Creator: Ben Oda

BENJAMIN HATSUTARO “BEN” ODA

December 21, 1913 or 1915, Florin, California – November 28, 1984, Englewood, New Jersey
Tomitaro Oda, father, and Tsune Yamashita, mother

1920 United States Census 
Name: Hatsutaro Oda [Ben]
Age: 7
Birth Year: abt 1913
Birthplace: California
Home in 1920: San Joaquin, Sacramento, California
Street: Florin Road
Residence Date: 1920
Race: Japanese
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Son
Marital status: Single
Father's Birthplace: Japan
Mother's name: Tsune Oda
Mother's Birthplace: Japan
Occupation: None
Attended School: yes   
Household Members:    
Name / Age
Tsune Oda, 44 [Widow; Laborer/Basket Factory]
Shimchi Oda, 17 [Laborer/Basket Factory; later adopted the name Frank]
Katsuyo Oda, 14
Haruko Oda, 11
Hatsutaro Oda, 7

1930 United States Census

Name: Ben Oda

Gender: Male

Birth Year: abt 1913

Birthplace: California

Race: Japanese

Home in 1930: Florin, San Joaquin Township, Sacramento County, California
Address: Florin Road

Marital Status: Single

Relation to Head of House: Son

Father's Birthplace: Japan

Mother's Name: Tsune Oda

Mother's Birthplace: Japan

Parents' birthplace: Japan

Household Members:

Name / Age

Tsune Oda / 58 [Widow; Basket Maker]

Ben Oda / 17

California Voter Registration 
Name: Ben H Oda
Residence Year: 1936
Street address: Box 36, Florin
Residence Place: Sacramento, California
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Occupation: Student

California Voter Registration
 Name: Ben H Oda
Residence Year: 1938
Street address: Box 36, Florin
Residence Place: Sacramento, California
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Occupation: Student

California Voter Registration 
Name: Ben H Oda
Residence Year: 1940
Street address: Box 36, Florin
Residence Place: Sacramento, California
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Occupation: Student

1940 United States Census

Name: Ben Oda

Age: 25

Estimated Birth Year: abt 1915

Gender: Male

Race: Japanese

Birthplace: California

Marital Status: Single

Relation to Head of House: Brother

Home in 1940: Florin, San Joaquin Township, Sacramento County, California

Inferred Residence in 1935: San Joaquin, Sacramento, California

Residence in 1935: Same Place

Household Members:

Name / Age

Frank S Oda / 35 [Hawaii; Farmer]

Tsune Oda / 65 [Widow]

Ben Oda / 25

World War II Draft Card 
Name: Ben Hatsutaro Oda
Gender: Male
Race: Oriental
Age: 26
Relationship to Draftee: Self (Head)
Birth Date: 21 December 1913
Birth Place: Florin, California
Residence Place: Los Angeles, California
Registration Date: 16 October 1940
Registration Place: Los Angeles, California
Employer: Art Student Chouinard School
Weight: 152
Complexion: Light Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Black
Height: 5 feet 7 inches
Next of Kin: Tsune Oda
Household Members:    
Name / Relationship
Ben Hatsutaro Oda, Self
Tsune Oda, Mother
Physical Identification: Scar on forehead
Signature: October 16, 1940
 
World War II Army Enlistment Record

Serial Number: 39226906
Name: Ben H Oda

Birth Year: 1913

Race: Japanese, citizen (Japanese)

Nativity State or Country: California

State of Residence: California

County or City: Los Angeles

Enlistment Date: 3 February 1941

Enlistment State: California

Enlistment City: Los Angeles

Branch: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers

Branch Code: Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers

Grade: Private

Grade Code: Private (paratrooper)

Component: Selectees (Enlisted Men)

Source: Civil Life

Education: 3 years of college

Civil Occupation: Actors and actresses

Marital Status: Single, without dependents

Height: 66

Weight: 145

1948 New York, New York City Directory

Name: Ben H Oda

Street Address: 601 W 110 
Phone Number: MOnumnt 3–1841

Justice Traps the Guilty #56, November 1953

The line-up from left to right:

Ben Oda, Joe Simon, Joe Genalo, Mort Meskin and Jack Kirby.

Mad #13, July 1954

At the bottom of the page, in blue pencil, is Kurtzman’s note:

“Ben! on all pages!” (arrow points to circled number one).

New York Post
January 24, 1961
page 62: Kuni Tamaki with a 143 average is currently pacing the ladies in the Nisei League at Manhattan Lanes. Ben Oda has paced the Miyasaki Travel Team to the top in the pennant race.

Public Records IndexName: Benjamin H Oda
Address: 8 Barbara Dr, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 07632-2302 

Jonah Hex #33, February 1980

DC Profiles Number 56: Ben Oda

Ben Oda has been lettering comics since 1945—and not just comic books, either. Ben has, at one time or another, done the lettering for such comic strips as Rip Kirby, Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, Dondi, On Stage, Quincy, Gil Thorpe, Dr. Kildare, The Phantom, Steve Canyon, Kerry Drake, Secret Agent X-9, The Dropouts, Terry and the Pirates, and Tarzan.

Of course, Ben has lettered virtually all of DC’s major characters, too, including Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman.

