Paul Gulacy was raised in Youngstown, Ohio, and as a teen was inspired by art of Jim Steranko on Marvel Comics' "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." He went on to study at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Fellow Youngstown resident Val Mayerik, a Marvel artist, introduced him to another local Marvel artist, Dan Adkins of East Liverpool, Ohio, for whom Gulacy would work as an assistant, and who suggested Gulacy prepare a six-page sample for Marvel. "He sent it to an editor named Roy Thomas", Gulacy recalled, "and two weeks later I got the phone call telling me I was hired."