Monday, February 2, 2026

Comics: A Few Details About Irving Werstein, a Letterer, Writer and Editor

Irving Boris Werstein was born on May 23, 1914 in Brooklyn, New York according to the New York, New York Birth Index at Ancestry.com and World War II draft card which had his full name. The 1915 New York state census counted Werstein (line 37) and his parents, Jacob and Ray, both immigrants, in Brooklyn at 197 Rutledge Street. His father was an upholsterer.

 
In the 1920 United States Census, the Werstein family (lines 95 to 97) lived in Richmond Hills, Queens at 104-18 Jamaica Avenue.
 
 
The 1925 New York state census said the trio (lines 23 to 25) lived across the street at number 104-23. Werstein’s father was naturalized in 1916. A 1965 book jacket flap said Werstein attended P.S. 90 now known as P.S. 90 Horace Mann.
 
 
Fifteen-year-old Werstein (line 87) was at the same address in 1930. The Fourth Book of Junior Authors & Illustrators (1978) profiled Werstein and said he was on the high school newspaper and wanted to be a writer. 


Werstein graduated Richmond Hill High School on February 4, 1932. The next day his father committed suicide.

During the Great Depression, Werstein enrolled at New York University. Junior Authors & Illustrators said he dropped out, after two years, due to the family’s financial situation. Junior Authors & Illustrators said Werstein
supported himself by a variety of jobs—he was a comedian on the Catskill borscht circuit, a factory worker, a “surgeon” in a doll hospital, a waiter, a salesman, an actor.
In 1938 Werstein earned fifteen dollars when his first story was bought by an adventure magazine.

According to the 1940 census, Werstein (line 1) lived with his mother and step-father, Louis Loshak, in Ridgewood, Queens at 60-83 Myrtle Avenue. His mother had a doll hospital, and step-father was a radio repairman. Werstein was a helper at a building construction company.


On October 16, 1940, Werstein signed his draft card. His address was 48-38 46th Street in Woodside, Queens. He was employed at the Silvray Lighting Company. Werstein’s description was five feet nine inches, 140 pounds, with brown eyes and hair. He enlisted in the Army at Camp Upton, Yaphank, New York on October 1, 1941.


Werstein was a staff member of the military publication, Yank, then The Bayonet. The November 23, 1944 edition said
... The SHIELD, senior publication of, the group, has not missed more than 8 editions in 1 1-2 years of its existence, although it has appeared “in the field” in Mississippi, in Colorado, and during, the grueling winter maneuvers in the Coastal Range of California. Editor “Irv” Werstein (formerly of “Yank” staff) likes to think of the surrender of Italy last year as his biggest “scoop.” For hardly had the first news of the event been received, by short-wave, when a special edition of the SHIELD covering the surrender was on its way to the Colorado mts. where the 5th Inf. Regt. was then engaged in field problems.
Just over a month later, Werstein and comics were subjects in The Bayonet, December 28, 1944.
Author Extols Moral Value of Comic Strips
By Col. Louis D. Rubin, Jr.
Many people believe that the reading by children of the many comic books which flood the newsstands will result in harm being done to their outlook, but Cpl. Irving Werstein, of Fourth Headquarters, Special Troops, Second Army, doesn’t agree.

Irv ought to know since the 31-year-old New Yorker has written nationally famous comic books and has also authored many of the “True Comic” features put out by the Parents Institute of America, and is well acquainted with the business.

“Many people say that comic books, with their super heroes, stress the wrong characteristics among men, and that children are influences by this,” Irv says, “but I think the opposite is true. The comic book super being doesn’t make laws by himself. He always adheres to the existing laws, and supports them. He fosters the ideas of patriotism and loyalty, and he attacks the evil element in sociey [sic]. There’s nothing harmful in this.”

His Brain Children

Werstein in civilian life wrote many famous strips. The “Blue Bolt,” drawn by George Mandel, “Human Torch,” drawn by Carl Burgos, “Sub-Mariner,” drawn by Dick [sic] Everett, “Target and the Targeteers,” drawn by Sid Green[e], “The Cadet,[”] “Daredevil,” “The Angel,” “The Vision,” all were written by Werstein, who drew up the plots and then gave them to the artists to draw. He wrote for “Funnies Incorporated,” which was supervised by Floyd [sic] Jacquet and which produced all those strips and many more.

