in about 1950–51... Ross came to me when I started publishing and we more or less teamed up'." Partnership with Esposito A source claims penciler Andru first teamed with inker Esposito in 1949 for the publisher Fiction House, but this is unconfirmed at the Grand Comics Database. The team's first confirmed collaboration was on the six-page "Wylie's Wild Horses" in Hillman Periodicals' Western Fighters vol. 2, #12 (Nov. 1950), signaling the start of a four-decade collaboration. They quickly founded their own comics-book company, the name of which is variously rendered as MR Publications, the combined initials of their first names; Mr. Publications, after the company's sole series, the whimsical adventure comic Mister Universe, which ran five issues (July 1951 – April 1952); or the hybrid MR. Publications. The two also co-founded Mikeross Publications in 1953, which through 1954 produced one issue each of the 3D romance comics 3-D Love and 3-D Romance, two issues of the romance comic Heart and Soul, and three issues of the satiric humor comic Get Lost. Andru and Esposito created early work on Key Publications' Mister Mystery in 1951 and Standard Comics' The Unseen and Joe Yank (the latter credited as "Mikeross"). DC Comics In September, 1953, the two began a long career as one of DC Comics' primary war story creative teams, alongside the likes of Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, and Jerry Grandenetti. Their partnership at DC Comics began with a story each in All-American Men of War #6, Our Army at War #14, and Star Spangled War Stories #13 (all Sept. 1953). For those titles as well as G.I. Combat and Our Fighting Forces, Andru and Esposito drew hundreds of tales of combat under editor and frequent writer Robert Kanigher's supervision. From 1957 to 1959, Andru and Esposito shared a studio with fellow comics artists Jack Abel, Art Peddy and Bernard Sachslate, generally credited as either Bernard Sachs or Bernie Sachs. Andru began a nine-year run on Wonder Woman starting with issue #98 (May 1958), where he and writer Robert Kanigher reinvented the character, introducing the Silver Age version and her supporting cast. As well, with writer-editor Robert Kanigher, Andru co-created the robot superheroes called The Metal Men in Showcase #37 (April 1962), going on to draw the first 29 issues of the lighthearted series Metal Men, from 1963 to 1968. Esposito said Kanigher "left the character design up to Ross and myself,