Lettering: The Inland Printer, January 1916

(Next post on Monday: A Few New Details About Lloyd Jacquet and His Wives Grace and Phyllis)

Comics: Al Kurzrok, Artist, Letterer, Teacher and Psychologist

Alter Ego #52, September 2005

Allan Lance “Al” Kurzrok was born on October 30, 1939, in Brooklyn, New York, according to the New York, New York Birth Index and his Social Security application, both at Ancestry.com. His parents were Irving Lawrence Kurzrok (June 6, 1906–February 12, 1976) and Estelle L. Wolf (August 25, 1911–March 1, 1992). 

Kurzrok’s father was born in New York City. The 1920 U.S. Federal Census said he lived in Indianapolis, Indiana with his parents, Samuel and Fannie, older brother, Milton, and younger sister Denice. At some point they returned to New York.

Kurzrok’s father was a student at the Long Island College of Medicine in Brooklyn. He graduated in 1929. 

1929 Lichonian

The 1930 census recorded the Kurzroks in the Bronx at 1349 Nelson Avenue. 

On April 21, 1936, Kurzrok’s father and Estelle Wolf obtained a marriage license in Brooklyn according to the New York, New York Marriage License Index. 

Kurzrok’s father was a competitive amateur tennis player who won many awards. He was profiled in the Brooklyn Eagle, September 8, 1939. 

On October 16, 1940, two weeks before Kurzrok’s birth, Kurzrok’s father signed his World War II draft card. He resided at 900 East 24th Street and worked at 115 Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn. He served in the Navy from March 29, 1943 to May 31, 1945. 

The 1940 census recorded Kurzrok and his parents in Brooklyn at 900 East 24th Street. Kurzrok’s father’s occupation was medical doctor in private practice. 

According to the 1950 census, the Kurzrok family of four resided in Manhattan at 9–11 96th Street in the penthouse. Kurzrok’s father had a private practice as a gynecologist and obstetrician. Also in the household was a maid. 

Kurzrok was a student at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School. Below is his junior class photograph from the 1956 yearbook, Columbiana. Kurzrok is in the back row on the far left.

Kurzrok was profiled in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, January 26, 1986 edition. He said “I started drawing at age seven and it was obvious I couldn’t match my father as a student.” He decided to pursue cartooning at age twelve and was encouraged by parents and their cartoonist friends, George Vonda (Terry and the Pirates), Jay Irving (Pottsy) and Ham Fisher (Joe Palooka). At seventeen Kurzrok ventured to the Apollo Theater and began interviewing black rock musicians. He spent four years at the School of Visual Arts. His pursuit in fine art was a struggle so he looked into comics and got freelance assignments, and eventually landed a job at Marvel. 

It’s not known exactly when Kurzrok began his career as a freelance artist. He contributed to the 1961 book, The Sports Illustrated Book of Bridge. 

The Grand Comics Database lists Kurzrok’s earliest lettering credits as July 1967 for Tales of Suspense #91 and Two Gun Kid #88. Below are Kurzrok-lettered pages from August 1967. 

Ghost Rider #4, Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Rawhide Kid #59, Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Strange Tales #159, Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Tales to Astonish #96, October 1967 

A 1968 issue of Art Direction said “Freelancer Allan Kurzrok drew Voteman for League of Women Voter’s 4-page brochure.” Kurzrok copyrighted The Adventures of Voteman. Samples of Voteman appeared in Urban Crisis Monitor, Volume 1 (1968) and Government by the People: The Dynamics of American National Government (1969). 

Pop Culture Squad

Kid Colt Outlaw #141, Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

Don and Maggie Thompson’s Newfangles 41, November 1970, said “Al Kurzrok, now on Marvel’s production staff, will write several Furys [Sgt. Fury] in between Casper and Richie Rich.”

Alter Ego #153, July 2018, published a 1971 Marvel Bullpen photograph which included Kurzrok. 

In the mid-1970s Kurzrok was production editor at Cracked magazine. 

In 1977 he changed careers from comics to counseling. Kurzrok would use comics to teach parable and metaphor to children. 

The Herald-Tribune said

In 1980, while completing psychology studies at the University of South Florida he drew 102 comic strips as part of his doctoral dissertation which dealt with children coping with mortality, loss, grief, anger, jealousy, greed and anxiety.

“The comic strips deal with big issues but they use a humor, a fun approach and very different points of view,” he told the Herald-Tribune in 1994. “I envision parents and children reading them together, interacting with the characters and role-playing. And I have always been a proponent of good mental health beginning at home.”

Kurzrok was listed at Tampa, Florida in the 1980 Resource Directory of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. 

In 1986, Kurzrok was working to complete his doctorate from Union Graduate School in Cincinnati. 