“I found the work very interesting,” Irv states. “Like all other forms of writing, they take much time, thought, and effort. They are not easy to do. The story has to be interesting, and must be presented in a vivid manner. The pace of action throughout the strip must be very swift. It is a good deal similar to the old movie serial.”

Emphasis in each of the strips, Irving says, centers around a strong hero, a menacing villain, and a series of climaxes throughout the strip. In each adventure, the hero after a series of ups and downs becomes the victor in the struggle by use of special powers.

Superhuman Powers

Werstein’s characters all had superhuman powers, ranging from the “Human Torch” who could upon occasion turn into flame and hurl balls of fire at his foe, to the Blue Bolt, who did practically everything better than anybody else.

“It always amused mr to watch the devious manner in which the writers of comic strips managed to get their heroes into trouble. These super beings could never be attacked from the front, but of course there had to be some way in which they could be knocked unconscious, so in all of the strips the hero is always hit over the head from behind, whenever he is knocked out,” Werstein says.

There were also a series of taboos in the trade, Irv says. The hero never kills anyone. He often causes them to die of their own machinations, but he never kills anybody. Anybody, that is, except Japs and Germans. These may be killed by the hero. Then, there may be a girl in the plot, but the sex angle is always played down. There can be no mention of liquors or narcotics except when used by the villains. Then it’s okay.

Here to Stay

Werstein believes that comic books are hereto stay. “They have a definite future in the fields of visual education and in pictorialization of the world’s great literature. They’ll never replace literature, but rather they’ll supplement and popularize it. I think they can be used to great advantage.”

Werstein has been in the service for 39 months, and before that he wrote comic books and did newspaper work, in New York City. He spent 13 months in Panama.

“I always wondered who read these comic books I wrote,” Irv said, because they had such a large circulation that I knew that not just children could be responsible for their popularity. My answer came in the jungles of Panama, when I happened to see a brigadier general, resting comfortably in a jeep, absorbed in a copy of Superman! Now I know.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999 said Werstein wrote for Funnies, Inc., Timely/Marvel, DC, Novelty, Charlton, Feature, EC and others. A checklist is at the Grand Comics Database. He was editor at Ziff-Davis. Who’s Who said Werstein did lettering in Taffy Comics. His style is unknown. The Digital Comic Museum has nine issues of Taffy Comics which were published by Orbit Publications. Ellen Cole lettered Taffy Comics #3; number four is not available. Numbers five through twelve were lettered by Matthew Tweedy. Werstein’s lettering may have appeared in another title.
 
Werstein was credited in Taffy Comics numbers nine, ten and twelve. His credit was probably for writing. He was also credited in Patches Comics numbers ten and eleven.

 #9, September 1947

#10, October-November 1947
 
 #10, October-November 1947
 
#11, December 1947
 
 #12, February 1948
 
On December 8, 1948, Werstein and Goldie Lebofsky obtained marriage license number 38026 in Manhattan. They married in Brooklyn on December 19.


The 1949 Manhattan, New York City directory listed Werstein at 222 East 17th Street. The 1950 census counted the couple (lines 15 and 16) in Manhattan at 9 Stuyvesant Oval. Werstein was a self-employed writer who earned $7,000 in 1949.


Werstein’s letter, in Writer’s Digest, June 1950, objected to an article about finding easy work in comics.

On March 31, 1955, Werstein and his wife were aboard the ship, Queen Mary, bound for Cherbourg, France. The manifest said they planned to be abroad for six months.
 
An obituary appeared in The New York Times, April 9, 1971.
Irving Werstein, Wrote 40 Books
Author Who Depicted Wars Chiefly for Young, Dies
Irving Werstein, an author of some 40 books, chiefly for young persons, died of a heart attack on Wednesday in Doctors Hospital. He was 57 years old and lived at 511 East 20th Street.

Mr. Werstein’s experience as an infantry soldier in the Army in World War II and his work as a correspondent, for Yank Magazine no doubt had a major influence on his writing career.

Many of his books concerned wars and battles of the past. A careful researcher, he read the battle reports and journals of both sides, interviewed soldiers and read their letters and diaries and contemporary publications for background.

“In tackling the problem of writing about a battle,” he once recounted, “I can never forget that the companies, regiments, battalions, divisions and corps on both sides are made up of men and boys. These young warriors are the central figures of my books.”

