18/11/2025
Honoring Bob Smith, born on this day in 1951!
Robert Allen Smith was born in Aberdeen, Washington, and grew up in Grayland, Washington. After studying at Grays Harbor College, a community college in Aberdeen, he graduated in 1974 from Western Washington State College (now Western Washington University), where he took courses in drawing and painting. After Smith became interested in comic books in 1971, he contributed to Mike Friedrich's Star Reach, published from 1974 to 1979.
Shortly after relocating to New York in 1975, Smith entered mainstream comics with the story "The Bogus-Men Will Get You if You Don't Watch Out!" in DC Comics' Plastic Man #12 (April–May 1976), continuing his art education at the Art Students League. From 1982 to 1987, he shared a studio with artist Batton Lash at 225 Lafayette Street, chosen because it is a comics historic address, the location of EC Comics in the 1950s.
He worked for DC until 2011, inking numerous titles, including Black Canary, Detective Comics, Green Lantern, The Huntress, Secrets of Haunted House, Star Trek, and Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe, while also working on DC style guides and other items for Joe Orlando's Special Projects Department.
Smith drew cartoon features for Crazy Magazine and also worked at Continuity Associates. In 1998, he began inking many titles published by Archie Comics, usually collaborating with Stan Goldberg, and also inking the Archie daily and Sunday strips. Living in Covington, Washington, he continues to embellish pages for Archie Comics. Distributed by the Creators Syndicate, the Archie comic strip was written by Craig Boldman, penciled by Fernando Ruiz, lettered by Jon D’Agostino, and inked by Smith.
His work appears in three issues of Weird War Tales.
