Showing posts with label Publisher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Publisher. Show all posts

Monday, October 7, 2024

Comics: Bernie Zuber, Artist, Writer, Letterer, Editor, Publisher and Fan

Bernard Anthony “Bernie” Zuber was born on March 4, 1933, in Asnières, Seine, France, according to an American Consular Service report at Ancestry.com and the National Archives. His parents were Anthony F. Zuber, of Brooklyn, New York, and Marie Josephine Giulio Tonolo of Chambery, France. Zuber’s father was a clerk at the American Embassy, Office of Commercial Attaché.


On May 22, 1942, the family sailed aboard the steamship Drottningholm from Lisbon, Portugal. They arrived in the port of New York City on June 1, 1942. Their destination was 62 Hemlock Street in Brooklyn. Presumably Zuber’s education was in Brooklyn. 



Seven years later on August 5, 1949, Zuber and his father departed on the steamship Queen Elizabeth from New York bound to Cherbourg, France. 


Two years later Zuber and his father sailed on September 24, 1951 from Le Havre, France. The steamship America arrived in New York City on October 1, 1951. Their final destination was 62 Hemlock Street in Brooklyn.



A little less than four months had gone by when they were aboard the same steamship headed for Le Havre, France


On March 26, 1953, Zuber was a Pan American flight from Paris to New York. 


It’s not known where Zuber served during the Korean War and the dates of his enlistment and discharge. On March 4, 1954, Private Zuber, serial number 51237501, was on a flight from Chicopee, Massachusetts to Frankfurt, Germany.


Twenty-two days later, Zuber was on a TWA flight for New York.


The Social Security Death Index said Zuber obtained his number in 1955 in Maryland. His employer is unknown. 

The California Voter Registration at Ancestry.com said Zuber, in 1956, was a democrat who lived at 1776 North Las Palmas Street in Los Angeles, California. 

Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999 estimated Zuber’s comics career from 1950 to around 1981. He started work at Western Publishing. Hey Kids Comics Wiki said “... Bernie Zuber was an editorial artist, a position similar to that of a production artist, from 1957 until 1982.” Information about his art training has not been found. Three of his lettering credits are Wonderworld #9, August 1973, Bernard Prince; Yogi Bear #4, May 1978; and The Flintstones #5, June 1978. 

Samples of Zuber’s fan artwork are here, here, and here (see April). 

On May 27, 1972, Zuber and Ida C. Rule married in Los Angeles, according to the California Marriage Index at Ancestry.com. 

Mark Evanier wrote about Zuber’s personal struggles. 

Zuber passed away on October 14, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. He was laid to rest at Riverside National Cemetery. 


Further Reading
Tolkien Gateway, Bernie Zuber
Internet Science Fiction Database, Chronological Bibliography: Bernie Zuber
The Internet Archive has many publications that mentioned Zuber here, here and here. 


Related Posts











(Next post on Monday: Scotch & Soda)

Monday, May 27, 2024

Creator: A Few Details About Phil Yeh, Cartoonist, Author, Journalist, Publisher, Graphic Novelist, Educator and Ringleader

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

(The following post appeared first at Chinese American Eyes.)

Phillip Dana “Phil” Yeh was born on October 7, 1954, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Te Fung Yeh (1923–2015) of Shanghai, China, and Ruth Opal Williams (1924– ) of Illinois. 

In the 1950 United States, Census Te Fung (line 1) resided in Chicago at 337 East 50th Street. I believe he was a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology. 



Yeh’s parents married on August 22, 1953. Yeh was the oldest of four siblings who were David (1957–2016), Bettie (1958) and Kathleen (1959). 

On October 27, 1955, Te Fung, a designer and mechanical engineer, filed a naturalization petition. He immigrated in 1948. He was naturalized on January 17, 1956. His address was 6102 South Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago. At some point Te Fung moved his family to southern California. 

Yeh was a student at Los Alamitos High School in Los Alamitos, California. 

1971 Cottonwood yearbook

He graduated in 1972. 

1972 Cottonwood yearbook

He continued his studies at California State University at Long Beach. 

Yeh did the logo for Comix World #34, 1975.


In 1985, Yeh was the ringleader of Cartoonists Across America & the World.

Read about Yeh at his website.


