Bill Lignante was a longtime artist of 'Phantom' comic books. After a three-year-stint in the US Navy, he enrolled at the Pratt Institute in New York. Upon graduation, he began his career as a cartoonist, starting with 'Ozark Ike' and later 'Let's Explore Your Mind'. Lignante's first involvement with Lee Falk's 'The Phantom' was finishing a daily strip after Wilson McCoy's death in 1961. He then did the Sunday comic for a while, before becoming the main artist of the Gold Key and King comic books featuring the character. Lignante had also worked on animated cartoons for Hanna-Barbera. In 1968, he settled in California and began a career as a courtroom artist for ABC Network News.