Cartoonist Profiles, #94, June 1992, said Kurzrok was one of several guests at the 1991 OrlandoCon. 

Kurzrok’s The Kids from “Help!” Look at Loss and Life was published in 1993. The following year Geode Productions released See Yourself! be Yourself!: Fire Up Your Self-Esteem. Kurzrok filed a trademark application for Geode Productions. 

The Herald-Tribune said Kurzrok was an instructor at the Ringling School of Art and Design which offered his two courses, The Psychology of Self-Esteem and Critical Human Dynamics. He was listed in The National Faculty Directory, Volume 2, H–O (2002). 

Kurzrok passed away on May 3, 2005, in Sarasota, Florida, where his parents had retired in the early 1970s.  

Further Reading

News From ME, Al Kurzrok, R.I.P. 

The Comics Reporter, Al Kurzrok, 1939–2005

Comic Vine, Al Kurzrok

Print, The Daily Heller: Voting Comics Introduce Real Superheroes

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(Next post on Monday: The Inland Printer, January 1916)

Creator: Raymond Lufkin, Illustrator and Designer

Raymond Haskell Lufkin was born on January 29, 1897, in Salem, Massachusetts, according to his Massachusetts Birth Record (at Ancestry.com), his World War II draft card, Something About the Author, Volume 38, and Family Search. His parents were Joseph G. Lufkin and Amanda D. Low, both Massachusetts natives.

1900 U.S. Federal Census recorded the Lufkin family in Boston, Massachusetts at 112 Fowler Street. Lufkin had an older brother, Richard, and a younger sister, Annie. Their father was a traveling salesman. 

Something About the Author said Lufkin was nine years old when his first published work, a prize-winning pen and ink drawing, appeared in the Boston Herald (probably in the children’s section called Boston Herald Junior).

The household gained two members in the 1910 census: Lufkin’s brother, Eben, and paternal grandmother, Sarah, a widow. They resided at 222 Harvard Street in Boston.

Lufkin’s art training was at the New School of Design in Boston. The Boston Register and Business Directory 1918, listed Lufkin in the Designers category. His address was 29 Central, room 57. 

Lufkin was a student at Boston University’s College of Business Administration. The university published a World War I record of many of its students. Lufkin was a private who served at various times from November14, 1917 to January 4, 1919. The Bostonia, December 1920, has the same information. Illustrators of Children’s Books. 1946–1956 (1958) said “While serving in World War I he was given many a ride in Army training planes in Tennessee and Texas in return for drawing sketches of the various pilots.” In Design & Paper, number ten, 1942, George F. Trenholm said

… At the present he is absorbed in an evening course in airplane design and mathematics, his interest in the subject carrying over from U.S. Army Air Corps courses in 1917–18 at Pratt Institute, Kelley Field and St. Paul. …

During his service Lufkin submitted cartoons and jokes to Judge which published several of them: September 28, 1918, October 5, 1918, October 19, 1918, November 16, 1918, November 30, 1918, and December 14, 1918. 

In the 1920 census Lufkin and his siblings lived with their parents in Boston at 11 Grace Street. Lufkin was a designer in the advertising trade. Later that year, Lufkin married Adaline E. Lynch on December 16 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 1922 Minneapolis, Minnesota city directory listed Lufkin’s home address as apartment 18,  70 South 12th Street. The 1922 St. Paul, Minnesota city directory (below) said he was an artist at Brown & Bigelow, a publishing company. At some point Lufkin returned to Boston.

The 1924 Boston city directory listed Lufkin at 110 Warren Street in Brighton. He was an advertising artist and partner in Herrick & Lufkin, located at 80 Boylston Street, room 822, in Boston. He was also listed at the same address in the City of Boston Residents, April 1, 1924. 

Advertising Arts & Crafts

Lee & Kirby, 1924

According to the 1926 Medford, Massachusetts city directory, commercial artist Lufkin was a resident at 12 Ash Street. In 1927 and 1928 his address was 17 Winter Street. 

The 1930 census recorded Lufkin, his wife, a daughter and two sons in Wellesley, Massachusetts on Parker Road. His house was valued at nine thousand dollars. Lufkin was a self-employed advertising artist. Boston directories for 1930 and 1931 said Lufkin maintained his studio at 80 Boylston Street. The 1933 Wellesley directory (below) said his address was 16 Parker Road. In 1933 Lufkin moved again. 

PM, Number 34, 1937 (below), featured the work of Lufkin and said “he studied with Vesper Lincoln George, Philip Hale, Vojecht Preissig, Bridgeman and Harvey Dunn.” In Boston he had worked with advertising agencies and printers such as BBDO and Barta Press. According to PM, in 1933 Lufkin went to New York City and was a free-lancer at Hal Marchbanks’ office where he designed, among other work, three calendars, from 1934 to 1936, for the Marchbanks Press. Lufkin and his family resided in Tarrytown, New York. 