Further Reading and Viewing
Shel Dorf Tribute, Phil Yeh, Godfather of the Graphic Novel, About the Positive Difference Shel Has Made

Santa Ana Register (California), March 28, 1976, Young Artist Makes Strides in Early 20s
The Buyer’s Guide #211, December 2, 1977, Cobblestone advertisement
Cascade Comix Monthly #11-12, February 1979
Cascade Comix Monthly #13, March 1979
Cascade Comix Monthly #14, April 1979
Cascade Comix Monthly #15, May 1979
Cascade Comix Monthly #16, June 1979
Cascade Comix Monthly #18, February 1980
Cascade Comix Monthly #21, May 1980
Cascade Comix Monthly #22, February 1981
The Comics Journal #87, December 1983, Phil Yeh: Artist, Publisher, Dreamer
Press-Courier (Oxnard, California), ‎March 8, 1986, Cartoonists Plan to Fight Illiteracy 
National City Star-News (California), September 13, 1987, photograph
Press-Republican (Plattsburgh, New York), May 10, 1988, Cartoonists cross America for literacy
Gadsden Times (Alabama), May 19, 1988, Expo ’88 planned Friday
The Times-News (Hendersonville, North Carolina), February 1, 1991, Stamps, New releases from Hungary
Press-Courier (Oxnard, California), February 10, 1991, Stamps in the News
Press-Courier (Oxnard, California), April 21, 1991, Cartoonists plan mural of dinosaurs
Press-Courier (Oxnard, California), April 24, 1991, ‘Recycle, Avoid Extinction’
Bangor Daily News (Maine), December 7, 1992, ‘Turtles’ Creator establishes museum of comics illustration
Williamson Daily News (West Virginia), December 7, 1992, New museum marks acceptance of comic books, funnies as art
The Telegraph (New Hampshire), December 8, 1992, In this museum, comic books and funnies are high art
The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), December 9, 1992, Ninja Turtle co-creator opens comics museum
Daily News (Bowling Green, Kentucky), December 13, 1992, Museum dedicated to comics as an art form
Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Idaho), December 17, 1992, New museum marks acceptance of comic books, funnies as art
Albany Sunday Herald (Georgia), ‎December 20, 1992, Comic books become art
Reading Eagle (Pennsylvania) November 18, 1993, Literacy gets a free ride 
Victoria Advocate (Texas), ‎March 3, 1997, Artist uses comic book characters to promote literacy 
New Straits Times (Malaysia), June 16, 1997, World Book Fair ’97 advertisement
Victoria Advocate (Texas), October 17, 1997, Promoting literacy
Victoria Advocate (Texas), April 12, 1998, Grocers and banks teaming up
Victoria Advocate (Texas), April 15, 1998, Bank to open 85th
Bellmore Life (New York), August 15, 2001, Paint a cartoon mural
Sag Harbor Express (New York), September 8, 2005, Be There 12/20
American Profile, May 7–13, 2006, Cartoonist Combats Illiteracy
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida), June 15, 2006 Family fest celebrates world cultures and literacy
The Vindicator (Youngstown, Ohio), June 18, 2006, Cartoonist to play with dinosaurs
The Sun & Record (Williamson, New York), October 26, 2006, Yeh coming to Williamson Library 
The Lake & Valley Clarion (Geneseo, New York), ‎November 2, 2006, Comic Book Author/Illustration Program

Theo the Dinosaur (International Humor Advisory Council, 1991)
Secret Teachings of a Comic Book Master: The Art of Alfredo Alcala (International Humor Advisory Council, 1994)
The Great Women Superheroes (Kitchen Sink Press, 1996)
Places, Eastwind Studios, 2022



Monday, May 15, 2023

Comics: Archer St. John, Editor and Publisher

Highly recommended are Ken Quattro’s articles on St. John and his publishing companies at Comic Artville Library, “Archer St. John & the Little Company That Could” and in Alter Ego #77, May 2008, “The Gospel According to Archer St. John”; and John Benson’s Confessions, Romances, Secrets, and Temptations: Archer St. John and the St. John Romance Comics (2007). 

Archer Anthony St. John was born on October 15, 1904, in Chicago, Illinois, according to his birth certificate (transcribed at Ancestry.com) and his World War II draft card. His parents were Joseph Mathias St. John and Amy Isabel Archer. 

The 1910 United States Census recorded St. John, his parents, older brother, Robert, and younger sister, Dorothy, in Chicago at 1714 Park Avenue. His father was a drugstore pharmacist. His mother was born in Canada.



The 1920 census said St. John’s mother was a widow and head of the household that included another brother, John. The family resided in Oak Park, Illinois at 928 Ontario Street. 


Oak Park, Illinois city directories for 1922 and 1923 listed St. John at 305 Wisconsin Avenue. In 1925 his address was 711 Washington Boulevard.

In the mid-1920s, St. John and and Robert’s investigative reporting on Al Capone got them in trouble. 