Ben is widely renowned throughout the industry as one of the best letterers around. Professor John Adkins Richardson singled Ben out for special praise in his book, The Complete Art of Cartooning. Yet Ben claims there is no special secret to what he does. He uses standard Speedball lettering pens and his own steady hands and keen eye for spacing to produce hundreds of pages of expertly lettered comic books and strips every year.

Ben actually began his career as an apprentice at the Walt Disney Studios after graduating from the Choinard [sic; Chouinard] School of Fine Arts in Los Angeles. But his stay there was cut short in early 1941 when he was drafted into the Army. Some months later the U.S. entered World War II and Ben found himself being transferred all over the country. His Army years provided Ben with an opportunity to further his education and after a tour of duty in France he found himself attending classes at the University of Illinois at Champaign and later at Yale University. While stationed at Fort Sheridan (Illinois) with the First Medic Corps, Ben wrote and drew a comic strip called “Donald Doc” for the camp newspaper.

But Ben’s “best accomplishment” in those days came when the Fort Sheridan basketball team, which he played for, beat rival Camp Grant—just after that team had clobbered the number one college team in the country! “It was my biggest thrill,” recalls Ben. “The Camp Grant commander was so proud of his team—he made sure that any professional athletes who got transferred to his command stayed at Camp Grant and played on his teams. We showed him.”

After the War, Ben found work with Simon and Kirby, and went on to work with a succession of comics publishers—Crestwood, Hillman, Ziff-Davis, EC, Gold Key, and others. Ben worked for MAD at the very beginning and was also in on the start of Warren Publications. These days, though, Ben restricts his comic book work exclusively to DC.

Ben is the father of two sons and two daughters, aged 28, 23, 21, and 19, and lives with his wife of more than 30 years in New Jersey.

The Comics Buyer’s Guide, #585, February 1, 1985

“Ben Oda dies at 68, long-time letterer”

Superman #408, June 1985
“Ben Oda Remembered”
By Andrew Helfer

Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File 
Name: Ben Oda
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 21 December 1915
Death Date: 28 November 1984
SSN: 567127986
Branch 1: Army
Enlistment Date 1: 3 February 1941
Release Date 1: 27 December 1945

New Jersey Death Index
 Name: Ben H Oda
Age: 68
Birth Date: abt 1916
Death Date: 28 November 1984
Death Place: Englewood, Bergen, New Jersey

Social Security Death Index

Name: Ben Oda

SSN: 567-12-7986

Born: 21 December 1915

Died: November 1984

State (Year) SSN issued: California (Before 1951)

Social Security Applications and Claims Index
 Name: Ben Hatsutaro Oda [Ben Oda]
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 21 Deember 1913
Birth Place: Florin, California
Death Date: November 1984
Father: Tomitaro Oda
Mother: Tsune Yamashita
SSN: 567127986
Notes: July 1937: Name listed as Ben Hatsutaro Oda; 16 November 1988: Name listed as Ben Oda


POV: Point of View 

Mark Evanier
[excerpt]

...There's no way of calculating it but I'd guess that if you tallied who has lettered the most balloons, the late Ben Oda would hold the record, especially if you included newspaper strips. At one point, Ben was supposedly lettering twelve daily strips, along with all the comic book pages he did for almost every publisher in and around New York.

He did so much that some editors assumed he had a whole staff back home, trained to letter exactly as he did. This was apparently untrue. There were family members who helped by ruling guide lines and erasing pages, but the lettering, I'm told, was all by Ben. Every downstroke of it.

He was uncommonly trustworthy. Jack Kirby used to say Ben was the most valuable employee of the Simon-and-Kirby shop. Irwin Hasen, illustrator of the Dondi strip, gave Ben a key to his studio. He could depend on Ben to come and go at all hours, picking up the work and bringing it back when needed, or lettering it on the premises if deadlines got tight. “Ben never once let me down,” Hasen said. I never heard of Ben letting anyone down.

The one time I met Oda, it was at a New York comic convention — either ’75 or ’76 — and he took the train in on a Saturday to deliver three (yes, three) pages to Paul Levitz so that Paul could get them to an inker who needed work on Monday. Ben was not there for the con; he intended to just drop work off and split...and he would have, had I not introduced myself, dropped the name of Kirby, and dragged him off for a cola and a chat.

I still have the notes I took at that impromptu interview. At one point, Ben demonstrated a point by taking my Flair pen and lettering a whole line of copy on my pad. Evelyn Woods couldn't read a stop sign in the instant it took Ben to letter that sentence.

The main thing I jotted down was what an enormous fan he was of all the artists whose work he lettered. He also said that, of all the varied employers he’d had, only one or two had ever treated him poorly. (Which I can believe. There are editors who would swap blood relatives for one letterer like Ben.)

Later on, I heard a wonderful story about him. Artists are forever cobbling up presentations for newspaper strips they hope to sell. Many of them wanted to hire Ben to letter their samples, but Ben felt bad about taking money from an artist, especially given how few of these submissions ever pay off. So he finally established a policy: As long as they didn’t need it A.S.A.P., he would letter samples free for any professional artist. If the strip later sold, he would expect the job of lettering it, but that was not mandatory.