His books covered such varied conflicts as “Battle of Salerno,” “All the Furious Battles: The Saga of Israel’s Army,” “Seventeen Seventy Six: The Adventures of the American Revolution Told with Pictures,” and “Ten Days in November: The Russian Revolution.”

One of his favorites was “The Long Escape,” a narrative of a World War II episode, the flight of 50 convalescing Belgian children and their nurse from the advancing Germans.

He was, especially interested in Americana and many of his books concerned America’s past.

At various times Mr. Werstein was an actor, a waiter, a comedian, a factory worker and a salesman. Whatever the job, he continued to write. In 1938 he sold a pulp‐magazine story for $15, an event that caused him to decide to take up free‐lance writing as a full-scale career.

Mr. Werstein was born in Brooklyn and attended New York University.

He leaves his wife, the former Goldie Lebofsky, and son, Jack.

A funeral service will be held today at the Universal Chapel, Lexington Avenue at 52d Street, at 10:30 A. M.
Werstein was laid to rest at Long Island National Cemetery.

All the Furious Battles: The Saga of Israel’s Army (1969)
Betrayal: The Munich Pact of 1938 (1969)
Labor’s Defiant Lady: The Story of Mother Jones (1969)
 
 
Related Letterer Posts










 
(Next post on Monday: J. Albert Cavanagh, Lettering Artist)
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Monday, January 26, 2026

Lettering: A Few Details About John Pistilli, Lettering Artist


John Anthony Pistilli was born Giovanni Pistilli on December 4, 1925 in Astoria, New York according to the New York, New York Birth Index (at Ancestry.com) and his World War II draft card. Pistilli’s middle name was on his Social Security application (transcribed at Ancestry.com). His parents were Nicholas and Anna, both Italian immigrants.

Pistilli’s parents and three siblings were aboard the ship Lapland when it departed Naples, Italy on February 17, 1924. The family arrived at the Port of New York on February 29, 1924. The manifest said their final destination was Flushing, New York.

The 1925 New York state census, enumerated June 1, counted the Pistilli family in Astoria, Queens at 12 South Lebanon Terrace.

In the 1930 United States Census, four-and-a-half-year-old Pistilli (line 95), his parents and two siblings resided in Astoria at 25-43 Eighteenth Street. His father was a laborer in the subway.


The 1940 census recorded the Pistillis (lines 54 to 57) in Astoria at 25-47 Eighteenth Street. Pistilli and his father, both clerks, and brother Louis, a chauffeur, all worked in a vegetable business.


On December 6, 1943, Pistilli signed his draft card. His description was five feet eleven inches, 170 pounds, with brown eyes and hair.


Pistilli served in the Navy. His draft card said he was honorably discharge on February 17, 1946. The Long Island Star-Journal, February 21, 1946 said
Armed Forces Discharge 91 at 6 Centers
89 Sailors, Two Army Corporals Included in Group
Six separation centers announced today the honorable discharge of 91 North Queens men. There were 89 sailors and two army corporals in the group.

The veterans and the separation centers where they were released follow: ...

Navy
Lido Beach
John Pistilli, GM 3/c. 25-47 18th street, Astoria [Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class]
At some point Pistilli enrolled at the Jean Morgan School of Art. According to Lubalin 100, Day 13,
... [Pistilli] graduated from the Jean Morgan School of Art in New York City in 1949, where he studied lettering under J. Albert Cavanagh and learned other commercial art skills before completing additional art courses at the City College of New York. Pistilli did a brief “stint with various window display studios,” but soon after, began his employment at Sudler & Hennessey, Inc. in 1949, where he remained until retirement.
A profile of Pistilli, in the Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California), February 27, 2000, said
... After the war, he enrolled in art school and rediscovered his love for lettering. Pistilli said he was one of a few “lettering fools” who was constantly lettering all class assignments, even for subjects such as anatomy.

A special lettering class was formed and taught by J. Albert Cavanaugh [sic], who was one of the top letterers of the time.

In 1949, two weeks after graduating from the Jean Morgan School of Art in New York City, Pistilli was hired by J.B. Robert, Inc., a small studio that handled window displays. In the spring of the following year, the right-handed artist joined Sudler and Hennessey, Inc., where he stayed for the remainder of his career. ...
Pistilli’s lettering instructor, Cavanagh, who was also on the faculty of Pratt Institute in 1947, passed away on July 20, 1947 in Boston, Massachusetts.

