Comics: Searching for Sid Check

Sid Check was born around the same time as fellow comic book artists Wally Wood (1927), Joe Orlando (1927), Frank Frazetta, (1928), Al Williamson (1931) and Angelo Torres (1932). Child of Tomorrow: And Other Stories (2013) said Check lived in Brooklyn, New York where he attended the Mark Twain Junior High School.

With this information I began my search for Check.

In the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, there was a ten-year-old Sidney Check who resided in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York at 3001 West 29 Street. (No other boys named Sidney Check or Sydney Check were found in Brooklyn.) Check lived with his uncle and aunt, Morris and Rose Applebaum. Morris worked in children’s clothing. The census said Check was born in New Jersey around 1930 and, in 1935, lived in Newark, New Jersey.

A Social Security application, transcribed at Ancestry.com, was filled out by Sidney Charles Check who was born August 2, 1930 in Newark, New Jersey. His parents were Abraham Check and Ida Applebaum.

Check’s parents were found in the 1930 census which was enumerated in April, four months before Check’s birth. Check’s parents were Polish emigrants who arrived in 1926. The census recorded their address as 217 Harrison Avenue in Newark, New Jersey. Check’s father was a tailor at a clothing house. Also in the household was Morris Applebaum, Ida’s brother. What happened to Check’s parents is not known. At some point Check was in the care of his uncle and aunt.

The Mark Twain Junior High School (known today as Mark Twain Intermediate School 239 for the Gifted and Talented) is located in Coney Island, Brooklyn at 2401 Neptune Avenue, less than a ten minute walk from Check’s home that was about a mile west of the train station.

Check graduated from the School of Industrial Art (SIA) in Manhattan. Below is the 1948 yearbook photograph with his name, address and major: “Check, Sidney; 2995 West 29 Street; Brooklyn, 26[?], New York; Cartooning.” Check lived on the same street and near his previous address. Check may have known Orlando, who was in the Class of 1945, and Torres, a 1951 graduate.

Check’s earliest comic book work dates to 1950 according to Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999 and 1951 in the Grand Comics Database. Against the Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood (2003) said “Working off and on with Wood since 1949, Check was a huge comic book fan while growing up in the Thirties and Forties. He held Wood, Williamson, [Roy] Krenkel and Frazetta in high regard and eventually became friends with these talented giants.”

Below is Check’s “The Spartans!” in Battlefront #23, September 1954.

Child of Tomorrow said “Check grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he and Frank Frazetta knew each other as boys in the same neighborhood.” In the 1930 census, Frazetta lived at 1203 Avenue Y in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn which was about three miles east of Check’s home. Frazetta’s address in the 1940 census was 2435 East 11th Street, about a block-and-a-half from his old home. Frazetta studied at Michele Falanga’s Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts and did not mention Check as a student there. Frazetta attended Abraham Lincoln High School, in Brooklyn, when Check was at SIA. It’s not clear when and where Check and Frazetta first met as boys.

The New York City, Marriage License Indexes at Ancestry.com said a Sidney Check and Betty Green obtained a Brooklyn marriage license in 1952. The couple were granted an August 1957 divorce in Russell County, Alabama. There was no mention of Check’s marital status by his friends and colleagues.

Check’s name and address were recorded in a 1964 Brooklyn voter registration enrollment book: “Check Sidney C. 2995 W 29th st 1868762—D”.

Child of Tomorrow said “Sometime in the early 1970s, Torres bumped into Check on the street. ‘He told me he had a regular job and wasn’t involved in comics anymore. I never saw him again after that,’ Torres said.” Years later, some of Check’s possessions in a storage locker were sold.

According to the Social Security Death Index, Check passed away June 19, 2002. His last residence was Coney Island, Brooklyn at the 11224 ZIP Code.

(Next post on Monday: School of Industrial Art’s Cartoonists, 1939–1960)

Comics: Selma Meyers Gleit, Forgotten Artist

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Selma Meyers was born April 15, 1928, in Brooklyn, New York. The birth date is based on information at Tributes.com and Dignity Memorial.

In the 1930 U.S Federal Census, Selma was the second and youngest child of Louis, a baker, and Cecilia, who were Polish emigrants. Selma’s older brother was “Abie” [Abraham]. The family resided in Brooklyn at 1456 44th Street

The 1940 census recorded the Meyers’ new address in Brooklyn, 114 Manjer Street, and two additional children, Harriet and Melvin.

Selma graduated from New York City’s School of Industrial Art in 1945. On page 14 of the yearbook was Meyers’ name, specialty and achievements: “Silk Screen. Valedictorian; General Excellence Award; Designed commencement program cover.” The Class of 1945 included Rocco Mastroserio, Joe Orlando, Peter Pandolfi, Gaspar Saladino, and August Scotto. 

Selma may the person mentioned in Todd’s Blog post, DC Comics’ 1945 Christmas Party. 

The Northport Journal, (New York), June 23, 1949, covered Selma’s marriage.

Gleit–Meyers

The wedding of Miss Selma Meyers and Bernard Gleit took place last Sunday evening, June 12, in the Temple Auditorium in Brooklyn. Immediately following the ceremony, a reception was held in the Auditorium for friends and family of the bride and groom, the guests numbering two hundred. Mr. and Mrs. Gleit left later for their honeymoon trip to Schroon Lake, a resort in the Adirondacks, where they stayed until their return on Sunday, June 19.

Mrs. Gleit a popular Huntington Station resident is a graduate of the Industrial School of Arts Class of 1945, of New York City, and also attended Pratt Institute in that city. She is presently an artist for the National Comics Publications in New York. Mr. Gleit is connected with the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company.

