Comic books at the time where generally anonymous work-for-hire. The publishers like DC deliberately avoided crediting the artists. The original creators of Sup

Comic books at the time where generally anonymous work-for-hire. The publishers like DC deliberately avoided crediting the artists. The original creators of Superman ran multiple lawsuits against DC, but only got a payout in the 1970's because the media attention became too embarrassing. Often the artists didn't even own the original drawings, so the comic publishers could sell the originals as collectors items without the artists warning a penny. So while I don't particularly care for Lichtenstein, I think the comic book industry itself (and indirectly its consumers) is to blame for the anonymity of comic book artist. Creator-owned comics and artist credits only really became mainstream in the 1990's. Interestingly, this is quite different from the European tradition, where artist were well known. No artist would get away with just swiping a panel from Tintin and present it as an original work, since everybody knew Tintin was created by Hergé (although to be fair Hergé himself had uncredited assistants.)