Comics: Chuck Cuidera, from 1915 to 1952, and Blackhawk

Charles Nicholas “Chuck” Cuidera was born on September 23, 1915, in Newark, New Jersey, according to his World War II draft card. Cuidera’s Social Security application said his parents were Leonard Cuidera and Lena Bruzzo. 

Cuidera’s father, a barber, signed his World War I draft card on September 12, 1918. His address was 48 Warwick Street in Newark. The same address was recorded in the 1920 (below), 1930, 1940 and 1950 United States Censuses. In 1920 Cuidera was the fourth of five children; in 1930 he was the fourth of six siblings. 

After graduating high school, Cuidera studied illustration at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 22, 1939, reported on his class. 

Pratt Art School to Graduate 26

Twenty-six students will be graduated from the mid-year class of the Pratt Institute School of Fine and Applied Arts in Brooklyn at the conclusion of the present term next Friday. A tea in their honor will  be given by members of the faculty at the school on Wednesday afternoon. James C. Boudreau, director of the school, will speak. Those receiving certificates of graduation will be: 

Pictorial Illustration

… Charles Nicholas Cuidera, Newark, N. J.

Prattonia 1938

The 1940 census said Cuidera was an artist in the magazine design trade. He earned $160 working eight weeks in 1939. 

On October 16, 1940, Cuidera signed his World War II draft card. He was working for the comics company, Fox Features. Cuidera was described as five feet eight-and-a-half inches, 156 pounds, with brown eyes and hair. 

Cuidera drew the first Blackhawk story which appeared in Military Comics #1, August 1941. 

Cuidera enlisted in the Army on February 18, 1942. 

Sometime in the 1940s, Cuidera married. The 1950 census recorded cartoonist Cuidera, his wife, a daughter and son in Newark, New Jersey at 48 Warwick Street. His family lived on the second floor. Two of his siblings were on the first. 

At different times, Cuidera and Reed Crandall were the artists on Blackhawk which was adapted into a serial by Columbia. The Blackhawk serial was promoted in several trade magazines including The Exhibitor, May–July 1952; Motion Picture Daily, July 11, 1952; Motion Picture Herald, August 2, 1952; and The Exhibitor, August–October 1952. Crandall and Cuidera were credited in the advertisements. Both were mentioned in the book, In the Nick of Time: Motion Picture Sound Serials (1984). 

Mark Evanier wrote about Blackhawk on his website, News from ME. 

The Blackhawk Panel Part 1

The Blackhawk Panel Part 2

Blackhawk and me – Part 1

Today's Video Link, Blackhawk

Further Reading

Alter Ego, #34, March 2004, “I Created Blackhawk”, Chuck Cuidera interview

The Unofficial Blackhawk Comics Website

Grand Comics Database

Lambiek Comiclopedia

Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999

Wikipedia, Charles Nicholas and Blackhawk

Comics Buyer’s Guide, September 21, 2001, Remembering Chuck Cuidera

The Comics Journal, October 2001, Blackhawks Creator Chuck Cuidera Dies at 86

Science Fiction Chronicle, December 2001, obituary

(Next post on Monday: Leroy Lettering, Robert N. MacLeod, Lou Cameron and His Wife, Phil)

Creator: Reed Crandall

The story of how Reed Crandall was able to attend the Cleveland School of Art is told in the following article from The Santa Fe Magazine, August 1935.

Exceptional Newton, Kan., Art Student Wins High Honors in National Art Department Contest

By Vincent C. Root

Master Mechanic’s Office, Newton, Kan.

Newton, and all Kansas, in fact, should be mighty proud of one of its studious and artistic sons, Reed Crandall, senior in the Newton high school, who recently won six separate awards in a contest sponsored by the Scholastic, a weekly high school magazine. Crandall being the only student this year out of a group of 10,000 to win honors from all the states west of the Mississippi. So far as is known, Crandall is the only student from Kansas to have ever won distinction in this yearly contest in art.

Newton, enrolling only in one department of the contest—the art department—entered six different groups of the work of Crandall, 18 years old, and emerged from the contest very much a winner.

Crandall entered three pieces of sculpture in plastic wood. One of these, which won for him second place, was a model of a newsboy selling his papers. His second entry was a plastic wood model of a runner, and the third was a model of a pirate, depicting Long John Silver of Treasure Island. In addition to winning the high honors in plastic wood modeling, this young artist won a cash prize in oil painting and three places of honorable mention in pictorial arts division, black inks division and the oils division. Not only did his individual pieces win distinction but his group as a whole was outstanding in the pictorial arts division, also winning honors in this department.

This honor won by Reed Crandall is even more impressive when one considers that half a million high school students during the past year have turned their efforts toward winning these honors, and of this vast number only 10,000 survived the preliminary eliminations, which were conducted in their individual cities by judges selected from the teaching staff.

The jury, consisting of Audrey Avinoff, director of Carnegie Museum; Royal B. Farnum, director of the Rhode Island School of Design; C. Valentine Kirby, director of art in Pennsylvania schools; Alfred Pelikan, director of Milwaukee Art Institute; W.A. Readio, chairman, department of painting and design, Carnegie Institute of Techology [sic], and Dudley Crafts Watson, Chicago Art Institute. This group distributed eighteen scholarships and 215 prizes to excelling students scattered widely over the entire United States.

The work of Crandall now is at the International High School Art Exhibit in the Fine Arts Galleries of Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pa., the American division of which is made up entirely of work submitted for the scholastic awards. Seven nations are represented in this show, which will be released for a tour of the entire country upon completion of its engagement at Carnegie.

The main award won by Crandall for his exhibit is a scholarship in the Cleveland School of Art, beginning next September, which he is planning to enter next fall.

Reed is an exceptional student in school, and in addition to excelling in art is a prize pupil in typewriting, having recently won distinction by typing for ten minutes without making a single mistake. Miss Marie Orr, art instructor in our Newton schools, has been Reed's only instructor, and she is past president and past secretary of the State Art Teachers’ Association, which organization she was very active in bringing into existence.

Miss Orr has been active in Newton schools for the past fifteen years, having been art instructor during this long period, and due to her outstanding ability she has turned out of our Newton schools many very brilliant students of art as well as winning for herself high acclaim in this field and taking part in the various organizations for the advancement of art in this state.

Crandall is a cousin of Harrison Crandall of Boise and Jackson Hole, Idaho, who is nationally known as painter of Tetone mountain country scenes. His parents are Mr. and Mrs. Rayburn Crandall of Newton. Newton is mighty proud of Reed and we trust all Kansas is equally proud of him for bringing high honors in art to our city and state, and we wish him the greatest measure of success in his profession in the years to come.

(Crandall’s birthday is February 22. Below are links to additional information about Crandall and images of his work. Next post on Monday)

Comic Book Resources
Dodge City Daily Globe
ERBzine
The Pittsburgh Press photo of ice skater
Potrzebie
Wikipedia


(Next post on Monday: Paint Paste Paper and Push)