The artist who told me this said it was not a matter of Ben trying to drum up work. “Ben always had all the work he could handle,” he explained. “It was just his little gift to his fellow professionals.”

The Silver Lantern
John Workman
[excerpt]

JW: Harvey Kurtzman hated the Leroy lettering at EC. There were this guy and his wife who had worked for Bill Gaines’s father and did all the Wonder Woman lettering. It was all Leroy-lettered. It’s a type of mechanical lettering that's done with a sort of a stylus, and all the letters have no difference between them. It was used a lot in drafting. But here it was in comics. I actually kind of liked it. I thought it gave the EC’s a unique look, but part of that was the fact that this fellow and his wife would do only the lettering itself. The titles, the sound effects, and the balloons were done by the individual artists, so you’d get these beautiful brush balloons done by Wally Wood where he didn’t ink it with a pen. He used a brush. Then there’d be a big, drippy Graham Ingels balloon and the sort of free floating wonderful things that Al Williamson did. That uniform lettering actually helped to magnify the individuality of the artist’s style. But Kurtzman hated it. When he got a little say in things up there he brought in Ben Oda to hand letter the stuff that he worked on.

Prof: Frank Springer told me a great story about Ben. He said that Ben must not have slept and he had the keys to the places of a lot of the artists and he’d show up at all hours of the day to knock out a few things and Frank said, “Perhaps it’s a good thing Ben’s not with us any more because he probably could have written a tell-all that would have had all of us heading for the hills.” (Mutual laughter.)

JW: You’ll have to talk to Irwin Hasen. He’s got a great story about that exact thing with Ben. Bob LeRose told me a story about the time when Bob used to work for Johnstone and Cushing and an 18-year-old Neal Adams was there doing wonderful stuff. Ben lettered a lot for them, and Bob was once awakened by a phone ringing at 3 in the morning. It was Ben, who’d been locked in the building. He'd stayed in there and was working, and he couldn’t get out. So Bob drove into town and rescued Ben. (Laughter.) Ben was also an incredible athlete. He was, I guess, almost a professional level bowler. His sons made part of their college tuition by bowling, they did so well. He was also very good at basketball. He was about my height, 5'6" or 5'7" and I remember one time the DC guys were in Central Park and we were playing a warm-up baseball game. It was Steve Mitchell and me and Bob Rozakis and Jack Harris and all these guys in their 20’s, but the two best athletes on the team were Ben Oda and Bob LeRose, both of whom were in their 50’s. It was really something to see.

POV: Point of View
Irwin Hasen
[excerpt]

M.E.: Ben Oda.

Hasen: Oh! Ben Oda was the letterer to the stars. Ben Oda had five strips...

M.E.: I think he had a lot more than that at times.

Hasen: He may have. He was a wonderful person...a Japanese-American who’d fought in World War II as a paratrooper. He was a wonderful person and a slave to several of us cartoonists. He lettered On Stage, The Heart of Juliet Jones, Dondi, a couple of others...

We would all give him the keys to our apartments and Ben would come in the dead of the night, like Santa Claus. He’d slip in and the strips were on the drawing board. He’d sit right down, and it didn’t matter how late he had to work...two, three o’clock in the morning, whatever. But he’d do the lettering and then he’d leave, as quiet as a mouse...

There's a funny story about me and a lady one night but I don’t think I can tell it here...

M.E. Sure, you can. [And with prompting from the moderator—who has heard the story and loves it — various audience members demand its telling.]

Hasen: All right. (laughter) I have a large apartment—a Brownstone. A gorgeous apartment with high ceilings. My desk is over here (gestures), there's a little garden outside the second floor...bedroom over here...living room...and this is my studio.

One night I'm entertaining a lady friend and we started getting intimate in the living room on the couch. There’s a coffee table right in front of us. The lights are out and we're sitting there and I’m about to make my big play...and all of a sudden, I hear, “click” — the door! And I thought, ”Oh, my God! It’s Ben!” Quickly, I whisper to the lady, ”Get underneath the coffee table!”

We slid off the couch. We slid under the coffee table so he wouldn’t see us. Ben comes in, puts on a light...doesn’t say a word. He puts a light on by my drawing table, takes his coat off, lights a cigarette, rolls up his sleeves and goes to work. I thought we were going to have to stay like that 'til he’d lettered a whole week of Dondi! (Audience laughs hysterically)

I should have just said something when I heard the click but no, I had to be a wise guy! So it ended up with the lady and me...we finally crawled slowly, so Ben wouldn’t hear us, into the bedroom. On our hands and knees. But to this day, I’m sure he knew. He just didn’t want to embarrass us because, you know, he was that kind of gentleman.

M.E.: Did she understand who he was?

Hasen: Oh, yeah. But Ben was that kind of man. It was very sad...he died of a heart attack. He smoked incessantly. When I went to his funeral in Jersey, there was that line where the family stands and you pay your respects. Now, I’m prone to guilt anyway, but when I got up to her, his wife said, “You had him up working lot of nights, late.” Oh, boy!

The Silver Lantern
Frank Springer
[excerpt]

FS: Of course there was Ben Oda years ago.

