School Days: Richard Sala, Cartoonist

An excerpt from the Richard Sala interview with Darcy Sullivan in The Comics Journal #208, November 1998.

Sullivan: Were you doing illustrations during this period?

Sala: Yeah. When I was at ASU, a friend of mine was president of the Cultural Affairs Board. One good thing about small scenes like Tempe is when you go to the weird little art shows, movies, or parties, you keep running into the same handful of people and eventually get to know each other. This is right before the years that punk really hit, in the late ’70s, and it was certainly before it hit Arizona. We were sort of proto-punks, and we founded this thing called Art Brut Graphics — we didn’t really found it, we just named it that. We did all the posters and movie schedules and stuff for the Cultural Affairs Board. Mostly my stuff would appear in the State Press, which was the newspaper for ASU. I started doing work for some of the local weeklies as well. The people at The New Times in Phoenix are my heroes. The New Times gets a bad rap these days because they’re a chain alternative newspaper. But I was there when those guys were starting, and to be an alternative newspaper in Phoenix in the ’70s was like putting a target on your back.

The president of the Cultural Affairs Board (CAB) was Charles Emerson. The CAB was a student-run organization located on campus in the Memorial Union (MU). Also at the MU was a graphic design studio run by Ron Clark. For a couple of years, 1976 and 1977, I worked at there and met Emerson who was looking for someone to design posters for the film series at Neeb Hall.

I moved to New York in October 1977 and was still involved doing posters for Emerson. I did this with assistance from my friends at ASU. I mailed layouts with directions to Tom Chung. Rusty Falk, Peter Fasolino, Sonja Zelen and many others did the illustrations. It was Chung who introduced Sala to me when I visited friends in Tempe and at ASU in early 1978. Chung and Sala were classmates in the illustration class.

In the summer of 1978, Emersion sent the list of films, for August 25 to October 1, to me and Chung. Films were assigned to various people including Sala and his girlfriend, Debby Spector. Below is Sala’s July 15, 1978 letter to me.

I wrote back and mentioned masks. Very quickly the eighteen illustrations were finished, photostatted, and pasted down. Type was set and arranged accordingly. I contributed the logo. Below are both sides of the poster.

Art and design credits were at the bottom of the poster. Most of the artists used pseudonyms. Hilario Placenta was Emerson. Richard “Black Death” Sala did the art for the August 25 and 26 films Suspiria, Captive Wild Women, Night of the Living Dead and Island of Dr. Moreau. The art for The Goodbye Girl, August 31 to September 1, was by Debby “Art Rap” Spector.

 

 Below are both sides of the poster with numbers identifying the artists. Sala and Spector’s credits were switched.

The next poster, October–November, was produced by Emerson, Spector, Sala and a few others. Art Brut Graphics made its first appearance.

Below is the November–December 1978 poster.

I don’t know how many film posters Sala did.

In December 1979 I received a postcard announcing Sala and Spector’s “Viewmasters” exhibition at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts, December 5–31, 1979. Unfortunately I missed it.

But I was fortunate to have glimpsed the emerging talent of Richard Sala.

Further Reading and Viewing

The Comics Journal #161, August 1993, Sala’s sketchbook

The Comics Journal, Richard Sala 1955–2020

eBay, set of three Neeb Hall film posters from Sala’s estate

Related Post
Rich Chidlaw, Cartoonist

(Next post on Monday: Ho, Ho, Ho!)

School Days: Rich Chidlaw, Cartoonist

I was an early 1970s fine arts major at Arizona State University and met other students interested in comics. Rich Chidlaw lived on the first floor of Best Hall B dormitory; I was on the second floor. Best Hall consisted of three buildings (A, B and C) on the ASU campus and located across the street from the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Gammage Auditorium. Rich contributed cartoons to the student paper, State Press. After ASU, he did comics and animation; he is in a group photo here. Below is his sketch of Barbarella. Chidlaw passed away October 3, 2023. Camelback High School, In Memory

 

Rocket’s Blast Comicollector #74, 1970; advertisement for Ryle Smith and Chidlaw’s Bedlam Magazine

 

(Next post on Monday: Richard Sala, Cartoonist)

Comics: Ed McLean, Letterer, Freelance Writer and Copywriter

Edward Leroy “Ed” McLean was born on December 5, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois according to his post-World War II draft card which had his full name. His parents were James H. McLean and Beatrice E. Davis who married on June 24, 1920 in Chicago.

