Comics: A Few Details About Alex Schomburg, Artist

 

Alex Schomburg was born Alejandro Schomburg on May 10, 1905 in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico according to the Civil Registration at Ancestry.com. His death certificate had the name Alexander Anthony Schomburg. Schomburg’s parents were Guillermo Schomburg and Francisca Rosa.

The 1910 United States Census counted Schomburg (line 30) as the youngest of seven siblings who were Arturo, Guillermo, Carlos, Augusto, Oma and Federico. His father was a widower. The family and three housekeepers lived in San Cristobal, Puerto Rico.

On November 28, 1917, Schomburg (line 3) and his brother, Federico, were aboard the ship Coamo when it departed San Juan, Puerto Rico. They arrived in New York City on December 4, 1917. The passenger list recorded Schomburg’s birth date as April 24, 1906.

In the 1920 census the Schomburg brothers adopted new names. Carlos was Fred, an export salesman (he was Charles Frederick on his World War I draft card); Augusto was August, an artist; Federico was William, an export clerk; and fourteen-year-old Alejandro was Alex (line 94), a student. They lived in Manhattan at 630 West 124th Street.

The 1925 New York state census said Schomburg (line 43) and his brothers, Charles (aka Fred) and August, were commercial artists. They resided at 65 West 46th Street.
 

 

Schomburg married Helen Scott on November 7, 1928 in Manhattan. At the time, Schomburg lived at 587 Riverside Drive.

The 1930 census recorded Schomburg (line 24) and his wife in the Bronx at 1240 Walton Avenue. He was an artist in the film industry.

Schomburg’s brother, Charles, passed away on February 2, 1933. He was laid to rest at the Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium.

One of Schomburg’s clients was Thrilling Wonder Stories. The June 1939 issue profiled its contributors including Schomburg.

Born in N.Y.C. [sic] in 1905. Studied art under private teacher.

Started own studio about 15 years ago. Built window displays, illustrated song slides for theatre organists. Later sold business to slide manufacturer and worked for them. Four years later joined large film company as a staff artist.

First did magazine illustrations more as a hobby than anything else. Mostly Westerns and Detective stuff. One day the publisher asked me to do an illustration for Thrilling Wonder Stories. I had always been interested in science fiction and he liked the way I handled the art work.

I enjoy reading the story as much as doing the illustrations. In my opinion an illustration is very important. For instance, give the same story to two different persons ... then ask them to picture a certain scene. You can bet they’ll be entirely different.

According to the 1940 census, enumerated in April, Schomburg and his wife had a seven-year-old son, Richard. They were Bronx residents at 2165 Ryer Avenue. The artist earned $5,000 in 1939.

Schomburg signed his World War II draft card on October 16, 1940. His Bronx address was 2691 Reservoir Avenue. Schomburg was employed by the National Screen Service. His description was five feet four inches, 130 pounds, with brown eyes and hair.

A list of Schomburg’s comic book work is at Grand Comics Database. Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999 has an overview of his career.

Manhattan city directories, from 1942 to 1946, listed Schomburg’s office at 690 Eighth Avenue. The 1947 Darien, Connecticut city directory said Schomburg, a commercial artist in New York, lived at 21 Green Avenue in New Canaan. That address was added to his draft card.

The 1950 census said Schomburg had an eight-year-old daughter, Diana. He was a self-employed commercial artist who earned $7,900 in 1949.

The 1955 Darien directory said Schomburg and his son, Richard, had moved to Seattle, Washington. Apparently they lived there a while then moved to Spokane. 

 

 

The Spokesman-Review, October 11, 1957, said

Two “Sputnik” Watchers Say they Saw It
Two Spokane residents yesterday reported they believed they saw the Russian Sputnik at around 5:45 a.m.

One was Alex Schomburg, N921 Burns road, who said he saw what looked like “a very bright star” directly overhead. The object, which he watched through binoculars, moved south out of sight, after “10 or 11 minutes.” ...

