Showing posts with label Frank Frazetta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Frazetta. Show all posts

Monday, August 14, 2023

Anatomy of a Logo: The Masterworks Series of Great Comic Book Artists

The project was for Phil Seuling of Sea Gate, Inc. He had an arrangement with Paul Levitz to produce a comic book series, named by Seuling, The Masterworks Series of Great Comic Book Artists. Seuling also wanted a Sea Gate emblem opposite the DC bullet. 

The Photo-Lettering font, Longacre Round Open Condensed N, second from the top, was used for the series title. 

Photo-Lettering’s One Line Manual of Styles (1971)


A dummy cover featuring Neal Adams’ Deadman. The character could not be used in the series. 


The artists’ names were lettered by Todd Klein. Advertisements appeared in many publications including The Comics Journal. 

The Comics Journal #79, December 1982



The Comics Journal #82, July 1983


Photostat of unpublished cover


The series ended after three issues. 


(Next post on Monday: On This Day Phil Seuling Passed Away)


Monday, January 27, 2020

Street Scene: Frank Frazetta’s Brooklyn Addresses

1930 U.S. Federal Census
1203 Avenue Y.


School Transcript
Attended Public School 209.
Home address: 2747 Coney Island Avenue.


1940 U.S. Federal Census

2435 East 11th Street (below) was around the corner of 1203 Avenue Y.

Abraham Lincoln High School
Enrolled January 31, 1942


















Google Street Views

















Related Posts
Frank Frazetta’s High School 

Michele Falanga

 

(Next post on Monday: LSC, the Name Is Familiar)

Monday, November 13, 2017

Comics: Searching for Sid Check


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

With this information I began my search for Check.

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

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

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

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





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





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


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







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

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

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

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

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



Monday, April 2, 2012

Creator: Frank Frazetta and Baseball



April 4 is opening day for the 2012 season of Major League Baseball. In the 1940s, Frank Frazetta played sandlot baseball for the Islanders in the Marine Park Division of the Parade Grounds Baseball League. Here are a few articles from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.


Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 7, 1946
Last paragraph


Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 1, 1948
First paragraph


Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 9, 1949
Last paragraph


Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 6, 1950
22nd on the list


Ariel, Volume Two, 1977, published the second part of Armand Eisen's interview with Frank Frazetta; excerpts from the interview:

What age were you when you got the pro baseball offer from the Giants?

I think I was about twenty.

Johnny Comet came along. Why did you decide not to go with baseball? That was an important decision—you could have been a professional athlete.

Stupidity. Just dumb, negative attitude. Also at the time, I was involved with a girl. And the fact that I would have to go off with the farm team somewhere down in Texas and sweat it out for a year didn't seem very appealing. It was very different than it is now. If they approached me today and I was in my twenties…

Would you do it?

Yes, I would, assuming that I had the same ability. The first thing they would do would be to offer me a tremendous amount of dough. There were no huge bonuses in those days—most kids were delighted to go down and struggle in the minors. I realize now that I would have had a good chance of graduating to the major leagues in a hurry.

Today, do you regret that you didn't…

Sure!

Do you really? Is that the truth, Frank?

I loved baseball. I played it and I still play it and I still draw and paint. So what the hell is the difference? They are two things I love to do. With baseball, I loved the competing; I loved the physical part of it. I could really let out—run like a wild man and swing that bat. Totally exhilarating! It almost beats sex—almost.

Well, when you hit a home run, I can see where it would.

Yeah. Absolutely the same thing. Total climax—my god, beautiful. It always bugs me when I hear some professional athlete stand around and say that he only does it for the money.

As for why I didn't sign up, I remember that going to another state seemed like going to the end of the world. They bus you back and forth and it was just one big disgusting hassle. So I said maybe next year…time went by and before you know it I'm too old. It was just my way of letting time go by.

Let's say, if you had a choice and if you could only do one, which would you choose?

Well, I've never had it put to me that way before. I must admit that the physical side is stronger.

I think you get the same satisfaction from that as you would from art.

I certainly do. And I get less tired. I am nowhere near as exhausted playing ball as I am when I paint.


