'Fight Comics'.
Arthur, or "Artie", Saaf worked for many of the American comic book companies from the 1940s through the 1980s, drawing mainly for romance titles. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Saaf's ancestry was both Swedish and German. His first job was working as a message boy in Wall Street during the 1930s. A self-taught artist, he started working in illustration through agencies like McFadden in 1938. Saaf attended the Pratt Institute in 1941-42, where he majored in Pictorial Illustration. He also took courses at the School of Arts and Mechanics and the Art Students League.
During World War II, Saaf drew for companies like Quality Comics and Fiction House, working with characters like 'Kaanga', 'Commando Ranger', 'Captain Wings', 'Clipper Kirk', 'Phantom Falcons' and 'Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle', as well as doing covers for Wings and Jumbo Comics. After the War, Saaf went to work for Timely, Better Publications ('Adventures into Darkness', 'Danny Glover', 'Joe Yank', 'Kathy', romance titles), DC ('Angel and the Ape', 'Lois Lane', 'Mad Mod Witch') and Archie Comics (on autobiographical comics).
Romance comic by Art Saaf, National Comics, 1952.
From 1954, Saaf left comics and focused on a career in the television field. He got a job at the Kudner Agency as assistant TV art director, creating storyboards for the commercials on the Jackie Gleason Show. In the late 1950s, Artie Saaf became a freelancer. Throughout the 1960s, he did work for the many agencies, doing many TV visual and storyboard assignments.
Saaf additionally returned to comics in the late 1960s, drawing for humor, war, horror, romance and superhero titles like DC's 'Superboy', 'The Unexpected' and 'Young Romance' and Western's 'Believe It Or Not' and 'Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery'. Saaf did comic work until the late 1970s, but continued to do illustrations for Highlights for Children magazine. He died in 2007.
Cover illustration for UFO and Outer Space, 1979.