The young couple are making their home on Jacobson Avenue in Huntington Station, where they are already well known and well liked Mrs. Gleit is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Meyers of that community, and Bernard is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Gleit of Broadway in Greenlawn.

In the 1950 census, Selma and her husband were residents of Huntington, New York. She was a freelance artist. Selma is not listed in Who’s Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. It’s not clear what her role was at National and which titles she worked on.

The Northport Journal, August 9, 1961, reported the birth of a son.

Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Gleit are the proud parents of a boy born in the Huntington Hospital last Thursday. Mr. B. Gleit is the son of Herman Gleit of the Broadway stationery store.

There were two sons, David and Stephen.

Selma’s husband passed away July 25, 1995 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Selma’s passing was on April 4, 2012 in West Palm Beach.

The Selma Gleit Memorial Scholarship for Women in STEM was established by a granddaughter, Naomi Gleit, in 2015.

Women in Comics Posts

Jeanne Alippe, Ruth Atkinson, Olive Bailey, Valerie Barclay, Vivian Berg, Jean Callahan, Helen Chu aka Duffy Mohler, Ellen Cole, Corinne Boyd Dillon, Anahid Dinkjian, Jill Elgin,

Barbara Clark Fogel, Laura E. Foster, Evelyn Gaines aka Lynn Lovelace, Merna Gamble, Gerda Gattel, Selma Meyers Gleit, Jane Krom Grammer, Anita Greene,

Bonnie Hano, Ray Hermann, Joye Hummel, Marjorie Wilkes Huntley, Grace Jacquet, Charlotte Jetter, 

Anna Kaufman, Bessie Mae Kelley, Nadine French King, Alice Kirkpatrick, Grace Kremer, Ada Levy,  Pauline Loth, Veda Lufkin,

Marion McDermott, Emma C. McKean, Tarpé Mills, Claire S. Moe, Phyllis Muchow, Lily Reneé, Ruth Roche, 

Georgette Sauterel, Marie Severin, Marcia Snyder, Lora Sprang aka Pat Gordon, Serena Summerfield, Daisy Swayze, Terry Szenics, Claire Szep, 

Alberta Tews, Peggy Zangerle

(Updated July 28, 2022; next post on Monday: Searching for Sid Check)

Under Cover: Tales of the Dark Knight

Mark Cotta Vaz proposed to DC Comics a book celebrating Batman’s fiftieth anniversary. This book was handled by Joe Orlando, who was DC Comics’ Editor for Special Projects. Ballantine Books was chosen to publish the book.

MONDAY, JUNE 27, 1988

10:00 AM meeting at Ballantine Books, 201 East 50th Street, with Risa Kessler, editor, Stephen McNabb, copy editor, Fred Dodnick, production manager, and Alex Klapwald, production assistant.

At the meeting I was given a copy Vaz’s proposal plus a number of Batman books and posters for reference. Risa Kessler wanted the cover to incorporate Batman into the city architecture/skyline as Frank Miller had done in one of his Dark Knight Returns illustrations. She also hoped to get Miller to do the cover for this book. A date was set for me to present cover concepts.

SUNDAY, JULY 24, 1988

I began working on cover concepts. I incorporated Batman into the skyline with a bat reflected in the river. The title was off to the side like the Dark Knight Returns book.

One of the reference books from DC was Batman: Son of the Demon which showed Batman atop a building. I thought of trying something similar to what Will Eisner had done on the splash pages of The Spirit in which the letters S-P-I-R-I-T are part of the scene. 

What I came up with wasn’t clever like The Spirit but more like the biblical movie posters for Ben-Hur and King of Kings; the titles were in perspective and built of stone with characters from the movie placed in and around the letters.

I always preferred the Chrysler Building over the Empire State Building. The title became part of the architecture. Like the Son of the Demon cover, I had Batman looking down at the street.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1988

11:45 AM meeting at Ballantine Books to present my cover concepts.

Risa liked the concept of Batman in the skyline but Stephen, Fred and Alex preferred Batman on the
Chrysler Building (my favorite, too). The concept of Batman on the Chrysler Building plus photos of the Chrysler Building, for reference, were sent to DC Comics.

A few weeks later, the finished illustration was delivered to Ballantine Books. Sigmond Pifko, the illustrator, did the airbrush art on 30 x 40 inch illustration board. I was given an 8-by-10-inch color transparency of the illustration so I could do the cover mechanical. Using a scanner drum to make color separations of the art was the norm in the publishing industry. The transparency I had could have been scanned but Fred decided to make a conventional camera separation from the original illustration. As you may know, a transparency has a slight blueish tint. The typeface for the subtitle and author’s name was supplied by Photo-Lettering who photographically manipulated the type to match the perspective of the title. The book was published shortly after the release of Tim Burton’s Batman movie.

Cover proof; originally, the book measured
9 by 12 inches / 22.9 by 30.5 centimeters.

The book measured 8.375 by 10.875 inches
/ 21.3 by 27.6 centimeters.

Although Frank Miller did not do the cover, I think Pifko, a Canadian, did a terrific job. Sometime after the book was published in 1989, I called him. He told me that he had my concept drawing and a pencil drawing from Orlando, who had refined my design and changed the attitude of Batman from looking down to turning and looking at you. A similar approach was used on The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 37, July 2010.

A “parody” of the cover was published as the cover of VAR Business, November 1991, which was included in the Print Regional Design Annual 1990. I mentioned it to Robbin Brosterman, a designer at at DC Comics, who informed Lillian Laserson, DC’s in-house counsel. A series letters between DC, VAR and CMP Publications resulted in a clarification.

(Next post on Monday: Herb Lubalin, part 1 of 7)