According to the 1950 census, Pistilli (line 9) was in the household of his brother, Louis, which included his mother, sister-in-law and nephew. They were Astoria residents at 25-44 14th Place. Pistilli’s occupation was “printer” at an art studio.


The Press-Enterprise profile said Pistilli “designed trademarks for companies such as Reader’s Digest, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Harper’s, Cover Girl, English Leather, Exxon, Whirlpool, Woolworth’s, Schwepps, Cutty Sark, Hertz and Stride Rite.” A photograph of Pistilli included logos for the restaurant, Café des Artistes, and bar, Charley O’s. Below are some of Pistilli’s lettering.

 

Slipcase front and back
37th Annual of Advertising and Editorial Art and Design (1958)
 

Art Direction, May 1958
 
 
SH&L logo, Art Direction, September 1958
(additional examples here)


SH&L logo, Print, September–October 1958


Holiday, October 1959
(cover credited to Herb Lubalin)

 
 Air Mail Stamps, 1959–1961


 Dimension, CBS Radio, 1960
(Billboard, June 13, 1964, series began November 1960)


The Saturday Evening Post, September 16, 1961, logo debut;
(Norman Rockwell painted Herb Lubalin at the drawing board)

 
Callaway Towels, 1961
(credit in Art Direction, December 1961)

 
Eros, Spring 1962, detail
(credit in Art Direction, May 1963)

 
Eros, Summer 1962, detail
(credit in Art Direction, May 1963)
 
 
 
Art Direction, June 1964

 
Later, Inc. was added.


521 Herb Lubalin Inc.
 
 
44th Annual of Advertising & Editorial Art & Design (1965)


Pistilli Roman was used by the Library & Museum of the Performing Arts
at Lincoln Center. Bulletin of the New York Public Library, November 1965.
 (The typeface was trademarked by the Visual Graphics Corporation.)
Below: Various headings from a 1979 Lincoln Center program, Stagebill.



#195, September 11, 1975, logo debut
 

Alphabet, 1977



 
In 1988, Pistilli was semiretired and moved to Marshalls Creek, Pennsylvania where he continued to freelance. His “retirement” was recorded in the Congressional Record of the 100th Congress, February 24, 1988.
John Pistilli Retires After 40 Years as Lettering Director
Hon. Bill Green
Of New York in the House of Representatives
Wednesday, February 24, 1988
Mr. Green. Mr. Speaker, my congressional district of New York City quite possibly has the largest concentration of artists of any in the Nation. Yet it is hard to imagine an artist whose work has had greater visibility than lettering designer John Pistilli, who is retiring today after nearly 40 years as lettering director at Sudler and Hennessey Advertising Inc.

The trademarks John has created read like a virtual overview of modern popular culture. They include Reader’s Digest, Rolling Stone, Vogue, McCall’s, Saturday Review, Harper’s, Holiday, Simplicity, Butterick, Cover Girl, English Leather, Avon, Nice’N Easy, Bonnie Bell, Prince Matchabelli, Caravelle, Exxon, Whirlpool, Woolworth’s, Singer, Schweppe’s, Cutty Sark, Hertz, Perdue, Stride Rite, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Metropolitan Opera, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

John has won numerous awards from such organizations as the American Institute of Graphic Art, the Art Director’s Club, and the Type Director’s Club. In 1959, he received an award from the U.S. Government for his lettering of the Statute of Liberty stamp series.

But of his many accomplishments, Pistilli feels most proud of Pistilli Roman. Requisitioned by Aaron Burns, the typeface was designed and executed in only 2 1/2 weeks for the purpose of introducing a nationwide typeface contest. But it did even more than that; it began a new era in typography: juxtaposing accentuated weights against hairline forms.

Pistilli’s love for lettering goes back to his childhood days in Queens, NY, when he drew designs on the sidewalk with chalk, and even devised fancy numbers for his baseball team’s first, second, and third bases. Following his graduation from the Jean Morgan School of Art in 1949, Pistilli began his lettering career with J.B. Roberts, Inc., a small studio which handled window diplays [sic]. In the spring of 1950, he joined Sudler & Hennessey, where he has remained ever since.

