Leon Lazarus

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This article is about the writer-editor. For other uses of the name Lazarus, see Lazarus (disambiguation).

Tales to Astonish #64 (Feb. 1965), art by Carl Burgos & Paul Reinman.

Leon Lazarus (born Summer 1920) was a writer-editor for publisher Martin Goodman's Magazine Management Company, as well as for Goodman's Timely and Atlas comic book companies, the two predecessors of Marvel Comics. The uncredited author of countless comic-book stories from 1947 through at least 1965 — with his name long considered a possible pseudonym on the rare occasions it appeared — the 85-year-old Lazarus was located in 2005 by comics historians who then initiated efforts to document his credits and fill some of the many gaps in the medium's record.

In addition to comic books, Lazarus wrote paperback books, including two in the popular "Nick Carter" detective novel series, as well as children's books for Little Golden Books. His magazine writing included pieces for the men's adventure magazines Saga, Stag, and Blue Book, and the more general-interest Coronet.

Lazarus began with Timely Comics under editor-in-chief Stan Lee in 1947, upon being discharged from his World War II military service, where his stationing included Italy. As Timely evolved into Atlas circa 1950-51, Lazarus worked as an assistant to cartoonist Al Jaffee, then editor of the teen-humor line.

Lazarus had two public credits during the 1960s Silver Age of comic books: the anthological suspense-mystery story "Wes Wilson, Worry-Wart" in the American Comics Group (AGC) comic Unknown Worlds #6 (March 1961); and the Giant-Man superhero story "When Attuma Strikes" in Tales to Astonish #64 (Feb. 1965).

As an editor for Goodman's magazines, Lazarus worked with such staff writers as Mario Puzo, future author of The Godfather. Lazarus' brothers, Harry Lazarus and Sid Lazarus, did magazine illustrations, and Harry as well contributed art to such comic books as Avon Comics' Strange Worlds #8 (Aug. 1953).

Of his two daughters, Rochelle and Sherry, the latter is an editor for an online art museum, the Art Renewal Center.

Lazarus is not the science fiction book reviewer and writer Dr. Henry Leon Lazarus.

1 Bibliography
- 1.1 Books
- 1.2 Articles
2 Quotes
3 Footnotes
4 References

[edit] Bibliography

Coronet, August 1965

This list is incomplete

[edit] Books

Lassie and the Lost Explorer (Simon and Schuster/Little Golden Book, 1958; illustrated by Frank Bolle)
Tales of Wells Fargo: Danger at Mesa Flats (Simon and Schuster/Little Golden Book, 1958; illustrated by John Leone)
Nick Carter: The Turncoat by Nick Carter (House pseudonym used by Leon Lazarus)
Other Times, Other Places (Xlibris, 2001, ISBN 1-4134-0690-4; Replica Books 2004)

[edit] Articles

Coronet (Aug. 1965): "Electronic Lifesavers" by Leon Lazarus

[edit] Quotes

Fred Hembeck: "Leon had his assistant position before Al [Jaffee] got his editorial post; Leon read through all the submissions, weeding out the junk and only passing on the worthwhile material to Jaffee; and Leon had mastered the ability to improve a six-pager with just a few judicious edits. Plus, Al really liked the guy. Basically, Jaffee found him indispensable".^[1]