw; Esposito was then dispatched to Germany, where he did venereal disease prevention posters, including the well-known "If you're drippin', you ain't shippin'" and "VD or not VD, that is the question.

Another source says penciler Andru first teamed with inker Esposito in 1949[10] for the publisher Fiction House, but this is unconfirmed at the Grand Comics Database.

The team's first confirmed collaboration was on the six-page "Wylie's Wild Horses" in Hillman Periodicals' Western Fighters vol.

[14]Let go from Atlas Comics after a short time, he and Andru became longtime collaborators, working together on various projects over a span of four decades.

They quickly founded their own comics-book company, the name of which is variously rendered as MR Publications,[15] after the initial of their first names; Mr. Publications,[2] after the company's sole series, the whimsical adventure comic Mister Universe, which ran five issues (July 1951 - April 1952);[16] or the hybrid MR.

[13] After DC Comics in 1956 ushered in the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books, by reimagining such Golden Age superheroes as the Flash and Green Lantern for modern audiences, Andru and Esposito began a long run on DC's Wonder Woman.

Esposito considered the series "the best idea [Kanigher] had done," specifying that, "Bob left the character design up to Ross and myself, under his supervision, of course.

"[19] Esposito gradually began freelancing for Marvel Comics, starting with his uncredited inking of industry giant Jack Kirby's cover of Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965).

[20] For his inking of Bob Powell in the "Human Torch and the Thing" feature in Strange Tales #132, and his inking of Don Heck's "Iron Man" in Tales of Suspense #65 (both May 1965), he took the pen name Mickey Demeo (occasionally given as Mickey Dee or Michael Dee) to conceal his Marvel work from his primary employer, DC.

[22][23] The pseudonym Mickey Demeo, he explained, "was a name I had in the 1950s when I was doing horror [comics] stories" — considered disreputable at the time — "and I didn't want certain guys in the business to know who I was us.

"[12] When John Romita, Sr. succeeded artist co-creator Steve Ditko on The Amazing Spider-Man, beginning with issue #39 (Aug. 1966), Esposito, initially as Demeo, was the first inker on what would become Marvel's flagship series.

Esposito continued to use the "Demeo" credit sporadically, including on the debut story "Guardians of the Galaxy" in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (Jan. 1969), and on The Amazing Spider-Man #83 (April 1970), his last recorded use of the pen name.

During this period as well, for DC, the Andru-Esposito team segued from Wonder Woman to The Flash, drawing the super-speedster superhero's adventures from issue #175–194 (Dec. 1967 – Feb. 1970).

The Kanigher-Andru-Esposito trio introduced the Silver Age version of the split-personality superheroine feature "Rose and Thorn" in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #105 (Oct.

[27] The name, Esposito said, came from an expression used by late-night talk-show host Johnny Carson, "May the bird of paradise fly up your nose, and out your ear.

[28] After the magazine's demise, Esposito, who often came into the Marvel office to do freelance work for the company, took a staff job there for "about a year and a half", explaining, I had gone bankrupt with Ross [Andru], publishing Up Your Nose (and Our Your Ear), and so [Marvel associate editor] Roy Thomas said, 'Do you want a staff job?'

Esposito's final Marvel tale was the 11-page Darkhold story "Skin", penciled by Dan Lawlis, in the horror comics title Midnight Sons Unlimited #2 (July 1993).

In 1992, he reunited with writer Gerry Conway and artist Ross Andru for a story in Web of Spider-Man Annual #6.

Also in 1992, the graphic novel Spider-Man: Fear Itself, pencilled by Andru, inked by Esposito, plotted by Conway and scripted by Stan Lee was published.

The project fell apart after Andru's passing but was revived years later in song by a band called Fling Lois.

[13] Esposito, discussing this late period, said, "I started working over Stan's pencils, and did so for quite a few years.

[38] Esposito lived in Lake Grove, New York, on Long Island, in his later years, and died October 24, 2010, at age 83.