Youth and Education, Depression
and Pre-WWII
Art (or
"Artie") Saaf was born on December 4, 1921 in a cold-water flat’s "hall"
room in Brooklyn, New York City. The family home was located at 234 Reid
Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district between Hancock and Jefferson
streets. His mother Anna was of Czhek ancestry and his father Hermann was
of Swedish ancestry, and "Artie" had a brother and two sisters.
He fondly
remembers the location of the police and fire departments on Quincy Street.
Yet he doesn't like to remember being bedridden at 4 years old for almost half a year with
rheumatic fever before partially recovering. Artie’s
mother, in a separate statement, said his father "Hermann was a bakery
delivery carriage-driver for Manhattan Pie Company using a horse named
‘Tony.’ …. Arthur had a bike and it was stolen….It was made up from all
picked up parts into a great bike….Arthur picked up old newspapers with a home
made wagon made from carriage parts. We got 5-10 cents a hundred pounds."
At P.S. 26, his first introduction to art and drawing was in the second grade completing a class project of "Animals in the Field." He also
read the comics of Roy Crane’s "Captain Easy." He attended Alexander
Hamilton High School, graduating in the upper third of his class.
In the 30’s
after finishing his Public schooling, his first job was a "Page"
(message) boy in Wall Street, and then at the Stock Exchange Desk where he
proof-read bonds for the American Bank Note Company on Beaver Street. This
was during the depression, yet the task was so important that he received,
for that time, the princely sum of $12.50 per week.
During his
youth, he developed his art skills on his own and started freelancing at McFadden Publishing in 1938. He built his first drawing table from instructions in a Mechanics Illustrated magazine.And he was known as the family handyman, building a 3 story Tarzan-like tree house at the lake where the family would go for vacation.
World War II
Up to and
including the beginning of the War, the comic industry was centered totally
in New York City at the Comic Studio, run by Will Eisner. There were no
fully original stories being written and comics were created primarily by
re-doing the old serialized stories and using cutouts and re-written copy. Now, the industry had a new market, the troops overseas, and they wanted entertainment that they
could easily obtain and carry with them. The industry created the "new comic
book," with complete stories that had a beginning, middle, and an end. Artie
remembers the Orson Welles movie "Citizen Kane" as having a great effect on
Comics due to its visual composition as well as Roy Crane's introduction of four-color comics.
Artie attended
the Pratt Institute from January 1941 to April 1942, his major being
Pictorial Illustration. He also attended the School of Arts and Mechanics
for 1 year and the Art Students League for 2 ½ years. The instructor he most
remembers was Mr. Trafton at the Art Student's League, "and," he
recalls, "a good one, I might add".
During the
War, he worked on stories such as Commando Rangers, Clipper Kirk,Phantom Falcons; and did covers for Wings and Jumbo comics(see index below). The demand for good artists, thanks to the reception by the troops,increased quickly. He freelanced at night "ghosting" (which is doing the artwork of a strip that someone else got credit for) characters such as "Hap Hopper" by the well-known Washington correspondent, Drew Pearson.
Artie
continually "walked" all the studios, showing his samples and becoming
increasingly known as an excellent talent, doing "lettering" and "still and figure" work in most of the new studios.
Post-War 1940’s thru 1960’s
When the war
ended, there was a slowdown in the industry. Still, Artie was able to obtain
more work at such firms as Timely Comics,Dell Comics, and doing work on the new "Archie" type comics and autobiographical stories such as"The Clown of Baseball" in Real Life Comics. He kept so busy that he was able to buy 150 acres in the country and build a new house on a location that would have made Frank Lloyd Wright smile. But these times weren't easy. He chuckles when he remembers that he and Nick Cardy, Bob Lubbers and Reed Crandall would meet each other coming and going, looking for work. Like many others, they were competing for deskspots at the ad agencies and studio art suppliers. It was the time of "feast or famine".
In 1954-55, Artie left the comic world and went to work for the Kudner Agency as Assistant TV Art director, creating the "storyboards" for "The Jackie Gleason Show." In 1956, he did work for the Dancer, Fitzgerald, and Sample Agency as a TV art director.
In 1958-59,
Artie left the Agencies to work on his own as a freelancer because, he said,
"the pace was too fast, and I wanted time to think about what I was doing."
From 1959 through the late 60’s he worked for such agencies as Donahue
and Coe; D’Arcy; Benton and Bowles; McConnell-Eastman-Canada; Dancer
Fitzgerald and Sample; and Thompson-Koch. His TV visual and storyboard work
were primarily ads and included: Post Cereals; Crest; Zest; Liquid Prell;
Personna; Parliament cigarettes; Yuban; Maxwell House; Life Savers; Cue
toothpaste; Texaco; Minute Rice (Canada); Royal Crown Cola. All the while he
was still doing his comic work!(see Mark Evanier article below)
Post 1970
Artie returned to the comic world in the late '60's and by 1970, his versatile skills were put to use in Humor, War, Horror/Sci-Fi, Romance and Super-Hero titles(see index below). Carmine Infantino, the Executive Editor at DC, shared a studio with Artie on 46th street, calling him a "class act" and a "brilliant interpreter at whatever he did. I was happy to have him at DC".
After leaving the comic world, Artie continued to do other work, such as illustrations for "Highlight's for Children" magazine. He's written and illustrated columns for newspapers and magazines concerning the outdoors and worked with the Audubon society and Game Commission in his state on conservation-related topics. He's done advisory work to High School Conferences on careers for budding artists. He's created artwork about local historic sites in his neighborhood while continuing to create works for his family and friends. But he most enjoys his garden and the company of his grandchildren. His favorite color is
Turquoise. And his favorite baseball team is of course the"Yankee's".