Prof: Yeah, Gaspar told me in his typical unpretentious way that Ben Oda was the real genius

FS: Ben Oda lettered Phoebe Zeitgeist. He lettered the whole thing.

Prof: There was plenty to do, too.

FS: Yeah, and he lettered for everybody. He lettered for George Wunder when I worked on Terry and the Pirates. He would show up with this portfolio that weighed a ton. It was this huge portfolio just jammed with strips and he worked for Stan Drake, he worked for Leonard Starr, he worked for Hal Foster, he worked for George Wunder, he worked for Milton Caniff, he worked for this, he worked for that…

Prof: Wow, he really ran the gamut.

FS: He was in the studios of all these people and we thought if Ben ever wrote a book about what he saw in some of these studios, everybody would have to leave town. (Mutual laughter.) He was just terrific. A World War II veteran. He saw combat in Italy with the Nisei, the Japanese-Americans unit there while his family was interred in Wyoming.

The Comics Journal #274

Mike Ploog

[excerpt]

Michael Dean: Did you go from P*S to Warren?

Mike Ploog: Yeah. There was a letterer. Ben Oda, he was fantastic. He used to come up to the office all the time and say, “Hey listen, you'’ve got to do comics.” So one day, I was still on P*S when I went over to [James] Warren, because who could afford to work for Warren without another job?

Dean: [Laughs.] You were between two skinflints.

Ploog: Oh God, they were the cheapest men that God ever put on Earth. And again, you had to like the guy, he had the nerve to actually do it. I went over there and did a couple of stories for Warren.

Dean: Now, Warren, at some point, did revive The Spirit. Was Eisner at all a connection to Warren, or did that come later?

Ploog: Not really. Jim knew I was working with Eisner, but Ben Oda was the guy that actually sent me over there, and had spoken with Jim, so that was more or less the connection.

Comics: Between the Panels (1998)

…In a move reminiscent of the Golden Age, when publishers hustled out ashcans to secure the copyright on specific titles Warren called in Goodwin and a letterer, Gaspar Saladino. “Utilizing some inventory material from Creepy [Warren’s flagship title] as well as some material already printed, the three of us cobbled together a pamphlet-sized little magazine emblazoned with the Eerie logo already designed for us by our regular letterer, Ben Oda,” Goodwin said. “Warren had simple line repro printing done on it overnight. By the next morning, there were about 200 copies of Eerie #1 in existence.”

Creepy and Eerie Confidential
by Russ “Unca’ Creepy” Jones

...Kable News Company did distribute another monster magazine, and that was one of the many reasons Warren wanted out of his contract with them. It was Castle of Frankenstein, published by Calvin Beck, and edited by Bob Stewart. In fact, Bob did pretty much the whole magazine, from design to completion, but COF had no real schedule. It was supposed to be a bi-monthly, but on average, two issues a year was about it. Kable wanted a title that would really be on a schedule, and that meant getting it to press ontime. We settled on the title, Monster Mania, and Ben Oda did our logo. Lee was to handle the mail order from his home in Elkins Park, Pa, and I would be responsible for the editorial chores from the studio at The Clifton....

 

Grand Comics Database

Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999

Wikipedia

Jack Kirby Museum
Ben Oda photos

The Hayfamzone Blog
OdaBalloon font

Murder, She Wrote
“The Dead File”, November 15, 1992 air date

I mentioned this episode to Larry Hama and he explained that Gerry Conway was a story editor on the TV series. Having worked at Marvel and DC Comics, Conway knew many of the industry people. For this episode, he combined the names of letterers Ben Oda and Irv Watanabe to create Ben Watanabe. The character’s late night work schedule was based on Oda. Below is a partial credit’s list and description of Ben Watanabe’s screen time. Spoiler alert!

Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher, mystery writer
Harvey Fierstein as Stan Hatter, cartoonist
Rodney Kageyama as Ben Watanabe, letterer
Kris Kamm as Teddy Graves, Hatter’s assistant
Susan Kellermann as Sergeant Martha Redstone
Jon Polito as Lieutenant Peter DiMartini

Ben Watanabe is a comic strip lettering artist. At 4:45 in the morning he enters cartoonist Stan Hatter’s dark apartment. He walks to a table, sets down his tool box, opens it, pulls out gloves and puts them on. He walks to the drawing board, sits down, turns on the light and begins lettering the word balloons in the “Hatterville” comic strip.

Sometime later, walking down the stairs of the National Cartoonist Society headquarters, Watanabe and Teddy Graves are following Hatter who is talking to mystery writer, Jessica Fletcher. He tries to convince her that he did not do the strips with a character modeled after her, Jessica Fox, that have appeared in the newspaper. He points out details in the drawing style but Fletcher is not convinced. Grave’s points out the hand, and Watanabe adds, “And that’s not my lettering, Mrs. Fletcher.” Stan can’t explain why this is happening. The newspaper syndicate editor shows up to bring bad news to Hatter.

