American comic book artist (1925-2013). As a boy, he would travel around New York City, trying to meet artists for comic books and comic strips. At 15, he met Charles Flanders, the artist for the Lone Ranger comic strip, who allowed Carmine to watch him draw to perfect his technique. Two years later, in 1942, he got a job with Timely Comics (which later grew up to be Marvel), and a few years later, was contacted by Al Capp, the creator of "Lil Abner." Capp had seen Carmine's work and wanted to hire him to assist with his comic strip. Carmine planned to move to Boston, but his father advised him to finish school first, telling him, "If you're any good, they'll still want you when you graduate."
While still in school, Infantino worked for several different publishers. Working for Charles Biro, he wrote scripts for Airboy and the Heap. At Quality Comics, he did some inking and erased panel borders. He also worked with Will Eisner. He also met Frank Giacoia, who became a lifelong friend and inked most of Infantino's art.
Infantino enrolled in the Art Students League and the Brooklyn Museum of Art when he was 19. After graduating, he and Giacoia got work at DC Comics, where they worked on a host of Golden Age characters, including Johnny Quick, the Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Johnny Thunder, the Three Ghosts, and the Shining Knight. Infantino joined the National Cartoonists Society in 1946 (where he got to meet one of his idols, Milton Caniff) and later returned to the Art Students League, where he studied the figure studies of Edgar Degas.
After the publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham's "Seduction of the Innocent," a public backlash against the industry caused many comics publishers to shut down; during that period, Infantino worked exclusively for DC, putting together a wide range of comics, including romances, Westerns, and stories about Rex the Wonder Dog and Detective Chimp. In 1956, editor Julius Schwartz asked Infantino to redesign and revive the Flash -- the result, published in "Showcase #4," was a new guy wearing a new streamlined costume. The new Flash was wildly popular and kicked off a resurgence in the popularity of superhero comics; Infantino had kickstarted comics' Silver Age.
By 1959, the Flash had his own title, with Infantino as the penciller -- he stuck with the Flash for almost 20 years and became so strongly associated with the character that it's not uncommon for the Flash's current creators to name buildings and other landmarks in the comic after Infantino.
While working on the Flash, Infantino also drew the Elongated Man and Adam Strange (he based many of his futuristic cityscapes on the designs of architect Frank Lloyd Wright), and helped revamp Batman. He was named DC's editor-in-chief in 1967 and began working to break the company out of its stodgy rut -- he hired innovative creators like Jack Kirby and Neal Adams and helped start a movement for greater creator's rights within DC and the rest of the industry. He was appointed DC's publisher in 1971 and its president in 1974. He left the company in 1976 over a dispute with Time-Warner, DC's parent company. After that, he worked for Hanna-Barbera for a while, taught classes at the School of Visual Arts, and did some commercial artwork. He even drew comics for Marvel, including "Star Wars," "Spider-Woman," and "Nova."
Infantino currently published his autobiography, "The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino," in 2002. He sued DC in 2004 for rights to characters like Wally West, the Elongated Man, Gorilla Grodd, Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, and Mirror Master -- he said he had created all of them while he was a freelancer for the publisher. He died on April 4, 2013.
Research from http://www.comic-art.com/bios-1/infntno1.htm