Number 1314: Putting the ‘artist’ in comic book artist

Louis Goodman (Lou) Ferstadt was a comic artist of the 1940s, whose style was a mixture of the cartoonish and the serious. Ferstadt was born in Ukraine in 1900, but came to the U.S. and worked as an artist his entire life. Comic books were his business after working in advertising and as a muralist for the Federal Arts Project department of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) a Federal program of the 1930s to provide work for the longterm unemployed.

This 1939 photograph shows him in front of one of his works.

 Ferstadt worked for various comic book companies and comic shops, and for a time had his own shop. One of his studio members was a young Harvey Kurtzman. Ferstadt also provided a comic strip for the Communist Party USA newspaper, The Daily Worker. He died in 1954.

Here are two examples of his work on comics from the mid-'40s. They're from Suspense Comics #6 (1944) and #8 (1945) respectively. Based on his photograph, you think Lou Ferstadt may have used himself as the model for the “Doctor of Doom”..?