| Lew Sayre Schwartz | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1926-07-24)July 24, 1926[1] New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | June 18, 2011(2011-06-18) (aged 84) |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Penciller |
Notable works | Batman Detective Comics |
| Awards | Inkpot Award,Emmy |
Lewis Sayre Schwartz (/ʃwɔːrts/SHWORTS; July 24, 1926 – June 18, 2011)[2] was an Americancomic book artist, advertising creator and filmmaker, credited as aghost artist forBob Kane onDC ComicsBatman from 1946-47 through 1953, and with writerDavid Vern Reed, as co-creator of the villainDeadshot. AlongsidePablo Ferro andFred Mogubgub, he was cofounder of Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz in 1961, a film company whose work includes the credits toStanley Kubrick'sDr. Strangelove. Schwartz was a teacher at theSchool of Visual Arts during the early 1960s. He produced a film aboutMilton Caniff in 1981.
He was the recipient of anInkpot Award in 2002, and fourEmmy Awards. Animator Jed Schwartz of Jed Schwartz Productions is his son andtype designerChristian Schwartz is his grandson.
Born inNew Bedford, Massachusetts. Schwartz was ofJewish background.[3] He was educated at theSwain School of Design. Already a fan ofChic Young, artist on theBlondie comic strip, it was here he became introduced to the art of Caniff,Noel Sickles andDavid Stone Martin through a school friend. After study at Swain, Schwartz went to theArt Students League of New York and became friendly with Caniff, occasionally spending his lunch breaks at Caniff's studio, watching him at work.[2] Schwartz described Caniff as a father figure:
Well, my father died when I was 12, and Milton became a father figure, in a certain way. He had all the accoutrements... The more I read about him, he was what I wanted to become. The fact he hand-fed me, in answering my mail and being very nice, and that I could call, and he would talk to me on the phone, was exciting.[2]
In 1944, Schwartz enlisted in the Navy, and he was trained atJacksonville as a radar operator and gunner. After two years service, Schwartz left the Navy and worked forRod Willard onScorchy Smith. In 1946, as well as becoming a founding member of theNational Cartoonists Society,[4] Schwartz met Bob Kane on a beach in Miami. Kane hired him to work on a baseball strip calledDusty Diamond which Kane stated he was developing withWill Eisner.[2][4] Although Eisner had no memory of this strip in later years,Eddie Campbell has identified it as being for publication inTab— The Comic Weekly. The strip never saw print, asTab was cancelled after one issue.[2][4]
In 1947, Schwartz was hired as an artist for theHerald-Tribune comic strip based onThe Saint. However, creative difficulties led to Schwartz leaving the strip to Mike Roy.[2][5] AfterThe Saint, Schwartz found a job atKing Features Syndicate through Caniff, initially working on preparingSteve Canyon for publication in various sizes. He also ghosted on theBrick Bradford andSecret Agent X-9 newspaper strips.[2][4]
Schwartz also began ghosting for Bob Kane.[6][7] Advised by his father, Kane had refused to enter into a class action against DC Comics with Superman creatorsJerry Siegel andJoe Shuster for ownership of their respective characters. Instead, Kane signed a deal with DC which guaranteed him steady income producing a set number of Batman story pages a year for publication. Kane then hired other artists to produce this work for him. Schwartz stated that he likely produced 240 pages a year for Kane over a seven-year period. Schwartz notes that Kane was "afraid to give anybody else any credit... Bob was scared to death it would be taken away if he acknowledged people that were helping him or even drawing for the strip."[2] For his own part, Schwartz kept quiet about the assignment due in part to its well-paid nature and in part to shame: "I didn't want to be associated with the books. At that particular time it was beneath my status... or my objectives. Let's put it that way."[2]
During this period he is credited with writerDavid Vern Reed as co-creator of the villainDeadshot inBatman #59 (July 1950).[8][9][10]
Schwartz left Batman in 1953, describing himself as unable and unwilling to draw Batman for Bob Kane again. He joined aNational Cartoonists Society trip to Korea, during theKorean War, assigned to theEighth Army stationed inSeoul. Here he entertained the troops doing "chalk talks", inevitably once again drawing Batman day after day. After Korea, Schwartz found employment in the advertising industry, first with theJ. Walter Thompson Company, where he started as a storyboard artist but soon worked his way up through art director to a producer in the film department. In 1961, he left J. Walker Thompson and entered into partnership with the animators Ferro and Mogubgub, founding Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz, with Schwartz bringing his ad agency experience to the table.[2][7][11] The company received sixClio Awards.[citation needed]
Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz produced the credits forStanley Kubrick'sDr. Strangelove.[7][11] It was through Schwartz that Kubrick acquired the stock footage of the explosion which ends the movie. Schwartz sourced and arranged for it to be delivered to London through a contact Caniff had in theUSAF.[2][4] Towards the end of the 1960s, Schwartz formed his own company, working as a filmmaker and producing sequences forSesame Street and network specials. Schwartz's work garnered fourEmmy Awards, including one in 1968 forTake It Off, broadcast on November 4, 1967 onWABC-TV.[12][13] He wrote, directed and produced documentaries onNorman Rockwell,Norman Rockwell and The Saturday Evening Post, and a self-financed one on Caniff, describing them both as "labors of love".[2][6][7]
By 1988, Schwartz was producingThe Dinosaur Group, a weekly strip forThe Standard Times. This lasted for five years. He was then hired by theCity of New Bedford to produce a graphic novel version ofMoby Dick, for which he performed layout duties from whichDick Giordano provided the art. Schwartz found this collaboration, in contrast to the one with Kane, to be a very joyful experience.[4] Schwartz taught at theSchool of Visual Arts, where he created the school's film department.[13]
[Deadshot] was originally created by Bob Kane, David Vern Reed and Lew Sayre Schwartz in 1950 as a prime villain for Batman.
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