Tom Palmer, one of the last comic book creators left from Marvel's iconic 1960s heyday, has passed away at the age of 81.

Palmer is best known for two iconic stints inking Neal Adams on both the Avengers and the X-Men in the late 1960s/early 1970s, plus a long and award-winning run with Gene Colan on Tomb of Dracula, and a more-than-decade-long stint as a finisher on the Avengers in the 1980s and 1990s.

Born in New York City in 1942, Palmer studied art under painter Frank Reilly in the mid-1960s while also working freelance at an advertising art studio. Palmer was a fan of photo-realistic painters like Norman Rockwell and James Bama, but he was also a big comic book fan, with EC Comics artists like Wallace Wood and Jack Davis being among his favorites. As luck would have it, former EC great Jack Kamen was working at the same studio and took the young Palmer under his wing. Kamen, who had gotten out of comics when EC's comic book line shut down in the wake of the Comics Code Authority being formed, initially dissuaded his protégé from pursuing a career in comics due to fears that he would stop his schooling. When Reilly tragically passed away in 1967, however, Kamen agreed to help Palmer break into comics by introducing Palmer to Wallace Wood.

Once Palmer impressed Wood enough to get a gig, Wood passed his name to other artists like Joe Orlando and Mike Esposito until Marvel Sol Brodsky saw Palmer's work and gave him a job penciling an issue of Doctor Strange. When Palmer went to see if he could do another issue, he was told that Gene Colan was now the penciler on the book, but Palmer could ink it. Due to his collaborative work with Kamen and others at the advertising studio, Palmer was more than comfortable inking instead of penciling.

Gene Colan was not an easy penciler to ink due to his heavy use of pencil tones on top of straight penciling, but Palmer was more than up to the task, and the folks at Marvel took notice.

In 1969, Palmer was paired with another younger artist, Neal Adams, on X-Men. Palmer explained his first reaction to Adams' work in TwoMorrows' Comic Book Artist #3. "The first issue of the X-Men is what I remember the most vividly. The first three to five pages, with the Sphinx in the background, the rocket car -- I would just sit back and marvel at these beautiful renderings," Palmer said. "In Neal's second issue with the shot of King Faisal, where he's pointing -- you can see Neal used a photo -- I was just taken aback by the rendering of that pencil drawing. It's easy for me to describe from my eyes or my memory of that time, but to sit there and look at that stuff -- I don't mean to make this sound too much like a religious experience, but it was whatever would be close to that."

The two teamed up again on The Avengers a year later, working again with writer Roy Thomas, and Palmer was more used to Adams' style by this point, so the work was even more striking. Palmer was a lush and detailed inker, always adding a little bit to even the most detailed pencilers like Adams.

By this time, Palmer had also done some Avengers issues with John Buscema, and since Buscema was just doing breakdowns, Palmer was able to exert more impact on the art through his finishes and inks ("finishes" meaning that Palmer would first finish penciling the story and then ink the final penciled piece). Palmer told The Comics Journal, "I did do some pencilling over John’s breakdowns to loosely find light and shade, he had the structure in place and all I needed to complete the page was finishing what he started. John Buscema had a grand style that was easily recognizable in its raw form."

In 1972, Palmer joined Gene Colan on the Tomb of Dracula with its third issue. Marv Wolfman started writing the series with #7. The three men then worked on the award-winning series for over 60 issues together, finishing their run in 1979. Palmer recalled, "Tomb of Dracula was probably the best work we did together, at least from my view, it was a comfortable fit for both of us at the time."

Starting with 1985's Avengers #255, where Palmer was back to doing finishes on John Buscema's breakdowns, Palmer then remained on the series until it ended with Avengers #402 in the summer of 1996. Along the way, he gave the book a consistent feel while working with Buscema, Paul Ryan, Steve Epting and Mike Deodato, often doing finishes with those artists, as well.

He continued as a freelance inker right up until he passed away, with a notable stint inking John Romita Jr. on Mark Millar's Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl.

His son, Tom Palmer Jr., followed his father into comics, becoming an acclaimed comic book editor at DC after a memorable stint as an editor at Wizard Magazine.