Later, Watanabe shows up at Hatter’s apartment at 3:45 in the morning. Seeing the drawing board lamp on, he walks over and picks up the artwork. He realizes something is wrong with them but turns his attention to a noise in another room. He walks slowly toward the room when he is struck on the head and collapses face up on the floor. Later, the police are all over the outside of Hatter’s building. A chalk outline on the sidewalk indicates where Watanabe’s body was found. Sgt. Redstone, who has been questioning Hatter, tells Fletcher that Watanabe died of massive head trauma. They go to Hatter’s studio. Hatter says Watanabe “had everything to live for, a wife, two daughters and a house in Scarsdale.” Fletcher asks about the statuette with a cracked base on the drawing board. Graves says it’s a Reuben Award, the comic strip equivalent of the movies Oscar. The sergeant speculates that Watanabe was behind the forged comic strips. Hatter says Watanabe was strictly a lettering artist. The sergeant persists and says Watanabe was the mastermind of the scheme but he became disconsolate and committed suicide or his partner murdered him.

Fletcher has her own theory, so later she and Lt. DiMartini reexamine Hatter’s studio. At the police precinct the two explain their theory to Redstone who is still unconvinced. Fletcher calls Hatter’s studio and leaves a message. At 2:15 in the morning, Graves enters the studio, walks to the potted plant, lifts the base and removes a glove. The lights go on and Redstone tells Graves he is under arrest for the murder of Watanabe and extortion. Graves confesses to forging the strips but didn’t intend to kill Watanabe. On the evening of the murder, he explains that he was working and took a coffee break when Watanabe arrived an hour early and saw the forged strips. Graves said he accidentally bumped something and Watanabe, who has a black belt in karate, walked in his direction. He said Watanabe “looked like he was ready to kill.” Graves said he grabbed the Reuben Award statuette and struck Watanabe on the head, then he dragged the body to the balcony and pushed it over. He hid the glove under the plant just in case the police stopped and searched him outside the building.

Related Posts

A. Machine and Royal Cartoon, Mario Acquaviva, Gerald Altman, Gene Barnett, Vivian Berg, Daniel Bhang, John Bulthuis, Ray Burley, Ray Burzon,

Jean Callahan, Helen Chu aka Duffy Mohler, Milton Cohen, Ellen Cole, Herb Cooper, Danny Crespi, 

Jon D’Agostino, James Daleo, Martin DeMuth, Shel Dorf, Marty Epp, Howard Ferguson, Herb Field, 

Gerda Gattel, Louis L. Goldklang, Angelo Grasso, Anita Greene, Al Grenet, Ed Hamilton, Ray Holloway, IBM Directory, Alex Jay, Albert and Charlotte Jetter, 

Abe Kanegson, George Kapitan, Anna Kaufman, Gary Keller, Rick Keller, Nadine French King, Ralph Komisarow, Grace Kremer, Morrie Kuramoto, Al Kurzrok, 

Bob Lander, Bob Laughlin, Bob Leatherbarrow, Shelly Leferman, Len Leone, Joe Letterese, Veda Lufkin, 

Robert N. MacLeod/Leroy Lettering, Lee Maroshek, Larry Mayer, Jack Meltzer, Jim Novak, Bill Oakley, Ben Oda, 

Walter Palais, Stephen Palmisano, Otto Pirkola, Fred Proctor, Jerry Robinson, Joe and Sam Rosen, George Roussos,

Georgette Sauterel, Ira Schnapp, Irving Settel, Rome Siemon, Artie Simek, Lora Sprang aka Pat Gordon, Herman Stackel, Stan Starkman, Daisy Swayze, Zoltan and Terry Szenics, 

Richard Deane Taylor, Alberta Tews, Frank Vina, Irv Watanabe, Leo Wurtzel, John Yakata, Bill Yoshida, Bernie Zuber

(Updated January 21, 2020; Next post on Monday: Hong on the Range)

Creator: Irv Watanabe

HITOSHI IRVING “IRV” WATANABE
February 10, 1919, Maui, Hawaii – January 7, 1993, Kamuela, Hawaii


1920 United States Census
Name: Hitoshi Watanabe
Age: 11/12 [11 months]
Birth Year: abt 1919
Birthplace: Hawaii
Home in 1920: Makawao, Maui, Hawaii Territory
Race: Japanese
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Son
Marital Status: Single
Father’s Name: Hiroshi Watanabe
Father’s Birthplace: Japan
Mother’s Name: Some Watanabe
Mother’s Birthplace: Japan
Household Members:
Name / Age
Hiroshi Watanabe 32 [Laborer / Sugar Plantation]
Some Watanabe 33 [Laborer / Sugar Plantation]
Hiroko Watanabe 3 1/12
Hitoshi Watanabe 11/12 

1930 United States Census
Name: Hitoshi Watanabe
Gender: Male
Birth Year: abt 1919
Birthplace: Hawaii
Race: Japanese
Home in 1930: Makawao, Maui, Hawaii Territory
Marital Status: Single
Relation to Head of House: Son
Father’s Name: Hiroshi Watanabe
Father’s Birthplace: Japan
Mother’s Birthplace: Japan
Occupation: [blank]
Education:
Military Service:
Rent/home value:
Household Members:
Name / Age
Hiroshi Watanabe 41 [Widower; Owner / Sugar Farm]
Hiroko Watanabe 13
Hitoshi Watanabe 11
Saburo Watanabe 9