(New post on Monday)

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Street Scene: Frank Frazetta's High School


• N E W Y O R K C I T Y •
Abraham Lincoln High School
2800 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn

Main entrance

Plaque in entrance stairway

Brooklyn Daily Eagle,
December 11, 1944;
see sub-head,
“Something Modern”

Frank Frazetta was born on February 9, 1928. Part one of Armand Eisen’s interview with Frazetta was published in Ariel magazine, Autumn 1976. When asked the question, Was there any single art teacher whom you particularly admired or became close to or who influenced you?, Frazetta answered:

There was one outstanding man who really, really gave me incentive. He seemed to know how to get to me. Others had just the opposite approach. They felt, keep him down so he will fight and strive for better things. Right? His attitude was, tell him he’s great—in other words, make him happy and he will perform. And that really worked with me, in art. And you get those who try to push you down, and you come up just to show them—and they say “He’s great!” You are trying to show both sides that you are great. Whether it is in sports or in art, you’ve got to convince the non-believers and confirm the believers. That sort of thing. It is a marvelous feeling. That is what life is all about.

...By the way, what was the name of that art teacher?

Grubman.

Where did he teach?

He taught in Abraham Lincoln High School.

And how old were you when he was your teacher?

I was in my teens, oh, 15 or 16. He was very encouraging. You know, he just made me feel important.

Do you think that had any influence at all on your work?

Well, no influence on my work, none whatsoever. It was simply that I was going my way no matter who came along and he simply made my life more pleasant and just reaffirmed what was in my own heart, that I was good. I had it.

••••••••

A copy of Frazetta’s high school transcript is here.

••••••••

Paul Grubman was born in Brooklyn, New York on August 11, 1898, according to the Social Security Death Index. In the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, he was the youngest of eight children born to Joseph and Flora, both Russian emigrants. They lived in Brooklyn at 24 Osborn. His father was a machinist.

In the 1910 census, Grubman, his parents and three siblings lived in Brooklyn at 1623 Eastern Parkway. His father was an optician. He graduated from Manual Training High School on June 28, 1917, as reported in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on June 29. He signed his World War I draft card on September 10, 1918. He lived at 1672 Union Street in Brooklyn and worked as a machine helper.

Grubman has not been found in the 1920 census. The Eagle reported, on September 26, 1922, that he was licensed to teach textile design at the evening high schools. He lived in Belle Harbor, Long Island at 238 North 132 Street.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle,
September 26, 1922;
see last two lines.

He has not been found in the 1930 census. In July 1933 he was licensed to teach freehand drawing in high school, according to the Eagle, July 1, 1933. On November 27, 1934, the Eagle reported his appointment to Abraham Lincoln High School; he had been a substitute teacher.


Brooklyn Daily Eagle,
July 1, 1933


Brooklyn Daily Eagle,
November 27, 1934

Grubman passed away in May 1984 in Brooklyn, according to the Social Security Death Index. He was buried on June 4 in Green-Wood Cemetery.


(Frazetta's baseball days; Street Scene post on Monday)

Monday, February 6, 2012

Creator: Hal Foster


Hal Foster's Influence on Frank Frazetta

Hal Foster's Tarzan daily comic strips, from January and February 1929, were reprinted as a book, The Illustrated Tarzan Book #1, published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1929. The book can be viewed at Golden Age Comic Book Stories. Frank Frazetta's art was in the first issue of Thun'da, King of the Congo, which was published in 1952.

Select panels from Tarzan and Prince Valiant are followed by panels from either Thun'da or Frazetta book covers. The panels show either similar compositions or concepts.



HANGING ON A BRANCH




Tarzan, daily 30



Tarzan and the Lost Empire


Thun'da, Gods of the Jungle, page 6




Tarzan, daily 21


Tarzan, daily 26


Tarzan, daily 43


Thun'da, Monsters from the Mists, page 1



Tarzan, daily 37


Thun'da, King of the Lost Lands, page 6



WALKING ON A BRANCH


Tarzan, daily 37



Thun'da, Monsters from the Mists, page 6



POINTING


Tarzan, daily 25



Tarzan, daily 47



Thun'da, Monsters from the Mists, page 7



LASSOED



Tarzan, daily 26


Thun'da, King of the Lost Lands, page 8


FIGHTING AN ANIMAL



Tarzan, daily 44


Thun'da, Monsters from the Mists, page 5



Tarzan, daily 25


Tarzan at the Earth's Core



MONSTER



Prince Valiant, December 25, 1937


Thun'da, Gods of the Jungle, page 5



(Frazetta's high school; next post on Tuesday: Charles Dickens)