Schomburg was in the 1958 Spokane city directory. His address was N921 Burns Road. In 1962 Schomburg moved to Newberg, Oregon.

Schomburg’s daughter, Diana, was an artist who was profiled in the Spokane Daily Chronicle, May 11, 1964.

In the early 1960s, Schomburg painted mural for Portland General Electric. The story of Schomburg’s work was told in the Sunday Oregonian, January 29, 2014. Restoration of the painting was told here and here.

On April 11, 1970, Schomburg filed a claim for Social Security benefits.

In 1977 Schomburg did commissions for Collectors Showcase which auctioned the paintings.

Schomburg was a convention guest at the 1976 Portland Alliance of Fans; 1977 All-American Comic Con in Portland; Palouse Empire Science Fiction Association’s 1979 Moscon 1 in Moscow, Idaho; Portland Science Fiction Society’s 1979 OryCon; and 1984 Westercon 37.

Schomburg was featured in the Oregon Journal, June 28, 1977, and Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction, August 1979. Steve Duin, political columnist of The Oregonian, produced two illustrated profiles of Schomburg. A four-page article appeared in the Sunday Oregonian’s Northwest Magazine, March 24, 1991. Comic Book Marketplace, August 1995, published a seven-page feature. Material from those profiles appeared in his 1998 book, Comics, Between the Panels.

Schomburg’s brother, August, passed away in February 1973 in New Jersey. His wife, Helen, died on February 26, 1985 in Oregon. Three years later his daughter, Diana, died on October 4, 1988.

Schomburg passed away on April 7, 1998. An obituary appeared in The Oregonian, April 10, 1998.

A funeral will be at 2 p.m. Friday, April 10, 1998, in Attrell’s Funeral Chapel in Newberg for Alex Schomburg, who died April 7 at age 92.

Mr. Schomburg was born May 10, 1905, in Agiadilla, Puerto Rico. He moved to New York City as a youth and worked in his bothers’ commercial art business, whose clients included Great Northwestern Railway. He later illustrated comic books, pulp magazines and science fiction novels, for which he attained prominence. He lived in Spokane from 1954 until moving to the Newberg area in 1962. In 1928, he married Helen Scott; she died in 1985.

Survivors include his son, Richard of Hillsboro; and five grandchildren. A daughter, Diana Beaudry Thiessen, died in 1988.

Interment will be in Valley View Memorial Park in Newberg.

The Comics Journal, May 1998, published an obituary.

Schomburg’s son, Richard, died on February 17, 2015 according to a death notice in The Oregonian, March 15, 2015.

 

Further Reading and Viewing

Digital Comic Museum photograph
Space Art
Out of Time: Designs for the Twentieth-Century Future
Encyclopedia of Collectible Children’s Books: Identification & Values
The Art of Alex Schomburg
Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists

 

(Next post on Monday: Art Direction 1962)

Comics: Charles Paris, an Artist, Inker and Letterer

Charles Spurgeon Paris Jr. was born on September 25, 1911 in Greensboro, North Carolina according to the North Carolina Birth Index (at Ancestry.com) and his World War II draft card.

The 1920 United States Census counted Paris (line 89), his parents, Charles and Ida, and brothers, Henry and James, in Greensboro at 103 South Cedar Street. Paris’s self-employed father was a paper hanger.

The Greensboro Daily Record, July 26, 1921, reported Paris’s fall from a tree. The injury required removal of his right kidney.

Paris’s poster for “H. M. S. Pinafore” was reproduced in the Greensboro Daily Record, May 14, 1929.

The Greensboro Daily Record, January 25, 1930, listed the mid-term high school graduates. Paris was one of 49 students. The 1930 census said the Paris family (lines 4 through 8) was at the same address. Paris’s occupation was listed as “commercial advertiser” in the theater industry.