The 1930 United States Census counted McLean (line 17), his parents and three older siblings, Margaret, Beatrice and Thomas, in Chicago at 5121 Justine Street. His father was chauffeur at a furniture storage company.

In the 1940 census, McLean (line 38) had two younger siblings, Douglas and Ursula. The family of eight were Chicago residents at 5724 South Racine Avenue.

The same address was on McLean’s draft card which he signed on May 20, 1946. His veteran’s file said he had enlisted in the Navy on November 20, 1945 and honorably discharged on May 15, 1946. McLean was described as five feet seven inches, 130 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair.

McLean was not counted at Chicago with his parents in the 1950 census. There was a newspaper cartoonist with the same name (line 20) in New York City at 463 West 19th Street.

Although his birth year, 1925, and birth state, New York, differ, I believe it was McLean because of Jules Feiffer’s 2010 autobiography, Backing Into Forward: A Memoir. Feiffer devoted a chapter titled, Ed, on McLean who was lettering at Wally Wood’s apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The book included a 1948 photograph of McLean.

... Woody introduced me to one of his studio mates, a lettering man named Ed McLean ...

... We met on my first visit to Woody’s studio, a long room that deepened and darkened as your eyes failed to get used to it. Artists and writers sat like galley slaves at desks and drawing tables jammed close enough together to constitute a single piece of furniture, an intimidating world of cluttered comic pages and pounding typewriters, dingy and roach-rich. The no-frills ferocity of the place was intoxicating. ...

... Ed was short and stocky, a big head with thin red hair, built like an Irish workingman, not a writer. ...

... Ed was from the South Side of Chicago, Studs Lonigan territory, and like Farrell’s hero and Farrell himself, he stemmed from Irish Catholic working-class roots. When we met in Woody’s studio, he had been in New York for six months, on the lam from faith and family. Ed was an itinerant. ...

There are no entries for McLean at the Grand Comics Database and Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999. Information about his art training has not been found. McLean may have met Wood at Burne Hogarth’s Cartoonists and Illustrators School. A class photograph is here.

In 1957, McLean and Ylavaune Wiley obtained, in Manhattan, marriage license number 9447. Their May 16 wedding was reported in the Iowa City Press-Citizen, May 20, 1957. Feiffer was one of the attendants. Ylavaune was the research librarian for the Radio Advertising Bureau, Inc. McLean was a freelance writer.

Soon, McLean found work as a copywriter. His acclaimed talents and skills were described in obituaries and remembrances at Chief Marketer, September 7, 2005 Direct Marketing News, September 7, 2005 and Target Marketing, December 1, 2005. A photograph of McLean is at Denny Hatch’s Free Direct Marketing Blog.

McLean passed away on August 13, 2005 in Ghent, New York. Six months later, his wife died on February 23, 2006.

 

Further Reading
Potrzebie

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(Next post on Monday: Rich Chidlaw, Cartoonist)

Interrobang, Part 7: Richard Isbell, Lettering Artist

Richard Louis Isbell was born on June 9, 1924 in Kingsville, Canada according to his World War II draft card. Twenty days later he was baptized at a Catholic Church in Leamington, Canada. His American parents were Roy Floyd Isbell and Katherine Linder.

The 1930 United States Census counted Isbell, his parents, older brothers, Arthur and Eugene, and younger brother, Vernon, in Detroit at 942 Fisher Avenue. His father was a commercial chauffeur.

In 1940 Isbell, his parents and Vernon were Detroit residents at 2597 Coplin Street. His father was a bus driver.

Isbell attended Cass Techincal High School. The Detroit News, May 17, 1942, said he was one of many students who won a prize in a poster contest sponsored by Walker & Company. Isbell graduated in 1943. The prom, which was cancelled due to a race riot, was held fifty years later. The Detroit Free Press, June 29, 1993, published a photograph of Isbell dancing with classmate, Doris Ann Smith.

On June 30, 1942, Isbell signed his draft card. His address was 2521 Ashland Avenue. He was employed at the Dossins Food Products Company. Isbell’s description was five feet nine inches, 150 pounds, with gray eyes and brown hair. His veteran’s file said he enlisted in the Marine Corps on February 5, 1943.

