Lettering: Victor Moscoso in Art Direction

Art Direction, May 1974

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Now you see it. Now you don’t,” says Victor Moscoso about this 

month’s cover.

If you look carefully, you’ll see Moscoso’s spelling out of the word 

art in the negative spaces between the blue Stonehenge-like shapes.

Originally a design for a job for Field Educational Enterprises (with 

Bruce Cortebien as design director and Joe Di Chiaro as AD), the 

art was revamped for AD’s cover in Moscoso’s inimitable style, 

using pen and ink with an acetate overlay.

“I do a lot of work for Zap Comix, and some for Snatch and Jiz (a 

very underground magazine,” says Moscoso. Recently, he’s also 

done album covers for Jerry Garcia and Herbie Hancock.

Working out of San Francisco, Moscoso’s reached at (415) 456-8389.

 

 

Related Post
Victor Moscoso, 1950s Student, Artist and Athlete

 

 

(Next post on Monday: A Few Details About Verdun Cook, a Graphic Designer, Lettering Artist, Photographer, Art Director, Artist and Singer)

 

Lettering: J. Albert Cavanagh, Lettering Artist

1939 Prattonia yearbook

John Albert Cavanagh was born on March 8, 1885 in Boston, Massachusetts according to his Massachusetts birth record (at Ancestry.com), World War I and II draft cards and Social Security application (at Ancestry.com). Many sources had the incorrect birth year 1888 which appeared on a 1946 copyright entry. Cavanagh’s parents were Sylvester G. Cavanagh, a shoemaker, and Rose G. Kelley, who married on November 25, 1880 in Needham, Massachusetts.

The Cavanagh family has not yet been found in the 1900 United States Census. A 1909 Boston directory listed Cavanagh, an artist, and his father at 1 Parkman Place. The residence column, as of May 1, 1908, said Cavanagh resided in New York, New York. Information about his art training is not available.

Cavanagh has not yet been found in the 1910 census. The 1915 New York state census counted Cavanagh (line 38), his wife, Katherine, and nine-year-old daughter, Estelle, in Manhattan at 140 West 105th Street. Cavanagh was an artist.

On September 12, 1918, Cavanagh signed his draft card. His address was 44 West 37th Street in Manhattan. The self-employed artist was described as medium height and build, with blue-gray eyes and dark brown hair.

According to the 1920 census, Cavanagh (line 30) was an artist in advertising. He and his wife resided in the Bronx at 2264 Creston Avenue.

Printers’ Ink, July 24, 1924, said

Form New Advertising Art Business
J. A. Bensinger and J. Albert Cavanagh, for the last five years members of the firm of, Cavanagh & Bensinger, Inc., advertising art, New York, have formed separate businesses at that city. Mr. Bensinger will continue under the name of Bensinger Studios. After August 1, Mr. Cavanagh will conduct a studio under his own name.

Cavanagh advertised in Printers’ Ink, September 4, 1924.

Printers’ Ink, October 23, 1924, said

G. P. Haynes with J. Albert Cavanagh
G. P. Haynes, recently with Rusling Wood, New York, has joined J. Albert Cavanagh, advertising art, New York. Mr. Haynes was at one time art director with Calkins & Holden, Inc., advertising agency, New York.

Cavanagh advertised in Advertising and Selling Fortnightly, November 5, 1924.

Printers’ Ink, February 5, 1925, printed Cavanagh’s hand-lettered advertisement.

In the 1925 New York state census, Cavanagh and his wife were Pelham, New York residents at 153 Fifth Avenue.

Cavanagh and his wife vacationed in the Bahamas and returned home on January 19, 1926.  

Printers’ Ink, January 28, 1926, said Cavanagh and Ben Nash gave a lecture about “The Principles of Hand-Lettering” at the Art Directors Club.

Cavanagh had an office in the Graybar Building.

Cavanagh has not yet been found in the 1930 census. For recreation Cavanagh played golf.

In the mid-1930s, Cavanagh had a school. In 1939 and 1947 he joined the faculty of Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, New York, where he taught lettering. Cavanagh was a teacher at the Jean Morgan School of Art.

In 1939, Cavanagh published Lettering. The 1946 updated edition was published by Halcyon House. The 1955 Lettering and Alphabets was reprinted by Dover Publications.

The 1940 census said Cavanagh (line 32) and his wife lived in Mount Vernon, New York at 660 Locust Street. He was an art teacher.

The same address was on Cavanagh’s draft draft card which he signed on April 26, 1942.

Cavanagh passed away on July 20, 1947 in Boston. On July 22, 1947, the Boston Globe was first to publish an obituary.