In Merchant of Words: The Life of Robert St. John (2014), Terry Fred Horowitz said St. John met actress Gertrude Faye Adams in Chicago. Gertrude’s parents divorced after the 1910 census. Her mother, Martha, married Wilberforce Judson Rand on November 11, 1912 in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her father, Milo Ezekiel Adams, moved to Chicago and married Harriet. After the 1920 census, Gertrude moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Chicago. 

The Camera, January 1922. Photograph by Charles H. Davis

On September 6, 1929 in New York City, St. John and Gertrude obtained a Manhattan marriage license and married the following day. The marriage was witnessed by their brothers, John Quincy Adams and Robert Williams St. John, and noted in the Okmulgee Daily Democrat (Oklahoma), September 10, 1929. On the certificate, Gertrude said she was 29 but the 1900 census recorded her birth as October 1896, making her almost 33 when she married. 



The decision to marry in New York may have been because most of Gertrude’s family had moved there, from Oklahoma, in the second half of the 1920s. Her brother, Charles, became an established artist who painted portraits and worked in advertising and publishing. Her step-father, Wilberforce Judson Rand, was a copyreader at the New York Sun; previously he was editor of The American Saturday Night in Tulsa.

St. John has not yet been found in the 1930 census. The New York, New York Birth Index, at Ancestry.com, said Michael A. St. John was born in the Bronx in the summer of 1930. In 1938 Michael and his mother visited relatives in Harlingen, Texas. 

The 1932 Darien, Connecticut city directory said St. John was an advertising manager who lived in Norwalk. (The 1931 directory is not available.) Directories from 1934 to 1938 place him in Noroton, Connecticut off Rings End Road. The 1939 directory said he moved to Wilton, Connecticut. 

According to the 1940 census, St. John and his family were Wilton residents. He was an office manager working in advertising. Two months before the April census enumeration, St. John retuned from Havana, Cuba. 


On February 16, 1942, St. John signed his World War II draft card. His address was Wolfpit Road in Wilton. The Lionel Corporation employee was described as five feet eleven inches, 170 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair. 


The Wilton Bulletin (Connecticut), September 24, 1942, said
Mr. and Mrs. Archer St. John of Wolfpit Rand moved to their new home in Sherman Tuesday. They have bought a large farm.
St. John’s assignment to the Office of War Information’s outpost in Chungking, China was reported in the Christian Science Monitor, July 11, 1945; Motion Picture Daily, July 11, 1945; and Printers’ Ink, July 20, 1945. 

St. John’s mother passed away on October 14, 1945. 

St. John was a passenger on a U.S. Air Force transport when it landed in San Francisco, California on October 29, 1945. The manifest said his home address was R.F.D. 1, Gaylordsville, Connecticut. 

… Robert’s nephew, Archer and Jeff’s son, Michael, a photographer, told me about his father; Archer was not only an alcoholic but also “given to pills. He took speed, like a lot of people. He picked up the habit in China when he was working for the government.” …
Jeff was the nickname of St. John’s wife whose initials, GF, sounded like Jeff. 

St. John Publications was formed by 1945 and began producing comic books in 1947. The Grand Comics Database has a list of St. John’s comics from 1947 to 1958. Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999 has a list of people who produced material for St. John. The Digital Comic Museum has scans of St. John’s comic books. St. John was first to print 3-D comic books and its success was covered in “3-D Comics Knock ’Em Dead”, Writer’s Digest, August 1953. 

St. John had affair with comic book editor and art director Marion McDermott. In Confessions, Romances, Secrets, and Temptations, Nadine French King said McDermott helped on the new magazine Nugget.

King also said Charles Adams was art director on all the magazines which included Manhunt, Murder, Nugget, Verdict, Mantrap and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The Murder staff (below) included Gertrude’s brother and nephew, Charles and Gerald Adams, respectively. Associate editor N.F. King was Nadine French King, the wife of Warren King.


Gertrude was a stockholder in Manhunt. 


In the 1950 census, St. John and his wife lived in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He was a publisher who owned a publishing company and she was keeping house in Cople. 



Wikipedia said the farm and house known as Bushfield, in Mount Holly, Westmoreland County, Virginia, was sold to Mrs. [Gertrude] St. John around 1944. The Richmond Times-Dispatch (Virginia), February 10, 11 and 12, 1950, printed a classified advertisement that was submitted by St. John. 


Gertrude sailed to Europe for five weeks beginning on December 17, 1952. She returned on January 26, 1953. 


On September 23, 1954, St. John and Frances Stratford, a divorcee, were aboard a Pan American World Airways flight to Bermuda. They returned three days later. Stratford would be the last person to see St. John alive. 