The Detroit News, November 10, 1944, published a Marine Corps photograph of Isbell.

Isbell was one of the war casualties listed in the Flint Journal, December 8, 1944. The Detroit Times, December 23, 1944, published a letter from Isbell’s mother.

I received the pictures of my son, Pfc. Richard L. Isbell, marine artist, and I want to thank you very much.

He was wounded while on Peleliu Island, October 6, and these pictures mean a lot to me.

Mrs. Katherine Isbell, 2521 Ashland Avenue.

A Marine Corps Muster Roll for July 1945 listed Isbell at the Platoon Commanders’ School Detachment in Quantico, Virginia. He was discharged on August 8, 1945.

The Detroit News, April 6, 1945, announced Shirley Smith and Isbell’s engagement.

... The other engagement is that of Shirley Smith to Pfc. Richard L. Isbell, USMC. Her parents are Mr. and Mrs. Ray Smith, of Underwood avenue, and he is the don of Mrs. Catherine Isbell, of Ashland avenue.

... Pfc. Isbell enlisted in the Marine corps in February 1943. He was sent overseas in June of that year, and saw action at Cape Glouster, Talsea and Peleliu, where he was wounded. ...

The Detroit Free Press, June 10, 1945, said

Works of two Detroiters will be featured in a Marine Corps combat art exhibit Monday at the J. L. Hudson Co. The Detroit artists are Pfc. Richard T. Wolff, of 6276 Edwin, and Pfc. Richard L. Isbell, of 2521 Ashland.

The display, which will be held for two weeks, covers a range of South Pacific combat subjects.

On November 17, 1945, Isbell and Shirley Mae Smith married in Detroit. The marriage license said he was an engineering artist and she an artist. Luc Devroye said Isbell was in the illustration department of General Motors. Two years later, he joined New Center Studios, as a lettering and design artist, and stayed for nine years. His alphabets for Mercury and Pontiac automobiles appeared in 1955. The following year Isbell and others established Art Group Studios and serviced automotive clients. In 1960, he was at Headliners International. He returned to General Motors in 1965. 

 Art Direction, July 1957

According to the 1950 census, Isbell was a commercial artist at an art studio. He, his wife and three children, Kathleen, John and Barbara, lived in Detroit at 9040 Minock Street.

The 1960 Birmingham, Michigan city directory  listed Isbell at 723 Ridgedale Avenue. He was an artist at Headliners.

In the mid-1960s, the American Type Founders Company commissioned Isbell to design a typeface. At the time he was Graphic Director for Headliners of Detroit, a division of George Willens & Company. 

 

Art Direction, May 1962

Isbell’s Americana, with an interabang, debuted in 1967.

 

Art Direction, May 1967

Art Direction, July 1967

 

Art Direction, September 1967, said

Americana new foundry typeface from American Type Founders in 10, 12, 14, 18, 25, 30, 36, 42, 48, 60 and 72 point. New design by Richard Isbell in light, almost italic serif.  ATF, 200 Elmora Ave., Elizabeth, N.J. 

Art Direction, October 1967

 

Isbell was profiled in the Detroit Free Press, August 14, 1967. Four days later one of the paper’s columnists wrote about the interabang. Martin K. Speckter, creator of the interrobang, corrected the columnist in a letter published in the Detroit Free Press, October 5, 1967.

The Detroit Free Press, June 23, 1975, said Isbell left George Willens & Co. and formed a partnership with Jerry Campbell. Their Bloomfield Hills studio, Campbell-Isbell Alphabets, specialized in photo-lettering, logos, trademarks, screen credits single and alphabet design. ITC Isbell, a typeface by Isbell and Campbell, was released by the International Typeface Corporation in 1980.

U&lc, December 1980

 

Isbell, one of several men with beards, was featured in the Detroit Free Press, August 9, 1984, here and here.

“America Icons: Detroit Designs” was an exhibition in 2004. The Detroit News, May 22, 2004, said

... Even the type font used for all the exhibit labels was designed in 1981 by Richard Isbell, who taught at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies.