Guidebook for Homemaking in Hawaii
Caroline Wortmann Edwards
M.J. Fortie, Editor
New Freedom Press, 1938
Drawings by Hitoshi Irving Watanabe, Commercial Art Student and Graduate, McKinley High School, Honolulu (approximately 150 drawings)

Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Books, Group 1, 1938 New Series, Volume 35, Number 11

Edwards, Caroline Wortmann. Guidebook for homemaking in Hawaii, by C. W. Edwards. Edited by M. J. Fortie. Drawings by Hitoshi Irving Watanabe. © Feb. 28, 1938; 2 c. Aug. 22: aft. Oct. 24; A 122301; New freedom press, Honolulu, Hawaii. 14348

1940 United States Census
Name: Hitoshi Watanabe
Temporarily Absent: Yes
Age: 21
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1919
Gender: Male
Race: Japanese
Birthplace: Hawaii
Marital Status: Single
Relation to Head of House: Son
Home in 1940: Paia, Maui, Hawaii
Street: Store Camp

Occupation: [blank]
Sheet Number: 11A
Household Members:
Name / Age
Hiroshi Watanabe 50 [Widower; Foreman / Sugar Cane Plantation]

Hitoshi Watanabe 21
Hiroko Watanabe 23
Katsuko Watanabe 12

Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York), July 21, 1941: Golf scores: Van Cortlandt—...Irv Watanabe, 69...

Biro-Wood Staff Christmas Card, circa 1949, from Joe and Jim Simon’s The Comic Book Makers (2003)

True Comics
#34, April 1944
Truly Comic! (letters page)

A lady hurriedly entered the drug store and asked the man behind the soda fountain. “Are you a doctor?” Smilingly, he replied, “No, but I’m a fizzician!”
Irving Watanabe, New York, N.Y.

1950 United States Census

Name: Irving Watanabe

Age: 31

Estimated Birth Year: abt 1919

Gender: Male

Race: Japanese

Birthplace: Hawaii

Marital Status: Married

Relation to Head of House: Head

Home in 1950: Queens, Queens, New York

Address: 9922 42nd Avenue, 1st Floor

Hours Worked in Week: 40

Occupation: Commercial Artist

Trade: Biro & Wood

Enumeration District: 41-796

Sheet Number: 1

Line: 26

Household Members

Name / Age

Irving Watanabe 31

Tamiko Watanabe 24

Selected pages from Daredevil #88, July 1952

Daredevil, art and lettering for “The Little Wise Guys Scrap Book”

#109, April 1954 (attributed to Watanabe)

#112, July 1954 (signed)

The Comics Journal, #282, April 2007
Fred Guardineer was interviewed and said: 

…I did a lot of work for Charley Biro and Bob Wood in their crime comics. All their lettering was done by a guy of Japanese descent named Irv Watanabe. He was an excellent letterer. He lettered all of their books, including mine. I used to get the story and then I’d draw the thing up in pencils the best I could. I would letter roughly, so you knew how much space it took up. Then I would turn, what they called the pencils, turn them into Bob Wood and Charley Biro or at Gleason’s, which was their publisher. The fellow would letter them in ink and then I would pick up the pencils, take them home and finish the job. I would bring in the full job a couple of days later….

Long Island Star Journal, (New York), July 14, 1959

Buddhists to Celebrate

Many Queens families will join in the city’s 10th annual Buddhist festival from 7 P.M. to 10:30 P.M. Saturday on Riverside Park Mall at 103rd street and Riverside drive in Manhattan. It will celebrate with traditional street dancing and oriental music embellished with Japanese lanterns.

…Mr. And Mrs. Irving Watanabe and their son, Craig, of 87-10 37th avenue, of Jackson Heights…

Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999

Who’s Who said he contributed to the Picture World Encyclopedia (1959).

Hogan’s Alley
Funny Business: The Rise and Fall of Johnstone and Cushing
By Tom Heintjes

...The company was able to hire the best talent because the advertising industry’s demand for comics-style advertising was great, and the agencies paid an art service like Johnstone and Cushing accordingly. As the company assembled a staff, they hired Jack Frost and Irving Watanabe for balloon lettering, Floyd Bonar for logo lettering and Eliot Batchelder for coloring and mechanicals production....

Rawhide Kid #67, December 1968, lettering

Amazing Adventures #8, July 1980, lettering

Amazing Adventures #11, October 1980, lettering

Correspondance

Three letters by Irving Watanabe to Jerry DeFuccio who was working on a Charles Biro biography. Watanabe’s letters were offered on eBay. I acquired one letter and copies of two others.

January 24, 1984

page 1, excerpt

Dear Jerry—

Marie told me about you & your project on Charles Biro,

who I consider an innovator & a genius in his days. He wrote,

penciled, inked all of his strips until a few years before leaving

the field to go to NBC. I don't know what his title was there.

I first met Charlie in 1940, while I was at MLJ. He was

always fun loving & had to be the main attraction. I think he

was kind & generous. He used to give story plots to Joe Blair

many times & in return would receive free lunch.

When at MLJ I was receiving 50 cents a page for lettering but

it soon ended when Charlie offered me $1.00.

