Lorenz Graham was among the earliest African-American authors to write books for children, regardless of race or ethnicity. He had spotted that mainstream ideas about Africa were often based on stereotyping, which led him to base his portrayals of Africans from a realistic viewpoint instead of the stereotypes of the time.
After his family moved from Hungary to the USA, ALEX BLUM studied at the National Academy of Design in New York. He eventually joined the Eisner-Iger shop, and in 1939, he started illustrating 'Samson' and 'Eagle' for Fox. In 1940 he illustrated 'Purple Trio', 'Neon' and 'Strange Twins' for Quality Comics. In the same year, Blum started contributing to Fiction House, illustrating 'Red Comet', 'Kaanga', 'Midnight' and 'Greasemonkey Griffin' among others. He was presumably also the artist behind the pseudonym Armand Budd, that also drew for Fiction House.
Alex Blum was a top artist for the Classics Illustrated series from the early issues. He illustrated over 25 Classics and stood out for his use of theatrical dramatics, which is probably why he illustrated three of the five Shakespeare Classics. Alex Anthony Blum retired in 1961 and died in 1969.
Born 21 March 1924, VICTOR PREZIO became one of the most prolific and underrated pulp magazine and dime novel cover illustrators of the post WWII era. Active throughout the 50s and 60s, his work for Dell, Gold Key, Warren Publishing and others ranged from sports to sci-fi to western covers. Then of course, for the men’s pulp mags such as True Adventures and Real Men, he followed in the footsteps of contemporaries like Norem and Mort K in his portrayal of tough men of action and the dastardly deeds of Nazis. It was these images that occupied the time of servicemen from Korea to Vietnam and West Germany in foxholes and barracks alike. Victor died December 1976 at just age 52 and sadly, not much is known about him other than his illustrations.
