Hugh Laidman was an American commercial artist, illustrator, muralist, teacher and painter. He was born in New York City, and began his professional career at age 14, before graduating from the Pratt Institute in 1937. Before World War II, he was art director at Van Valkenburg Associates and later James J. McMahon Advertising. As a painter, he was known for the battle scene watercolors that he made while in the Marine Corps during the war, and for his figure and landscape paintings.
He was one of the illustrators hired to illustrate the Apollo missions for NASA, but he was mainly an accomplished animal illustrator. This can be seen in his comic strip 'Middle Class Animals', that appeared in over 100 newspapers in the United States, Canada, throughout Europe and in South Africa from 1970-72 through the McNaught Syndicate. Laidman did several covers and ads for Colliers Magazine, a cartoon series for The New Yorker magazine, and numerous illustrations for Hearst Publications. He was furthermore author of several how-to books on drawing.