Charlie did things the last minute so we got caught in the

crisis deadline. I used to work 2 days & nights—sometimes

3 without much sleep. We went to his apartment, first at Sunnyside

then Jackson Heights, Queens. He used to start off with a big first

page splash then worked on 6 panels & often he'd run out of

pages & wound up with 15 to 20 panels on the last page!

He penciled the whole 1 to 16 pages & left dialogue to the last

but at times I insisted as he went along. So grudgingly he'd

put copy on 6 or 8 pages then finished the story. Meantime,

Norman Maurer, Joe Kubert or Carl Hubbell would tackle

inking in figures. I also did the backgrounds on nearly all

the stories. After Charlie penciled & put copy in, he'd take a

snooze for about 30 minutes & then come back to put only

the faces (ink) of all the leading characters. Later to simplify things

we'd have hundreds of heads in different poses & sizes on stats

& he'd paste them in.

Charlie did all the covers of every mag he put out. He even

designed all the logos & copy on the cover & even the editorials.

He loved to write.

page 2, excerpt

Later in his career when he was popular & financially

successful, he relegated his stories to Fran, his wife, who I

think was a very good dialogue writer. Charlie would

first tell her the plot & she'd letter in the copy as Charlie

continued penciling. This was in 1942, '43 '44. Charlie would

put in the first phrase in pencil & she'd put in the rest. After

she finished Charlie edited it & then I took over.

page 3, excerpt

Charlie was very good to me. During the war years he

raised my salary from $100 to $190 per week. In those years

that was pretty good for anyone. When we started to go downhill after the war

he cut it to $150. Everybody took a cut to offset the $10,000 deficit.

Within 6 months he paid everybody off.

page 4

His innovation with cowboy stories was to draw a gun or

hat that would tell the story. It was very wordy I might say

upon my part because of too many captions. For Biro to do

this was not normal for he loved pictures to tell the story rather

than too much explanations.

A thing about his creation of a strip—everything was in his

head. He created his strips as he went along. He never worked

from a script or penciled a rough sketch. All he did was

rule the pages, blocked them and put notations on a few

of the panels (2 or 3 on a page) the rest was blank & knew

what to draw. He tried element of surprise when you turned the

page over. It was amazing how he worked.

There was a time when we needed a 6-page story filler for

the Crime Does Not Pay book. The artist had not started it. So

we looked up all the outside artists to see whether they had a

speculating story. Fortunately someone had a five-pager.

It had to be done overnight. So Charlie & I drove over to

Brooklyn & saw the story. It wasn't good but we had no

choice. He quickly redid the splash page, cut up the in-between

panels, created a page with panels from here & there, penciled

in & let the original seller of the strip to ink them in

so the story looked liked the same artist did it. The artist

got paid for the 6 pages. The 3 worked for 4 hours because

there were quite a few panel changes & I had to duplicate

the lettering.

He observed deadlines fanatically. It was Friday afternoon

5 o'clock & 6 pages had to [be] delivered from the messenger service

to us. Charlie got an extension for Monday a.m. first thing. Bob

Fuje, the artist, had sent them in the early afternoon. So we rushed

to the messenger office—nobody there—door was open. We looked

through their files to see the owner's address & phone. We contacted

him in Westchester where he was to go out for an important dinner.

I could still see Charlie fuming & threatening him. Reluctantly the manager

came down & went through the files to see who the messenger was. He

lived in Brooklyn. We rushed over. It was about 9 p.m. We

asked many people where the address was. It took us 2 hours

or longer—everyone giving us bum steers. When the 3 of us

finally got to the street—no light from any of the windows could

be seen. It was pitch black except for one lonely light on

the 3rd floor. It was our only chance. Luckily the landlady

page 5, excerpt

opened the door because we made such a racket. It was the correct

address & we asked about the name—if he lived here. It was his

light on the third floor. We knocked, he opened the door, he was

drunk. We got the 6 pages, he got fired on the spot. It was after

1:30 in the morn when I reached home.

Aloha,

Irving

February 24, 1984

Dear Jerry—

Thank you for Fran’s address. I am very happy to

hear that she moved in with the Ortells. Fran is excellent

with kids & a great mother-in-law to have for anybody. I

know she is leery about discussing Charlie’s career in comics.

She was a devoted wife & mother.

The strip was Peter Scratch (I think) not Match. It was

written by Kaplan, Al Capp’s brother. If you know Jack Sparling

he can tell you of an excellent woman artist that worked for Parents’

Magazine’s comic book. I never saw her but I just marveled at

her drawings of famous personalities. Elliot Kaplan was my

editor at Parents’ Magazine & Jack was one of the artists there.

George Tuska used to drive from Bethpage area to my home in Queens

to play golf with me at Clearview golf course. He is a dear friend.

Because of his hearing problem he was very quiet but had a

great sense of humor. He loves to tease but has his serious moments.

I did a few Airboy stories but do not know the artist.

I knew [Frank] Volpe before he was inducted. As I recall he

used to say he never paid income taxes. I wonder if he’s behind

bars.

Yes, Bob Dunn should give you wonderful stories about Biro’s

social escapades. Ask him about the trip where the guests were

fleeced by gamblers on the society benefit trip.

