Ross Andru was born in Highland Park, Michigan on June 15, 1927, the third of Alexander and Glafire (née Evanoff) Androuchkevitch's three children.

"[6] A source claims penciler Andru first teamed with inker Esposito in 1949[7] 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.

[12] Andru and Esposito created early work on Key Publications' Mister Mystery in 1951 and Standard Comics' The Unseen and Joe Yank (the latter credited as "Mikeross").

[8] In September, 1953, the two began a long career as one of DC Comics' primary war story creative teams, alongside the likes of Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, and Jerry Grandenetti.

Andru began a nine-year run on Wonder Woman starting with issue #98 (May 1958), where he and writer Robert Kanigher reinvented the character, introducing the Silver Age version and her supporting cast.

Rock character in Our Army at War #81 (April 1959)[18] With Kanigher, the Andru-Esposito team introduced the non-superpowered adventurers the Suicide Squad in The Brave and the Bold #25 (Sept.

[8] In 1967, Andru left Wonder Woman to become the penciler on The Flash, with he and inker Esposito drawing the super-speedster superhero's adventures from issue #175–194 (Dec. 1967 – Feb.

[8] Reuniting with Kanigher, Andru co-created the "Rose & The Thorn" backup feature in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #105 (Oct.

[26] 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.

[29] In 1973, he began his five-year stint as regular penciler on The Amazing Spider-Man,[30] which at that point was Marvel's highest-selling monthly comic.

In 1976, Andru penciled the first large-scale comic book Intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, in a story written by Conway and co-published by Marvel and DC.

As one historian wrote, "The tale was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Ross Andru, both among the few [at that time] to ever have worked on both Superman and Spider-Man ...

Working with writer Marv Wolfman and collaborator Mike Esposito, he co-created the syndicated comic strip The Unexplained in 1979.

He and Roy Thomas collaborated on the "Superman and His Incredible Fortress of Solitude" treasury edition published as DC Special Series #26 (Summer 1981).

The same year, he reunited with writer Gerry Conway and inker Mike Esposito for a story in Web of Spider-Man Annual #6.

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.

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

[45][46] His body was cremated and interred at the Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium, Middle Village, Queens County, New York.