Gene Colan was an American comic book artist and writer, born Eugene Jules Colan on September 1, 1926, in the Bronx, New York, where he also died on June 23, 2011. While he is not a creator of Japanese manga or a director of anime in the traditional sense, his original characters and comic book series have served as the source material for several anime productions. His most significant contributions to the world of animation come from his work as the original creator of characters and concepts later adapted into Japanese anime.

Colan is best known for his prolific career at Marvel Comics, where he became a signature artist during the Silver Age of comics. Over several decades, he worked on a vast array of titles, leaving an indelible mark on characters such as Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Man, and Doctor Strange. He was particularly renowned for his work on the horror series The Tomb of Dracula, which he illustrated for many years alongside writer Marv Wolfman. It is from this celebrated run that two of his most notable character co-creations emerged.

The first is Blade, a half-vampire vampire hunter who first appeared in The Tomb of Dracula #10 in 1973. Colan co-created this character, who would go on to star in a popular film series and, relevant to the user's query, the anime television series Blade (2011). The second is the Falcon, the first African-American superhero in mainstream comics, who he co-created with writer Stan Lee, debuting in Captain America #117 in 1969. This character appears as an original creation of Colan's in the anime Marvel Future Avengers (2017). Beyond these, his creation of Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) has also been credited in anime adaptations such as Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher (2014).

The specific anime credited to Gene Colan as an original creator include Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned (1980), a television special based on the Marvel Comics character, and the aforementioned Marvel Future Avengers. These productions directly adapt or utilize characters and storylines that originated from Colan's work on the comic books.

Artistically, Colan possessed a distinct and highly influential style. His work was cinematic and dramatic, characterized by a masterful use of light and shadow, expressive character acting, and a unique sense of spatial composition. He was known for a technique where his finished pencil drawings were published without being inked over, allowing his raw, dynamic linework to be seen directly by readers. His approach was often compared to film noir, and he prioritized mood and atmosphere, particularly in his horror work, which made his run on The Tomb of Dracula a landmark series in the genre.

Gene Colan's significance to the industry is substantial. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2005 and received numerous other accolades, including Eagle Awards and an Eisner Award for a 2009 issue of Captain America. Despite his vast body of work, he is sometimes described as an underappreciated giant among his peers, with a style that was uniquely his own and did not conform to the house styles of other famous artists of his era. His legacy endures not only through the thousands of comic pages he drew but also through the continued life of his characters in films, television series, and anime, which have introduced his creations to new generations of audiences worldwide.