Cavanagh—In Dorchester, July 20. John Albert, well-known artist. Residence, 232 East 40th st., New York city, New York. Beloved husband of Katherine (Wilson) Cavanagh and brother of Mrs. Eleanor Ryan of 62 Rockne av., Dorchester. Funeral from the chapel of James W. Dolan. Inc., 198 Adams st., Wednesday morning with a Requiem High Mass in St. Brendan’s Church at 10 a. m. Relatives and friends invited. Visiting hours 2 to 5 and 7 to 10. Vermont and New York papers please copy.

The Brooklyn Eagle, July 25, 1947, said

J. Albert Cavanagh, Instructor at Pratt
J. Albert Cavanagh, who for many years had been the director of the Cavanagh School of Art, 19 W. 44th St., Manhattan, and was an instructor in lettering at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, died Sunday in Boston at the home of his sister Mrs. Eleanor G. Ryan. He had recently returned from a vacation in Maine.

Mr. Cavanagh was a member of the Art Directors Club and the Advertising Club of New York. His home was at 232 E. 40th St., Manhattan.

Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Katherine Cavanagh; a daughter, Mrs. W. H. Williams, and his sister.

The funeral was held Wednesday in Boston.

The New York Times, July 25, 1947, noted his death.

J. Albert Cavanagh of this city, advertising lettering artist who had a studio at 19 East [sic] Forty-fourth Street, died on Sunday Boston while visiting a sister. He was 61 years old.

Cavanagh’s name and signature were in the Alphabet Thesaurus Nine Thousand (1960). His typefaces appeared on pages 195, 214, 220, 263, 325, 364, 368, 509, 511, 513, 521, 555, 577, 579, 587, 598, 610, 613, 642, 653, 662, 667, 693, 694, 703, 707, 709, 715 and 719.

Further Reading
Fonts in Use, John Albert Cavanagh

 

Related Post

John Pistilli
 

 

(Next post on Monday: Victor Moscoso in Art Direction)

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

Marvel Database
 

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.

Some Books and Stories by Irving Werstein
Abraham Lincoln Versus Jefferson Davis (1959)
Marshal Without a Gun: Tom Smith (1959)
1861–1865: The Adventure of the Civil War Told with Pictures (1960)
The Blizzard of ’88 (1960)
The Battle of Aachen (1962)
Kearney the Magnificent (1962)
A Nation Fights Back: The Depression and Its Aftermath (1962)
The Many Faces of the World War I (1963)

Massacre at Sand Creek (1963)

The Long Escape (1964)
Turning Point for America: The Story of the Spanish-American War (1964)
Wake, the Story of a Battle (1964)
The Franco-Prussian War: Germany’s Rise as a World Power (1965)
The General Slocum Incident: Story of an Ill-Fated Ship (1965)
The Great Struggle: Labor in America (1965)
Stories from Other Lands (1965)
Tarawa: A Battle Report (1965)
The War with Mexico (1965)
1898: The Spanish-American War, Told with Pictures (1966)
The Battle of Salerno (1966)
The Lost Battalion: A Saga of American Courage in World War I (1966)

I Accuse: The Story of the Dreyfus Case (1967)
The Plotters: The New York Conspiracy of 1741 (1967)
Sound No Trumpet: The Life and Death of Alan Seeger (1967)
That Denmark Might Live: The Saga of the Danish Resistance in World War II (1967)

Ten Days in November: The Russian Revolution (1967)

Okinawa: The Last Ordeal (1968)
Over Here and Over There: The Era of the First World War (1968)
This Wounded Land: The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877 (1968)
The Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto, November 1940–May 1943 (1968) 

All the Furious Battles: The Saga of Israel’s Army (1969)
Betrayal: The Munich Pact of 1938 (1969)

The Cruel Years: The Story of the Spanish Civil War (1969)

Labor’s Defiant Lady: The Story of Mother Jones (1969)

Pie in the Sky, an American Struggle: The Wobblies and Their Times (1969)
Strangled Voices: The Story of the Haymarket Affair (1969)
The Trespassers: Korea, June 1871 (1969)
Year of Turmoil: 1939 (1969)
A Proud People: Black Americans (1970)
Shattered Decade 1929 (1970)
The Boxer Rebellion: Anti-Foreign Terror Seizes China, 1900 (1971)
The Draft Riots, July 1863 (1971)
Land and Liberty: The Mexican Revolution (1971)

 

 

Related Letterer 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, Selma Meyers Gleit, 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, Ed McLean, Jack Meltzer, Mel Millar, 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, Matthew Tweedy, Frank Vina, Irv Watanabe, Irving Werstein, Leo Wurtzel, John Yakata, Bill Yoshida, Bernie Zuber

 

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