Isbell passed away on December 3, 2009 in Warren, Michigan. An obituary appeared in the Detroit Free Press, December 6, 2009. He was laid to rest at Pine Lake Cemetery.

 

(Next post on Monday: Ed McLean, Letterer, Freelance Writer and Copywriter)

Comics: Marvel Magazine Group

In 1980 Jim Shooter contacted Neal Adams to create a new branding design for Marvel’s magazines. Neal asked me to work on the project. My hand-lettered Marvel Magazine Group was inside a thick bordered box. The interior background would be a solid color. I positioned the price, date and issue number all on the right. The space on the left was for the character. On my own, I did a new Conan logo that wasn’t used. When Larry Hama started Conan Saga, he accepted my logo.

Original art for Marvel Magazine Group with Conan logo photostat

Photostat dummy showing positions of the various elements

 

Marvel adopted some of my designs beginning with Bizarre Adventures #25, March 1981; The Savage Sword of Conan #63, April 1981; and The Hulk! #27, June 1981.

Bizarre Adventures #25, March 1981

The Savage Sword of Conan #62, March 1981

 (digital version)

The Savage Sword of Conan #63, April 1981

 

The Savage Sword of Conan Omnibus Volume 5

I was not involved with the Conan Magazine Group.

The Hulk! #26, April 1981

The Hulk! #27, June 1981

(Next post on Monday: Interrobang, Part 7: Richard Isbell, Lettering Artist)

Interrobang, Part 6: Kenneth Wright, Graphic Designer

 

Kenneth David Wright was born on October 7, 1931 in Bridgeport, Connecticut according to his Social Security application. He was the son of John Wright and Janet Ruddiman who were Scottish immigrants. Two years after serving in the Royal Navy during World War I, Wright’s father immigrated to Canada in June 1920. About two years later he moved to Bridgeport. Wright’s mother arrived in New York on September 13, 1921. Wright’s parents married on December 18, 1924 in Bridgeport where his sister was born in June 1926. The 1930 United States Census counted the trio in Bridgeport at 180 River Street. Wright’s father was an engineer at the United Illuminating Company.

In 1935 Wright, his mother and sister visited Scotland. They were aboard the ship Transylvania when it departed Glasgow on September 25. The ship arrived at the Port of New York on October 5.

The 1940 census counted the Wright family in Fairfield, Connecticut at 177 Dorothy Street. Also in the household was Wright’s maternal grandfather, William Ruddiman.

Wright and his parents were at the same address in the 1950 census. Wright graduated Roger Ludlowe High School.

1950 Fairfieldiana yearbook

On October 18, 1952 Wright and Georgia Delamater married in Bridgeport. The 1956 city directory listed their address, 109 Grovers Avenue.

Wright’s veteran file said he served in the Army from January 11, 1954 to February 29, 1956.

Wright enrolled at the University of Bridgeport where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in graphic design.

1960 Wistarian yearbook

The 1963 Newtown, Connecticut city directory said Wright was a graphic designer who resided in Monroe on Twinbrook Terrace.

At some point Wright was employed at Remington Rand Office Machines, a subsidiary of Sperry Rand Corp. in Norwalk, Connecticut. He designed an interrobang for the 1968 Model 25 electric typewriter. (Richard Isbell’s Americana interrobang, a hot metal type, was released in 1967.)

Bridgeport Post, October 13, 1968

A number city directories are available at Ancestry.com. The 1976 Westport, Connecticut directory listed “Graphic Groups” at 431 East State with Mrs. Georgia Wright in parenthesis. The 1978 Newtown directory said Wright’s home address was 37 Old Zora Road in Monroe. His business was the Graphics Group in Westport.

Years later, Wright and his parents moved to Massachusetts. Wright passed away on January 13, 1997 and laid to rest at Oak Ridge Cemetery. He was preceded in death by his father, January 26, 1992, and mother, December 16, 1996.