The 2007 book, Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943–1946, said “Paris also worked for a theater chain for eight years, designing poster displays.” In Alter Ego #19, November 2002, Ike Wilson interviewed Paris who said

My first job was in a movie house here on South Elm Street called The Alamo. It’s long, long gone but it was a part of a chain that Paramount bought out. There were the Alamo, the Imperial, the National, and the Carolina Theatres, all of which were included in the same company and were of importance in that order. I worked for them for about seven or eight years and worked my way up to where I was working at the Carolina.

The 1933 Greensboro city directory listed Paris as a commercial artist.

The Greensboro Daily News, July 8, 1945, said Paris moved to New York City in 1934.

Paris and Phoebe Tuulikki Ketonen obtained marriage license number 15696, in Manhattan, on July 10, 1937. They married on September 25, 1937 in Brooklyn. Their marriage reported in the News and Record, October 3, 1937.

Charles Paris, and Miss Ketonen Wed in New York
The marriage of Miss Phoebe Ketonen, of Brooklyn, N. Y. and Charles S. Paris, of New York city, formerly of Greensboro, was solemnized Saturday afternoon, September 25, in a 3 o’clock ceremony at 44th Street Lutheran church in Brooklyn. Just the immediate family attended. Rev. Mr. Joka officiated.

After the service there was an informal reception at the home of the bride’s mother, Mrs. H. M. Illka, in Brooklyn. The young couple are now at home in New York city at 29 East 11th street.

The bridegroom is eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Paris, of 103 South Cedar street, Greensboro. After graduation from Greensboro high school he studied art in Washington and New York city and is now house artist for Wannamaker’s in New York. The bride’s parents were natives of Finland, her father, the late Rev, H. Jalmar Ketonen, having been sent from Finland as a missionary to the United States by the Finnish Methodist church. She is a graduate of Bayridge School for Girls and is a talented musician.

Batman: The Sunday Classics said Paris graduated from Pratt Institute’s School of Fine and Applied Arts in 1938. Paris was not in the 1938 Prattonia yearbook. He probably completed the courses in the evening school. The Greensboro Daily News, July 24, 1938, said

Now Charles Paris is studying at the Art Students league in New York, still at night, and working for Wannamaker’s [sic] in the day time. And he is not satisfied yet.

The 1940 census said Paris (line 69) and his wife were Manhattan residents at 29 East 11th Street. He was an artist at a department store and she a clerk at an aviation company.

Six months later Paris signed his draft card on October 16. His employer was the John Wanamaker Company. Paris was described as five feet, 125 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair.

According to Batman: The Sunday Classics, Paris studied at Harvey Dunn’s Grand Central School of Art where he met DC artists Stan Kaye, Cliff Young and Gene McDonald. In Spring 1941, Paris met John/Jack Lehti at Dunn’s student get-together. In Alter Ego #19, Paris explained how he got into comics.

I was going to the Grand Central School of Art, studying under Harvey Dunn, who was a very famous illustrator. Some of the fellows in that class were working for DC at that time, so I knew them there. Every year in the spring, after school was out, Dunn would have a cookout for the students and past students. It was at one of those that [comic artist] Jack Lehti asked me if I’d like to be his inker. I had to ask him what an inker was, because I was in the department store display at that time. He told me and advised me to keep my job while he taught me how to ink. I inked for him for about two or three months, when he told me I could quit my job. From then on, I was into comics; I just fell in the back door.

Lehti helped Paris get hired in DC’s bullpen. The Grand Comics Database said Paris inked and lettered Lehti’s Crimson Avenger in World’s Best Comics #1, Spring 1941; Detective Comics #51, May 1941; Detective Comics #52, June 1941; Detective Comics #53, July 1941; Detective Comics #54, August 1941; Detective Comics #55, September 1941; Detective Comics #57, November 1941; Detective Comics #58, December 1941; Detective Comics #59, January 1942; Detective Comics #60, February 1942; Detective Comics #61, March 1942; Detective Comics #62, April 1942; World’s Finest Comics #5, Spring 1942; Detective Comics #64, June 1942; Detective Comics #65, July 1942; Detective Comics #66, August 1942; Detective Comics #67, September 1942; Detective Comics #68, October 1942; Detective Comics #69, November 1942; Detective Comics #70, December 1942; Detective Comics #71, January 1943; Detective Comics #72, February 1943; Detective Comics #73, March 1943; Detective Comics #74, April 1943; Detective Comics #75, May 1943; Detective Comics #76, June 1943; Detective Comics #77, July 1943; and Detective Comics #78, August 1943.