PM, number 36, 1938, featured Lufkin’s scratchboard portraits of Norman Munder, Will Bradley, Thomas Cleland, Frederic Goudy, and Bruce Rogers.

In the late 1930s Lufkin moved to New Jersey. The 1940 census said Lufkin lived in Tenafly, New Jersey at 124 West Clinton Avenue in Tenafly and was a Tarrytown, New York resident in 1935. The self-employed designer and illustrator owned his Tenafly house which was valued at $6,500.  

On April 26, 1942, Lufkin signed his World War II draft card. He was described as five feet six inches, 152 pounds, with grown eyes and blonde hair. The card included his business address, 225 Varick Street, New York, New York, which was address of the printing firm, William E. Rudge’s Sons. Sometime earlier Lufkin produced a moving announcement. He was not listed in the Manhattan directories from 1942 to 1944. 

Also in 1942, he was a member of the Salmagundi Club. 

Design & Paper, Number 10, circa 1942, showcased some of Lufkin’s illustrations. 

Something About the Author said Lufkin designed war bond posters for the Treasury Department and created military maps. 

The Reader’s Digest, April 1944, cover featured Easter eggs decorated by 34 artists including Lufkin. 

Manhattan city directories from 1945 to 1949 said Lufkin had an office at 130 West 42nd Street. The Manhattan directories in the 1950s and 1960s listed his Tenafly address and phone number. 

Lufkin’s address in the 1950 census said “116”, instead of 124, West Clinton Avenue, Tenafly, New Jersey. He was a commercial artist working in commercial printing. The census said he worked 55 hours the previous week. 

From 1934 to 1962, Lufkin was a non-resident member of The Society of Printers. 

Lufkin advertised in Publishers’ Weekly.

October 14, 1947

November 1, 1947

December 6, 1947

Lufkin’s most widely seen work was the 1947 Christmas Seal. He was a speaker at the Christmas Seal luncheon in Brooklyn. 

Chicago Draugas, December 8, 1947

According to the 1950 census, Lufkin, his wife and son were Tenafly, New Jersey residents at 116 West Clinton Avenue. Lufkin was a commercial artist in the printing industry. 

Lufkin retired to Florida where he passed away on December 10, 1978, in Saint Petersburg. An obituary was published in the Asbury Park Press (New Jersey), December 17, 1978.

St. Petersburg, Fla.—Raymond Lufkin, 79, a former resident of Freehold, N.J., died here Dec. 10 at a local hospital. Mr. Lufkin was an artist who had designed and illustrated many books, advertising booklets and other published works. He had moved here nine months ago from Freehold, N.J. He was a member of the Society of Illustrators. Surviving are a son, Dudley D., here, and three grandchildren. The National Cremation Society was in charge of arrangements. 

Books and Pamphlets with Illustrations by Lufkin

The Boroughmonger

R.H. Mottram

Dust Jacket

Little, Brown, and Company, 1929

Ood-le-uk Wanderer

Alice Alison Life and Margaret Johansen

Little 1930

Jimmy Goes to War

Leslie W Quirk

Little Brown and Co., 1931

Moccasin Trail: The Story of a Boy Who Took the Trail with Kit Carson

Reed Fulton

Doubleday, 1931

All Aces

Captain Samuel Taylor Moore

McLoughlin Brothers, Inc., 1932

Fighting Aces

Captain Samuel Taylor Moore

McLoughlin Brothers, Inc., 1932

Under Sea Heroes

Captain Samuel Taylor Moore

McLoughlin Brothers, Inc., 1932

The Snakeblood Ruby

Samuel Scoville, Jr.

Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1932

 

Big Flight

Francis and Katherine Drake

Dust Jacket

Little, Brown, and Company, 1934

In 1937, a book about the building at 40 Wall Street was published. It was described in American Printer, May 1937. 

Wall Street Buys a Book

You probably never will print a book like this. It measures 20 x 26 inches over all. It weighs 20 pounds. It’s bound in what at first sight appear to be quarterinch-thick sheets of plate glass. And it was printed in an edition of 12 copies. But whether you do or not, the fact that such a book WAS printed should be cause for rejoicing to you and to every other printer, for it shows that once again there is a market for fine printing—that an opportunity exists today such as you have not had since pre-depression times to sell the best you are capable of producing.