St. John passed away on August 13, 1955, in Manhattan, New York City, according to the New York, New York Death Index at Ancestry.com. His death was reported in several newspapers including the Staten Island Advance (New York), August 15, 1955 (below), plus Variety, August 17, 1955, and Advertising Age, August 22, 1955. 


Merchant of Words said St. John was cremated. The day of death is incorrect at Find a Grave.

Almost two years after St. John’s death, Gertrude advertised Bushfield for sale in the April 28, 1957 editions of the Evening Star (Washington, DC) and Houston Post (Texas). Gertrude’s youngest brother passed away July 1936 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her father passed away January 1943 in Chicago. Her step-father passed away October 1956 in Poughkeepsie, New York. Seven years later, Gertrude’s mother passed away March 1963 in New York City. The Social Security Death Index said Gertrude was born on October 4, 1896 and passed away March 1965. Two of her last known residences were 20 Charles Street and 4 Perry Street in Manhattan. John Adams passed away January 1968 in Harlingen, Texas. Ten years later, Charles Adams passed away March 1978 in New York. 

At 100 years old, Robert St. John passed away on February 6, 2003. 


Related Posts
Further Reading
The Internet Archive, Archer A. St. John and Archer St. John



Monday, October 10, 2022

Comics: Leroy Lettering, Robert N. MacLeod, Lou Cameron and His Wife, Phil


The Keuffel & Esser Company invented a mechanical lettering tool called Leroy. The date of the invention is unclear. The History of Cartography, Volume 6: Cartography in the Twentieth Century (2015) claimed the Leroy lettering template was patented in 1919. However, such a lettering tool was not found in Keuffel & Esser’s 1921 product catalog. 

In 1926, two publications mentioned the “Leroy Lettering Pen”. Telephony, July 3, 1926, printed the article, “Use of Graphics in Accounting Work”, and said 
... The main mechanical appliance is the lettering template, which is rather simple in design and very easy to use; the lettering in all the charts shown is executed by the use of these templates and a special called the “Leroy Lettering Pen” which is adapted for use with these templates. It might not be amiss to mention here that these templates and pens are also being used quite extensively in regular draughting offices, for the reason that a more uniform size and style of letter can be constructed with their aid than can be accomplished by hand. …
Industrial-Arts Magazine, December 1926, published a classified advertisement. 
Divider Compasses—$10.00 per dozen. The very best for school work. Edgar Bourquin, 1353 Main Street, Waltham, Mass. Manufacturers of Leroy Lettering Pens.
Keuffel & Esser had offices in Hoboken, New Jersey and Montreal, Canada, which required filing copyrights and trademarks in both locations. The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights and Trade Marks, September 19, 1933, had this entry for Leroy. 
N.S. 640. Keuffel & Esser Co. N.J., a Corporation of New Jersey, Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.A., and Montreal, Quebec. Word: “Leroy.“ Wares: Lettering Sets, Lettering Templates, Lettering Pens, Lettering Scribers, Lettering Styli and Lettering Pencil Holders. Date of first use: March 1st, 1926. Date of registration: February 27th, 1933.
The first use date of Leroy in Canada was 1926. 

The Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, September 4, 1934, had this entry for Leroy. 


The first use date of Leroy was 1932 and the trademark was granted in 1934. 

The Leroy lettering tool was described as an adjustable scriber in a patent filing published in the Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, August 13, 1935. 


In the comic book industry, Leroy lettering was used by a number of publishers, notably M.C. and William Gaines’ EC Comics. The mechanical lettering was done by Jim and Margaret Wroten who had many comics clients. Another business that did Leroy lettering was operated by Robert N. MacLeod. 

Robert Nolte “Bob” Macleod was born on September 25, 1921, in Jersey City, New Jersey, according to his World War II draft card. His Social Security application, at Ancestry.com, said his parents were Everett H. MacLeod and Gertrude B. Nolte. 

In the 1930 U.S. Census, MacLeod and his parents were Bogota, New Jersey residents on River Road. His father was a carpenter at a theater. 


MacLeod’s father passed away in 1933. An obituary appeared in Hackensack Record, New Jersey, July 29, 1933. 

MacLeod’s mother remarried. The 1940 census said MacLeod, his mother and stepfather, Samuel J. Lothian, lived in the Bronx, New York, at 238 West 238th Street. 


On February 16, 1942, MacLeod signed his World War II draft card. His address was 61 Gautier Avenue, Jersey City, New Jersey. At a later date, his address was updated to General Delivery, Kingman, Arizona. MacLeod was employed at the Western Electric Company in Kearney New Jersey. He was described as five feet eight inches, 170 pounds, with brown eyes and hair. 


