Herb Trimpe

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The Incredible Hulk #181 (Nov. 1974): Wolverine's first full appearance. Cover art by Trimpe.

Herbert "Herb" Trimpe (1939—) is an American comic book artist and occasional writer, best remembered for his work on The Incredible Hulk and credited with the co-creation of X-Men's Wolverine in the early 1970s.

Trimpe joined Marvel Comics in 1967 and stayed until 1996. He was laid off when Marvel went bankrupt, went back to school for his master's degree, and taught art at a rural middle/high school for two years. He occasionally takes on comic-book projects.

He received recognition for his work, including a nomination for the Shazam Award for Best Inker (Humor Division) in 1973 and Humanitarian of the Year Award at the San Diego comic convention in 2002, for his work as a chaplain at the World Trade Center site after 9/11. He lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.

[edit] Quotes

Trimpe on his start in comics [1]: "John Verpoorten had been a classmate at SVA. When I got out of the Air Force in October of 1966, he worked in the production department at Marvel. He said they were hiring freelance people, and I should come up to the office and show my work to Sol Brodsky, who was Stan [Lee]'s right-hand man at the time. I said, 'Okay'. Later, while I was in the photostat department, I did the Phantom Eagle freelance, the first book I penciled. I think."

Trimpe on his first Marvel staff job [2]: "The [freelance] inking petered out. ... I was just preparing to put some material together and go to DC and Charlton when I got a call from Sol Brodsky, who was production chief. He said they needed somebody on staff in the production department to run the new photostat machine they had just bought, and to do some production work. I would primarily run the 'stat' machine and wouldn't be seated at a desk, but I would be able to pick up some freelance pencilling and inking. This kind of opened the door. The staff job didn't pay much by today's standards; I think it started at $135 dollars a week which wasn't as low as it sounds. Remember, it was 1966 and that was a fairly good entry-level salary".