Detective Comics #59, January 1942

Complete story at Four-Color Shadows

In Comics: Between the Panels (1998), had this Paris anecdote about Lehti.

“Jack Lehti was a dogface,” Paris said. “He told me one time that he jumped into a foxhole in France and there was a copy of Detective Comics, with the Crimson Avenger. It gave him a funny damn feeling. Here he is lying out in the middle of nowhere, he might as well be on another planet with shells falling around and dead people and mud and dirt . . . and there’s a copy of a DC comic book. A whole other life flashed through his head.”

In 1943 Paris was called to serve and was classified 4F, not acceptable for service.

American Newspaper Comics (2012) said Paris was the inker on the Batman and Robin comic strip. He did the daily strip from October 25, 1943 to February 9, 1946, and March 25 to November 2, 1946; the Sunday strip from November 7, 1943 to April 21, 1946, and August 25 to October 27, 1946. In Alter Ego, Paris said

[Editor] Whit [Ellsworth] then offered me the dailies and Sundays to ink. The dailies were drawn by Kane and the Sundays by Jack Burnley. And if memory serves me correctly, I went to Jerry Robinson and asked him if it’d be all right with him if I took the job. He said, “Yes,” and I jumped at it because it immediately doubled my salary and got me out of the bullpen. I could work at home and work all night and sleep all day if I wanted to, as long as I made the deadlines. And that was one of the great advantages in freelancing for the comic books. … So I took this job and worked probably for three years or so before it was dropped. …

Freelance artist Paris (line 8) and Phoebe were at the same address in the 1950 census. At some point they divorced.

 

The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Arizona), November 30, 1956, said Paris and Isabel McQueen Morris were issued a marriage license. Batman: The Sunday Classics said Paris moved to Tucson in 1958. DC mailed pages to Paris who continued inking to 1968.

Paris and Isabel’s divorce notice appeared in the Tucson Daily Citizen, October 31, 1959. Paris’s third divorce, from Anne Gerry Paris, appeared in the Tucson Daily Citizen, September 9, 1967.

Paris, as Chuck Paris, copyrighted his song “Blue Norther” in March 1961.

On August 1, 1973, Paris filed a claim for Social Security benefits.

On February 17, 1989, a fire destroyed Paris’s home. On November 3, 1989, Paris was one of the featured guests at Acmecon in Greensboro.

Greensboro News & Record, November 3, 1989

A 1989 photograph of Paris appeared in Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades, Volume 2: 1986–1989.

Paris passed away on March 19, 1994 in Tucson.

Related Letterer Posts

A. Machine and Royal Cartoon, Mario Acquaviva, Al Allard, 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, Laurens Crossley,

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, Delores Heilman, 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, George Ward, Irv Watanabe, Irving Werstein, Leo Wurtzel, John Yakata, Bill Yoshida, Bernie Zuber

 

(Next post on Monday: Jack Kirby Way)

 

Creator: A Few Details About Verdun Cook, a Graphic Designer, Lettering Artist, Photographer, Art Director, Artist and Singer

February is Black History Month.

Verdun Phillip Cook was born on March 28, 1919 in Havre De Grace, Maryland according to his Pennsylvania Veteran Compensation Application File of World War II at Ancestry.com. His middle name was on his 1946 marriage certificate. However, when Cook registered for the draft his name was recorded as Verdon Belmont Cook. (The same name was used to copyright a musical composition.) His draft card had the same birth information as the compensation application. Cook’s parents were Thomas Belmont Cook (1895–1948) and Helen Wootson (1901–1991) who married on June 27, 1918 in Brooklyn, New York. His mother was also born in Havre De Grace.