MacLeod enlisted on June 16, 1942, in Newark, New Jersey. He was stationed in Kingman, Arizona where he married Josephine Garrison on February 2, 1943. 


MacLeod was with the Air Force at the Las Vegas Gunnery School in Nevada. Hospital records at Ancestry.com said he was treated for heat exhaustion (July 1945) and stomatitis (September 1945). MacLeod’s Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File said he was discharged on October 21, 1945. 

MacLeod was not yet been found in the 1950 census. By the early 1950s he had a graphic arts studio in Manhattan, New York City.  (It’s a mystery when his interest in commercial art started.) The 1953 Manhattan city directory listed MacLeod at 65 West 45th Street. MacLeod advertised in Art Direction, June 1954. 


Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, Second Edition (2011) said 
… In 1953, Ace and Gilberton both used the Bob MacLeod studio for Leroy-lettering penciled pages. Meyer A. Kaplan, managing editor of Classics Illustrated, recruited [Lou] Cameron and Lin Streeter to freelance for the series. ...
In Alter Ego, #106, December 2011, Jim Amash interviewed Tony Tallarico who said 
At one point, [Billy] Friedman was no longer using letterers. We were going to Bob McLeod’s [sic] studio. He was doing LeRoy lettering and Lou hung out there. That’s where I usually saw him. We had to go to McLeod’s to pick up our work after he lettered it. I was doing some advertising work, too, and McLeod did paste-up lettering for me. I don’t remember much about my conversations with Lou, but I remember he was going out with a very young girl. I don’t know what happened, but McLeod, I think, was very upset about this. [Note: Lou married this woman, and subsequently divorced her, though they had children together. —Jim.] Lou was a very funny guy, but I really had very little to do with him because we didn’t spend much time together.

Bob McLeod was a straight guy. He and his wife were very nice people. She was a singer at Radio City Music Hall. I was really just in and out of there. The “in” was one thing, but getting out was something else, because he was a talker.
Who’s Who in Finance and Industry (1971) included a profile of Phil (Phyllis) Cameron who was the 1941 Brooklyn-born daughter of Frederick Louis Zuber and Johannah Franz. From 1957 to 1958 Phil worked part-time at MacLeod’s studio where she met Cameron. She was Cameron’s personal editor and secretary from 1958 to 1967. They had two daughters, in the mid-1960s, but did not marry until 1966 in Brooklyn. “Louis Cameron” and “Joan P. Zuber” obtained a Brooklyn marriage license, number 6820, on June 16, 1966. They divorced in 1967 and Phil, again, found a job with MacLeod. 

The 1959 and 1960 Manhattan directory listings said “Robert N Macleod Inc 30 E 20 GRmrcy 7-4540”. Soon, MacLeod entered the field of publishing. Collecting Model Car and Truck Kits (2001) said
… Arguably the first and best of the original generation of model car magazines, Car Model magazine began in 1962 as an effort of Auto World owner Bob Koveleski and his business partner Robert MacLeod. ...
The debut issue of Car Model was dated July-August 1962. MacLeod was co-publisher with A.M. Koveleski. The office address was 30 East 20th Street which was Robert N. MacLeod Inc. With the April 1967 issue, “Phyllis Cameron” (divorced in 1967) was the art editor of the magazine. The September 1967 issue said she was the art director. Phil was editor beginning with the September 1968 issue. She wrote about herself in January 1969. 
I’m Phil Cameron, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., but now an expatriot living in New Jersey. I’ve been in and around the publishing field in various capacities for eleven years. Since CM Publisher Bob MacLeod gave me my first job in this field, my last two years with CM, first as Art Director and now editor, have been sort of like the return of the native. …
Her last issue was July 1971. Phil probably quit because the magazine moved from New Jersey to Phoenix, Arizona according to the indicia in the September 1971 issue. (I believe she is alive and well as Joan Phyllis Brannen, in Florida.) MacLeod oversaw the final issue of Car Model dated April 1973. 

MacLeod passed away on January 8, 1984, in Phoenix. An obituary appeared in the Arizona Republic, January 10, 1984. 
Robert Nolte MacLeod, 62, a graphics artist for Central Graphics, died Jan. 8, 1984, at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. Mr. MacLeod, of 6802 N. 17th Ave., moved to Arizona in 1961 [sic] from his native New Jersey. He served in the Air Force in World War II. Survivors include his wife, Louise; daughter, Robin Alsberg; and three grandchildren. Private services were arranged by Brown’s Maricopa Mortuary, Phoenix.
(MacLeod should not to be confused with Robert Parker “Bob” MacLeod or Robert Thomas “Bob” McLeod.)


Related Posts