Paul Gustavson (né Karl Paul Gustafson; August 16, 1916 – April 29, 1977) was a Finnish-American

comic-book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are oft ...

writer and artist. His most notable creations during the

Golden Age of Comic Books The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many well-known char ...

were The Human Bomb for

Quality Comics Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company which operated from 1937 to 1956 and was a creative, influential force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Notable, long-running titles published by Qualit ...

, and the Angel, who debuted in ''

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

'' #1 (Oct. 1939), the first publication of

forerunner

Timely Comics Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...

. The Angel would star in more than 100 stories in the 1940s. The Human Bomb would later be acquired by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

and make sporadic appearances as late as 2005.

Early life and career

Gustavson was born in

Åland Åland ( fi, Ahvenanmaa: ; ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland since 1920 by a decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by area and population, with a size of 1 ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Emigrating to the U.S. with his family at age five, Gustavson (who modified his name when he entered comics) graduated from Quentin High School in New York City, and studied civil engineering at

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

. Seguing to art at about age 17, he spent two to three years

apprenticing Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

under

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

Frank Owen, the husband of one of Gustavson's childhood friends in Finland. Gustavson assisted on Owen's ''

Collier's Magazine ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Colli ...

'' humor spot, "Filbert". Gustavson began working in the studio of the quirkily named

Harry "A" Chesler Harry Chesler (January 12, 1897, or January 12, 1898 (sources differ) – December 1981),Harr ...

, a "packager" of comic books for publishers testing the waters of the emerging

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

. "I started at $12 a week", he told historian

Jim Steranko James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator. His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature " ...

, who interviewed him in the early 1970s. "It wasn't much but in those days it was enough for me. I stayed with Chesler for about two years and, during that time, worked with people like Jack Cole,

Mort Meskin Morton Meskin (May 30, 1916 – March 29, 1995)Social Security Death Index, SS# 071-16-1099. was an American comic book artist best known for his work in the 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books, well into the late-1950s and 1960s Silver Age. Early ...

Gill Fox Gilbert Theodore Fox (November 29, 1915 – May 15, 2004) was an American political cartoonist, comic book artist and editing, editor, and animator. Biography Fox began his career in animation at Max Fleischer's studio, but left due to labor unr ...

Fred Guardineer Frederick B. Guardineer (October 3, 1913 – September 13, 2002)Frederick B. Guardineer

, Charlie Biro, and Bob Wood".

Creating characters

After getting married and beginning a family, Gustavson began working for another comics packager, Funnies, Inc., which supplied publisher Martin Goodman with the contents of ''Marvel Comics'' #1. The packager also supplied

Centaur Publications Centaur Publications (also known as Centaur Comics) was one of the earliest American comic book publishers. During their short existence, they created several colorful characters, including Bill Everett's Amazing-Man. History Comics Magazine Co ...

, for which Gustavson created the

Arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...

Fantom of the Fair The Fantom of the Fair is one of the earliest published Golden Age superheroes. He debuted in Centaur Publications' '' Amazing Mystery Funnies'' vol. 2, #7 (cover-dated July 1939), the overall 11th issue of that title. He premiered, according to c ...

, and Man of War. Other notable work includes humor features in five early issues of DC's ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/Comic anthology, magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as National Allied Publications, and later as National Comics ...

'', starting with issue #5 (Oct. 1938), and the two-page humor piece "Major Bigsbee an' Botts" in the oft-reprinted ''

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

'' #1 (Spring 1940). He later joined Quality Comics, one of DC's predecessors, where publisher "Busy" Arnold offered $25 a page. There Gustavson created the Human Bomb (premiering in ''Police Comics'' #1, Aug. 1941), signing the earliest episodes with the pseudonym Paul Carroll''. He

wrote Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

and drew the feature through September 1946. Gustavson also wrote/drew characters including Magno the Magnetic Man (premiering in ''Smash Comics'' #13, 1940); the Spider (premiering in ''Crack Comics'' #1, 1940); the Jester (in ''Smash Comics''); and Rusty Ryan. Gustavson, whose delicate, fine-line art resembles that of fellow Golden Age cartoonist

Lou Fine Louis Kenneth Fine (November 26, 1914 – July 24, 1971)Louis Fine
at the United States

Blackhawk Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to: Animals * Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856 * Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus'' * Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii'' * Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus uru ...

Kid Eternity Kid Eternity is a fictional character, a comic book superhero that premiered in ''Hit Comics'' #25 written by Otto Binder, drawn by Sheldon Moldoff, and published by American company Quality Comics in December 1942. All of Quality's intellectual pr ...

Uncle Sam Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of ...

and other characters. From 1942 to 1945, Gustavson did his

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require a ...

in the Air Tech Training Command, concurrently studying

aerodynamics Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. He returned to work for Quality afterward, and in early 1950s for the

American Comics Group American Comics Group (ACG) was an American comic book publisher started in 1939 and existing under the ACG name from 1943 to 1967. It published the medium's first ongoing horror-comics title, ''Adventures into the Unknown''. ACG's best-known ch ...

(AGC), doing humor features. Later that decade, he left the field to become a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

and civil engineer for

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. His brother Nils collaborated with him on Centaur's Man of War.

Footnotes

* ''The Steranko History of Comics 2'' by Jim Steranko (Supergraphics, 1972), p. 99

References

Lambiek Comiclopedia: Paul Gustafson (Paul Gustavson, Paul Carroll)
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20031225093803/http://members.tripod.com/originalvigilante/spider.htm Alias the Spiderbr>The Grand Comics Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gustavson, Paul 1916 births 1977 deaths American artists Golden Age comics creators Finnish emigrants to the United States Marvel Comics people