The Cooks have not been found in the 1920 United States Census. The 1930 census counted eleven-year-old Cook (line 76), his mother and sister, Henrietta, in Manhattan at 136 West 112th Street. They were lodgers in the Davis household. Cook’s mother was a finisher at a millinery.

 

The newspaper, New York Age, December 16, 1933, said

Harlem School Boys Have Prize Exhibit at the Children’s Science Fair
The Frederick Douglas[s] Junior High School, 140th street near Seventh avenue, won the first prize of $20 in cash, at the Children’s Science Fair, which, opened Saturday evening, December 2. All the junior high schools of New York City competed in the fair.

Frederick Douglass Junior High School’s exhibit consisted of the following items: Life history of spice bush swallow tail butterfly, California sea lion in natural habitat, deer in natural habitat, beavers in natural habitat and how to make a wax leaf with moulds and casts.

Five boys did the work under the leadership of Sidney Druss, teacher of biology. Verdun Cook of 9B4 and Harry Wilson of 8B2 were responsible for the art work and the woodcraft involved in the exhibit, which was done under the supervision of Edward Singer of the Woodwork shop.

New York Age, February 3, 1934, said Cook received “Mrs. Pinckney’s general art and pottery making prize”.

Where Cook attended high school is not known. At some point he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The 1940 census said Cook’s mother, a divorcee, and sister resided in Manhattan. On October 16, 1940, Cook signed his draft card. His Philadelphia address was 425 South Broad Street. His description was five feet ten inches, 150 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. Cook’s employer was Al Blofson who was president of the National Penn Printing Company in Philadelphia. At the printing company, Cook experienced many aspects of printing and the graphic arts.

In Philadelphia, Cook, a commercial artist, enlisted in the Army on May 12, 1942. Basic training was at Fort Meade, Maryland. At Fort Eustis, Virginia, Cook drilled at Coast Artillery and Anti-Aircraft weapons. (While there, he copyrighted a musical composition in 1943.) Next, Cook was assigned to the 92nd Infantry Division which had moved, in 1943, from Fort McClellan, Alabama to Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Cook contributed to the 92nd’s newspaper, The Buffalo, and the fort’s Apache Sentinel (here and here). In addition to being a Buffalo staff photographer, Cook also designed many of its covers and drew a few cartoons (below).

August 28, 1943

 September 18, 1943

 

September 25, 1943

 

Cook’s initialed or signed several covers.

October 15, 1943


October 30, 1943

November 6, 1943, lettering probably by Cook

December 18, 1943

December 25, 1943, lettering probably by Cook
 

January 15, 1944

February 3, 1944

February 17, 1944

May 6, 1944

 

Infantry Day poster (here and here)

June 17, 1944

June 24, 1944

July 1, 1944

July 29, 1944

August 5, 1944, lettering probably by Cook

August 12, 1944

August 19, 1944

In September 1944, the 92nd Infantry went to the Mediterranean for combat. Cook was mentioned in the Baltimore Afro-American, December 16, 1944, Pittsburgh Courier, January 6, 1945, and Baltimore Afro-American, February 27, 1945 and March 10, 1945.

Staff Sergeant Cook was discharged on December 4, 1945. The Baltimore Afro-American, December 15, 1945, mentioned Cook and his father.

In Washington, DC, Cook and Leona Anna Turner obtained a marriage license and married on November 28, 1946.

The Independent Press Service produced a Cook profile which was published by several newspapers including The Omaha Guide (Nebraska), April 19, 1947; The Plaindealer (Kansas City, Kansas), April 25, 1947; Hartford Chronicle (Connecticut), May 3, 1947; and Negro Star (Wichita, Kansas), June 27, 1947. The Afro-American, February 21, 1948, featured multi-talented Cook. 