I remember Warren King as a serious & dedicated artist—

always talking about techniques and trying to better himself. I

think Bob Dunn knows more about him. Bob used to come to

our office every now & then & I met him. He is full of life &

used to give every one a nickname—mostly complimentary. I

was no match to associate with that group although I played

golf with some of the cartoonists.

Joe Blair’s second wife was Nadine, a beautiful girl. I don’t

know how she fell for him, but Joe was a handsome smooth talking

guy. Later after divorcing Joe, I heard she married Warren King.

Wolverton did gruesome but charming caricatures and should

be admired by Mad Magazine fans. It was very amusing to see

those drawings in the old days & I think his uniqueness caught

Charlie’s eyes. At times Charlie didn’t appreciate the grotesqueness.

I think he sort of put things off.

I have never met Jill Elgin or Marcia Snyder. I think Ben Oda[?]

may know. I think Ben is an excellent person to interview [illegible] lives

of various artists because he dealt with so many, besides he is a very

nice guy—modest & always busy. If you see him, say “hello” for me.

With warm aloha,

Irving

Undated letter

page 1, excerpt

Dear Jerry—

It brought to my recollection that I left Biro-Wood

Productions around 1954 or ’55 & joined Johnstone &

Cushing, comic advertising, so after that I had no dealings

with either of them.

When Biro had his associations with prominent society

circles, he assigned most of his work to Norman Maurer

& his wife did the lettering, very good I might say. Charlie

& his wife did no typing, so the script must have been

done with pencil comp drawings & copy & descriptions. You

should ask Norman about it. Kubert & Maurer were

very good pals & I hope Kubert is still in touch with him.

Norman could tell you more details because he took over

pencilings & inking all by himself. I think his wife's

name is Joan, daughter of Moe Howard of the 3 stooges.

Frances Biro was a most devoted wife. She was the

right woman for Charlie because they always concurred on

the subject of comics especially the stories. Charlie was a

genius story teller & everybody listened. He loved an audience.

During the war many of the leading cartoonists went

on tours for the war effort—like Goldberg, Caniff etc.

Whenever they got on stage for chalk talk, Charlie got

the biggest ovation to the dismay of the other cartoonists

simply because kids understood comic books & not

syndicated artists.

page 1, excerpt

With aloha,

Irving Watanabe

P.S. I think Marie is a

sweetheart of a person—kind,

understanding, humorous & a

good listener.

Public Records Index

Name: Irving Watanabe
Address: 154 E 29th St Apt 10F, New York, NY, 10016-8135 (1990)

Name: Irving Watanabe
Address: PO Box 29933, Honolulu, HI, 96820-2333 (1993)
[PO Box 2157, Kamuela, HI, 96743-2157 (1989)]

Name: Irving Watanabe
Street address: PO Box 2157
City: Kamuela
County: Hawaii
State: Hawaii
Zip Code: 96743
Phone Number: 808-885-4682

Social Security Death Index
Name: Irving Watanabe
SSN: 576-05-8112
State of Issue: Hawaii
Date of Birth: Monday February 10, 1919
Date of Death: January 1993
Est. Age at Death: 73 years, 11 months
Last known residence:
City: Kamuela
County: Hawaii
State: Hawaii
Zip Code: 96743

Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999

Who’s Who said Watanabe’s frst name was “Hiloshi”.

Watanabe’s comic book credits are at the Grand Comics Database, as Irv and Irving.

Related Posts

A. Machine and Royal Cartoon, Mario Acquaviva, Gerald Altman, Gene Barnett, Vivian Berg, Daniel Bhang, John Bulthuis, Ray Burley, Ray Burzon,

Jean Callahan, Helen Chu aka Duffy Mohler, Milton Cohen, Ellen Cole, Herb Cooper, Danny Crespi, 

Jon D’Agostino, James Daleo, Martin DeMuth, Shel Dorf, Marty Epp, Howard Ferguson, Herb Field, 

Gerda Gattel, Louis L. Goldklang, Angelo Grasso, Anita Greene, Al Grenet, Ed Hamilton, Ray Holloway, IBM Directory, Alex Jay, Albert and Charlotte Jetter, 

Abe Kanegson, George Kapitan, Anna Kaufman, Gary Keller, Rick Keller, Nadine French King, Ralph Komisarow, Grace Kremer, Morrie Kuramoto, Al Kurzrok, 

Bob Lander, Bob Laughlin, Bob Leatherbarrow, Shelly Leferman, Len Leone, Joe Letterese, Veda Lufkin, 

Robert N. MacLeod/Leroy Lettering, Lee Maroshek, Larry Mayer, Jack Meltzer, Jim Novak, Bill Oakley, Ben Oda, 

Walter Palais, Stephen Palmisano, Otto Pirkola, Fred Proctor, Jerry Robinson, Joe and Sam Rosen, George Roussos,

Georgette Sauterel, Ira Schnapp, Irving Settel, Rome Siemon, Artie Simek, Lora Sprang aka Pat Gordon, Herman Stackel, Stan Starkman, Daisy Swayze, Zoltan and Terry Szenics, 

Richard Deane Taylor, Alberta Tews, Frank Vina, Irv Watanabe, Leo Wurtzel, John Yakata, Bill Yoshida, Bernie Zuber

(Updated January 25, 2024; Tomorrow: Chinatown Map)