character the Sub-Mariner. A painted cover by veteran science-fiction pulp artist Frank R. Paul featured the Torch. Burgos' character proved a hit, and quickly went on to headline one of comics' first single-character titles, The Human Torch (premiering fall 1940 with no cover date and as issue #2, having taken over the numbering from the single-issue Red Raven). He next created the superhero character the White Streak in Novelty Press' Target Comics #1 (Feb. 1940), and, with writer John Compton, the superhero the Thunderer in Timely's Daring Mystery Comics #7 (April 1941). Burgos left for World War II military service in 1942, starting in the U.S. Army Air Corps, for which he took infantry ranger training and was sent overseas as a rifleman before being transferred to the Signal Corps and then to an engineer division. Atlas and the 1950s Following his return from the war, Burgos attended City College of New York to study advertising, and drew a small number of stories for Timely, including anthological crime dramas in Official True Crime Cases Comics #24 (Fall 1947), and Complete Mystery #3-4 (Dec. 1948 – Feb. 1949). Other work included penciling a Captain America story in Marvel Mystery Comics #92 (June 1949), and inking fellow Timely mainstays Mike Sekowsky and Syd Shores on, respectively, at least one story each starring Sun Girl and the Blonde Phantom (both in Marvel Mystery Comics #89, Dec. 1948). Segueing out of full-time comics work, Burgos eased into a career in advertising and commercial art while freelancing frequently for Atlas Comics, the 1950s iteration of Marvel, primarily as a cover artist across all genres from jungle-girl to war comics, though fellow Atlas artist Stan Goldberg, who joined the company in 1949, recalled in 2002 that "Burgos was on staff most of the time I was there". His most prominent comics work during this time came during Atlas' mid-1950s attempt at reviving the dormant superhero field with Timely stars the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America, with Burgos drawing the Human Torch stories in Young Men #25–28 (Feb.–June 1954), as well as the covers of Young Men #24–25 (Dec. 1953 – Feb. 1954) and of the short-lived relaunch Human Torch #36–38 (April–Aug. 1954); he also redrew at least the Human Torch figure in the first panel of artist Russ Heath's nine-page story "The Return Of The Human Torch" in Young Men #24. Burgos during the