Pistilli’s logo designs derive not only from the sound and meaning of the words, but also from the shapes of the characters within the words. “If you squint your eyes,” he says, “the overall character of the word should reflect a nice balance between positive and negative shapes.” His award-winning “Design 11” logo, created for Sudler & Hennessey’s 11th-floor art department, is a prime example of that balance. He calls this logo “a pure combination of concentric and square forms,” in that it combines perfect circles with perpendicular lines.

Having observed the transition in the past 25 years to phototypesetting, Pistilli does concede, however, that typography has made a great deal of technical progress and will continue to do so. “In the early 1960’s, the use of computer technology to create a multitude of typesetting devices has made typesetting much faster and much less expensive. And phototypesetting has also created unheard of type flexibility: most of our type suppliers can now give us phototypography, typositor strips, minus leading, and minus settings, things which were virtually impossible in metal typesetting.”

If Pistilli’s standards seem high, his personal record of achievement remains his best testimony. In today’s competitive art market, too many artists surrender their creative standards. On more than one occasion, art directors have found themselves at odds with John Pistilli on issues involving type design; but they always end respecting him for standing by his professional convictions.

John has been married to his wife Dorothy for 31 years. They have one son, John, who majored in government at Harvard at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and now attends law school at the University of Southern California.
Pistilli moved to Sun City, California in 1991. Three years later, Pistilli and his wife settled in San Jacinto, California.

Pistilli passed away on August 14, 2003 in Loma Linda, California. An obituary appeared in the Press-Enterprise on August 27, 2003.
John Pistilli created trademarks
Typographer: He designed logos for such clients as Cutty Sark, Exxon and Whirlpool.
San Jacinto—John Pistilli, a nationally known typographer whose work subtly influenced the tastes and buying habits of millions of Americans for more than 40 years, died Aug. 14 at Loma Linda University Medical Center. He was 77.

Mr. Pistilli helped create trademarks for such companies as Schwepps, Whirlpool, Exxon and Cutty Sark, and collaborated on the mastheads for Gourmet, New York and McCall’s magazines. He nay have owed his career to a childhood stutter, said his son, John Jr., a Los Angeles attorney.

“He was a very gentle, low-key guy, and he had  stuttering problem as a child,” his son said. “It may simply have been easier for him to communicate graphically.”

Mr. Pistilli grew up drawing pictures in chalk on the sidewalks of his neighborhood in New York City. He lettered the names of friends and drew their portraits, soon earning a reputation for creating fancy numerals and drawing base paths for stickball games.

“The fellows said I could draw a straighter line,” he said in a 2000 interview.

A self-described “lettering fool,” he studied with J. Albert Cavanaugh [sic], one of New York’s top letterers at the time, and graduated from the Jean Morgan School of Art in 1949.

The next year, he was hired by Sudler & Hennessey, a New York advertising agency that specialized in medical accounts. Now part of Young and Rubicam, the agency allowed him to freelance. Soon he was designing logos and working on major national accounts for several agencies. He produced work for Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera and did the lettering for a series of stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 1960.

Mr. Pistilli earned 55 awards and was recognized by the Art Directors Club of New York, the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Type Directors Club of New York.

Ultimately, he designed his own typeface, aptly named Pistilli Roman. He created it to enter a national design competition, but later said it was one of his proudest accomplishments.

“Pistilli Roman was one of the first typefaces designed for photo typesetting,” his son said. “It was a totally new technique at the time, anode course, that process really revolutionized the whole graphics field.”

But, despite being on the forefront of new technology, Mr. Pistilli was not a computer advocate.

“I’m from the old school,” he said in a 2000 interview. “I don’t even want to know where the on-off switch is. I don’t hate computers, but you just lose so much style.”

In 1990, he retired to Sun City and later to San Jacinto with his wife, Dorothy. In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Pistilli is survived by a sister, Theresa Pietramonaco of New York.

Miller-Jones Mortuary in Hemet handled cremation arrangements.

Further Reading and Viewing
The Paper Stack, Pistilli Roman
Type Network, Redesigning an icon: How Rolling Stone got its new logo
Luc Devroye, John Pistilli
MyFonts, John Pistilli
Portland Design History, Jantzen Alphabet
38th Annual of Advertising and Editorial Art and Design (1959), Lark lettering might be by Pistilli
Herb Lubalin’s S&H and SH&L Advertisements, 1955–1963
The Name’s Lubalin, Herb Lubalin.
 
 
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