Klaus Nordling

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Klaus Nordling (May 29, 1910[1] - November 1986) was a Finnish American writer-artist for American comic books. He is best-known for his work on the 1940s masked-crimefighter feature "Lady Luck", and as co-creator of the Marvel Comics superhero the Thin Man. Some of Nordling's earliest comic books are signed F. Klaus[2], Ed Norris, [3] or Clyde North.[4]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Born in Finland, Klaus Nordling moved to the United States as a child. He broke into art professionally as a gag cartoonist for Americana Magazine in the 1930s.[5] In 1939, he joined the studio Eisner & Iger, a prominent comic book "packager" that produced comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium during the late-1930s and 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Also circa 1939, he wrote and drew a short-lived syndicated Sunday-newspaper comic strip or panel titled Baron Munchauson.[5]

Due to Golden Age comics work often going unsigned, comprehensive credits are difficult if not impossible to ascertain. Nordling's tentative credits begin with script and art for the naval adventure feature "Spark Stevens" in Fox Comics' Wonderworld Comics #3-4 (July-Aug. 1939). His first confirmed credit is as penciler-inker of the six-page feature "Lt. Drake of Naval Intelligence" in Fox's Mystery Men Comics #1 (Aug. 1939). Nordling, who is confirmably credited as the "Spark Stevens" writer-artist in Wonderworld Comics #5-#15 (Sept. 1939 - July 1940), also wrote and drew the humor features "Strut Warren" (in Fiction House's Fight Comics), "Bob Swab" (Quality Comics' Hit Comics), "Shorty Shortcake" in Wonderworld Comics, and "The Barker" (Quality's National Comics), plus the aviation feature "Shot and Shell" (Quality's Military Comics), among others.

Nordling created the feature "The Three Aces", also known as "Crash, Cork, and the Baron", in Harvey Comics' Speed Comics #1 (Oct. 1939), and the detective feature "Pen Miller" in National Comics #1 (July 1940). For Marvel Comics predecessor Timely Comics, Nordling and an unknown writer created the Thin Man, one of comics' first "stretching" superheroes, in Mystic Comics #4 (July 1940).

[edit] Lady Luck

Lady Luck (Art by Klaus Nordling)
Lady Luck (Art by Klaus Nordling)

In 1942, Nordling began work on his best-known feature, "Lady Luck", which appeared as a four-page weekly feature in a Sunday newspaper insert colloquially called "The Spirit Section". This 16-page, tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book, sold as part of eventually 20 Sunday newspapers with a combined circulation of as many as five million, starred Will Eisner's masked detective The Spirit and also initially included the feature Mr. Mystic,[6] plus filler material. The titular crimefighting adventureress had been created and designed in 1940 by Eisner (who wrote her first two stories under the pseudonym "Ford Davis")[7], with artist Chuck Mazoujian. Writer Dick French then took over scripting.[8] Writer-artist Nicholas Viscardi (later known as Nick Cardy) took over the feature beginning with the May 18, 1941 strip.[6] Nordling succeeded him from the March 1, 1942 to March 3, 1946 strip, when "Lady Luck" was temporarily canceled. After briefly being replaced by the humor feature "Wendy the Waitress" by Robert Jenny, "Lady Luck" returned from May 5 to November 3, 1946 under cartoonist Fred Schwab.[6]

"Lady Luck" stories were reprinted in the Quality Comics comic book Smash Comics #42-85 (April 1943 - Oct. 1949), whereupon the series changed its title to Lady Luck for five more issues. Nordling providing new seven- to 11-page stories in Lady Luck #86-90 (Dec. 1949 - Aug. 1950), with Gill Fox drawing the covers. Lady Luck #90 was Nordling's last known original comics work.

Nordling assisted Eisner on "The Spirit" pencil art from 1948 until 1951, sometimes doing full ghost-art penciling.

[edit] Later life and career

Following the end of "The Spirit Section" in 1952, Nordling worked for Eisner's American Visuals Corporation through the 1970s. There he helped design instructional publications and other materials for clients including the American Dental Association, the American Medical Association, Esso, the Lionel Corporation, Maryland Game and Fish, the National Safety Council, the Red Cross, the U.S. Labor Department, and the South Korean and Turkish armies. For the U.S. Army, he contributed to the instructional "Joe Dope" feature in P*S: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, which American Visuals produced.[5]

At some point, as well, Nordling penciled and inked a promotional comic book for Borden, Inc.[5]

Nordling died at his home in Ridgefield, Connecticut.[9]

[edit] Quotes

Atlas Comics [retailer] Presents: The Top 100 Artists of American Comic Books: #78 Klaus Nordling: "Was there ever a better-dressed, better-looking heroine in comics than Lady Luck? Elegant and glamorous in the extreme, she was Nordling's crowning glory in scores of light, amusing adventure stories during the 1940s. His delicate, fine line style was a perfect compliment to the tone of the strip, both adventurous and whimsical".[10]

Gill Fox: "Nordling was a little guy. Good-looking. And involved in local theatre. He had a very vivid imagination and was a good writer. In later years I'd send some work in his direction. But if you did something for him, he'd think you wanted something back. We got to know each other socially, but he still mistrusted people. Even me. But I admired his cartooning. And he was a great guy to sit and talk to".[11]

[edit] Reprint collections

  • Ace Comics Presents #3: The Golden Age of Klaus Nordling (2000)
Includes "Bob and Swab" and "The Barker" stories, and January 21, 1982 Nordling letter to Jerry DeFuccio

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Birth and death dates per Social Security Death Index
  2. ^ Grand Comics Database: Mystery Men #5 (Dec. 1939)
  3. ^ Grand Comics Database: Fight Comics #5 (May 1940)
  4. ^ Grand Comics Database: Wings Comics #5 (Jan. 1941)
  5. ^ a b c d Bails, Jerry. Who's Who in American Comic Books 1928-1999
  6. ^ a b c Wildwood Cemetery. The Spirit Database.
  7. ^ Horn, Maurice. 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics (Gramercy Books, New York, 1996) p. 173)
  8. ^ Markstein, Don. Toonopedia: Lady Luck.
  9. ^ The Comics Journal #114 (Feb. 1987): "Klaus Nordling, Artist for Eisner's 'Lady Luck', Dies at Home", p. 29
  10. ^ "Atlas Comics Presents: The Top 100 Artists of American Comic Books"
  11. ^ Alter Ego vol. 3, #12 (Jan. 2002): Gill Fox interview

[edit] References

[edit] External links