Further Reading
You Call that a Punctuation Mark?! The Interrobang Celebrates its 50th Birthday
Luc Devroye, Richard Isbell


Related Posts 

Interrobang, Part 1, Martin K. Speckter, Art Director
Interrobang, Part 2: Jack Lipton, Designer and Art Director
Interrobang, Part 3: Larry Ottino, Lettering Artist, Designer and Art Director
Interrobang, Part 4: Joe Carter, Lettering Artist and Calligrapher
Interrobang, Part 5: Clarence Noel Johnson, Art Director
Interrobang, Part 7: Richard Isbell, Lettering Artist

 

 

(Next post on Monday: Marvel Magazine Group)

Interrobang, Part 5: Clarence Noel Johnson, Art Director

Clarence Noel Johnson was born on December 25, 1897 in Chicago, Illinois according to his World War I and II draft cards. In the 1900 United States Census, he was the youngest of two sons born to David, a music teacher, and Mamie. The family’s Chicago address was 2239 Ashland Avenue.

The 1910 census counted a third son in the Johnson family who resided at 4626 North Ashland Avenue in Chicago.

The name of Johnson’s high school is not known. There were two students named Clarence N. Johnson who attended Waller High School. The Chicago Daily Tribune, January 29, 1915, said one graduated the two-year vocational course. The Tribune, June 23, 1916, listed the same name under the four-year commercial course.

On September 12, 1918, twenty-year-old Johnson signed his draft card. He was a printer at R. R. Donnelly. Johnson’s description was medium height, slender build, blue eyes and brown hair.

The 1920 census said Johnson lived with his parents at the same address. He was a printer.

Johnson married Marjorie May Stewart on April 9, 1927 in Evanston, Illinois. The Chicago Tribune, April 11, published a photograph of the bride. The 1927 Evanston city directory listed the couple at 911 Elmwood Avenue. Johnson worked in advertising.
 

Johnson has not yet been found in the 1930 census. He was not listed in the 1931 Evanston directory.

Art Director Johnson and his wife were Chicago residents at 25 East Bellevue Place. The 1940 census said he was in the advertising industry and earned $3,900 in 1939.

On February 16, 1942, Johnson signed his draft card. His address was unchanged. Johnson’s description was five feet eleven inches, 168 pounds, hazel eyes and brown hair.

 

The Art Directors Club of Chicago published their ADCC Record of Advertising Art in 1944. Johnson, art director at Reincke-Ellis-Younggreen & Finn, had four advertisements represented in the book. (The New York Times, December 25, 1945, said the agency’s name would change, effective on January 1, to Reincke, Meyer & Finn.)

Fifty-two-year-old Johnson had the same address in the 1950 census. (On the same enumeration sheet was cartoonist Dick Fletcher who lived a block south on Oak Street.)

Johnson had letters published in numerous publications including the Congressional Record of the Senate on July 25, 1950.

I am, and have been for the last 24 years, art director for Reincke, Meyer & Finn, advertising, 520 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill. I am a veteran of the First World War and during World War II was sponsor for a Japanese alien for the United States Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization.

Martin K. Speckter wrote about creating the interrobang in Type Talks, March-April 1962. The article included three interpretations by Martin K. Speckter Associates, Inc. art director, Jack Lipton. Johnson’s three designs appeared in the October 1967 issue of Art Direction.

 

 

Johnson passed away on April 6, 1975 and laid to rest at Windsor Congregational Cemetery. The Chicago Sun-Times, April 8, 1975, published an obituary.

Clarence N. (Jim) Johnson, 77, a retired advertising agency official, died Sunday in Grant Hospital.

Until retiring in 1969, Mr. Johnson, of 2247 N. Geneva, was art director of Reincke Meyer & Finn Inc., 625 N. Michigan. He was a director of the Mid-North Assn., a Lincoln Park neighborhood group, and editor of the association’s newsletter.

Surviving are his widow, Marna, and a bother, Raymond H.

There will be no visitation or services.

Further Reading
You Call that a Punctuation Mark?! The Interrobang Celebrates its 50th Birthday
 

 

Related Posts

Interrobang, Part 1, Martin K. Speckter, Art Director

Interrobang, Part 2: Jack Lipton, Designer and Art Director

Interrobang, Part 3: Larry Ottino, Lettering Artist, Designer and Art Director

Interrobang, Part 4: Joe Carter, Lettering Artist and Calligrapher

Interrobang, Part 6, Kenneth Wright, Graphic Designer

Interrobang, Part 7: Richard Isbell, Lettering Artist

 

(Updated November 17, 2025. Next post on Monday: Interrobang, Part 6, Kenneth Wright, Graphic Designer)