 

The advertising trade publication, Tide, August 19, 1949, said

Verdun Cook has been appointed art director of the advertising promotion department of Parents’ Institute (New York).

According to the 1950 census, Cook (line 15), his wife and two-year-old daughter, Leona, lived in Manhattan, New York at 10 East 138th Street. Cook was a commercial artist at a magazine. The same address was on his Pennsylvania Veteran Compensation Application File which also listed his thirteen-year-old son, Kenneth Donald Cook, from a previous marriage. 

New York Age, August 22, 1953, named several cartoonists, illustrators, designers and commercial artists, including Cook.

Cook, who was on staff at McCall’s magazine, was mentioned in the trade magazine Art Direction, October 1959. In 1961, Cook was Type Director at Redbook magazine. Years later he would become Associate Art Director.

Cook’s lettering appeared in the Royal Typographers advertisement.

Art Direction, October 1961

The cover of Art Direction, March 1964, featured Cook’s lettering.

Cook was one of ten judges for “Galley 10”, the tenth annual awards exhibition of the Type Directors Club of New York. Art Direction, May 1964, published the catalog which included Cook’s stationery and two editorial pieces from Redbook magazine.

Cook’s Q, for Royal Typographers, was used on a promotional piece, art directed by Ron R. Anderson, for APA News and exhibited in Art Direction’s 4th Creativity-on-Paper Show of 1963. The piece was reproduced in Art Direction, October 1964.

Cook’s lettering for CBS Television Network was recognized by the Art Directors Club of New York and the New York Type Directors Club.

The 44th Annual of Advertising & Editorial Art & Design (1965)

Type Directors Club 11th Annual Awards catalog

of 1965 was reproduced in Typography 35 (2014)

According to Howard Anderson Jr., an optical effects specialist, Cook created the heart motif and lettering for the opening of the syndicated I Love Lucy television series which began in Fall 1967.

Art Direction, October 1967, said

Verdun Cook is at Mogul Baker Byrne Weiss Inc. as AD, from Marsteller Inc. Previously, he was a designer at McCall’s, designer/AD at CBS and Associate AD at Redbook.

Cook was the photographer of the Artintype advertisement (below) in Art Direction, December 1967.

Cook was the art director and designer of two television commercials for the brand, Alton Ames, by Howard Clothers. The commercials, numbers 742 and 753, were selected for the 49th Annual of Advertising, Editorial and Television Art and Design (1970). Cook’s work was selected by the New York Art Directors Club and published in its 52nd and 54th annuals. Photographis ’76 (1976) included Cook’s advertisement. Samples of his work were reproduced in Typography 32 (2011) and Typography 35 (2014) here, here and here.

Cook passed away on October 6, 1975. A death notice appeared in The New York Times, October 10, 1975.

Cook—Verdun P. On October 6, 1975, survived by his mother Helen, sister Henrietta; also by his son Kenneth and daughter Leona. Services Walter B. Cooke Funeral Home, 117 W. 72 St., 1 P.M. Friday, October 10.

Cook was laid to rest at Long Island National Cemetery.

 

Further Reading and Viewing
Are.na, Kyle Richardson / Verdun Cook 

The National WWII Museum, The Buffalo: 92nd Infantry Division’s Weekly Newspaper during World War II; African American Servicemen Opaque Negatives for Weekly Newsletter on December 5, 1944 in Reggio, Italy
Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, The Complex Legacy of the 92nd Infantry Division
Discogs, Verdun P. Cook
A’Design Award & Competition, Interview with Philip-Michael Weiner
The Visual Pharmacy, 7 Black Graphic Designers in Design History

 

Related Posts
Ray Holloway, Letterer
Howard James, Black Comics Artist
Negro Heroes

 

(Next post on Monday: Betty Bentley, a Letterer and Her Talented Family)