William E. Rudge’s Sons, New York, was the organization that printed the job—and not only printed it but designed it, planned it, wrote it, and, in cooperation with the client, developed a procedure for presenting it. Its purpose was to help Starrett Brothers and Eken, builders and managers of the Manhattan Co. building at 40 Wall Street, present the story of that building to corporation executives and directors and other major prospects for office space—present [text missing]

Obviously, something more than “just printing” was called for, and the giant size, unusual binding, restrained typography, brief text, and 17 large photographic illustrations, one of them in full color—they are actual photographic prints mounted in, not reproductions—were all planned and worked out with these very practical ends in view. 

Plexiglas, an “unbreakable thermoplastic exactly resembling plate glass,” was used for the first time in the binding, which was done by Russell-Rutter Co. Text in Garamond. Printed in two colors on Strathmore Rhododendron Cover, white. Scratchboard drawings in text by Raymond Lufkin. 

Another description of the book is at the Guide to the Records of HRH Construction, under the Container List, Series I. Office Files, 1929-1958, Folder 1. Six illustrations from the book are shown in Steven Heller’s Print post, “The Straight and Narrow”. 

Black Land White Land: A Reggie Fortune Novel

H. C. Bailey

Dust Jacket

Doubleday, Doran, 1937

Medieval Days and Ways

Gertrude Hartman

Macmillan, 1937

Treasure Mountain

Eric Philbrook Kelly

Macmillan, 1937

The Inexhaustibility of the Subject of Christmas: A Holiday Dissertation

Leigh Hunt

William Bradford Press, 1937

A Merry Christmas Book of Christmas Facts and Fancies

Alfred C Hottes

Publishing Printing Co., 1938

The Book of Hugh and Nancy

Eric Milner-White and Eleanor Shipley Duckett

Macmillan Co., 1938

The Year Is a Round Thing

Helen Ebeltoft Davis

Musson, 1938

At the Sign of the Golden Compass

E.P. Kelly

Macmillan, 1938

40 Wall Street: Designed for Working

William E. Rudge’s Sons, 1940

Magic Tunnel: A Story of Old New York

Caroline Dwight Emerson

McClelland, 1940

Shattuck Cadet

B. J. Chute

Macmillan, 1940

Yukon Holidays

Felice Fieldhouse

Longmans, Green and Co., 1940

Building an Empire

Louise Lamprey

Frederick A. Stokes, 1941

Difficult Decade: 1931–1941

Fiduciary Trust Company of New York

William E. Rudge’s Sons, 1941

A Greeting to Frederic W. Goudy from All the Typophiles

1941

Nobody's Vineyard

H. C. Bailey

Dust Jacket

Doubleday, Doran and Co., Inc., 1942

Man of Molokai: The Life of Father Damien

Ann Roos

Lippincott, 1943

Here Is Africa

Ellen and Attilio Gatti

Map

Charles Scribners, 1943

Here Is Alaska

Evelyn Stefansson

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1943

Straight Up

Henry B. Lent

Macmillan, 1944

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Peter Pauper Press, 1945

Here Is India

Jean Kennedy

Map

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1945

California Pageant

Robert G. Cleland

Knopf, 1946

Wild Waters

Lewis S. Miner

J. Messner, Inc., 1946

 

Hawaii’s Queen, Liliuokalani

Adrienne Stone

Messner, 1947

A Saga of Commerce

The Staff of C. Tennant, Sons & Co., of New York

1947

The Story of the Bible People

Muriel Streibert Curtis

Macmillan, 1947

Turkey, Old and New

Selma Ekrem

Map

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947

The Story of the Negro

Arna Bontemps

Knopf, 1948

An Adaptation of The Story of Our Lady’s Juggler

Thomas J. McCabe

Privately printed, 1951

Terra, An Allegory

Faber Birren

Philosophical Library, 1953

The Unconsidered

Faber Birren

Citadel Press, 1955

We Were There with the California Forty-Niners

Stephen Holt

Grosset & Dunlap, 1956

Mary McLeod Bethune

Emma Gelders Sterne

Alfred A. Knopf, 1957

Ships Come and Go

Marie Elizabeth Smith

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957

Through Golden Windows: Adventures Here and There

Jeanne Hale

E.M. Hale, 1958

page 310: The Explorer by Katherine Shippen

Through Golden Windows: Stories of Early America

Nora Ernestine Reust and Jeanne Hale

E.M. Hale, 1958

page 314: The Sons of Daniel Boone by Cyril Clemens

The Picture History of America

Alexander Van Rensselaer

Doubleday, 1961

Tenafly, 1894–1969

Virginia T. Mosley

Tenafly 75th Jubilee Committee, 1969

Further Viewing

Letterology, Raymond Lufkin, Letter S

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Harvey Hopkins Dunn

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(Next post on Monday: Al Kurzrok, Artist, Letterer, Teacher and Psychologist)