Leon Lazarus was an American 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.
15 Facts About Leon Lazarus
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Leon Lazarus's magazine writing included pieces for the men's adventure magazines Saga, Stag, and Blue Book, and the more general-interest Coronet.
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Leon Lazarus is not to be confused with the science fiction book reviewer and writer Dr Henry Leon Lazarus.
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Leon Lazarus was born in The Bronx, New York City, the youngest among siblings Sid Lazarus, both of whom became comic book artists.
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Leon Lazarus was drafted in the US Army in 1942, and did World War II service in Italy, teaching the use of the then-new technology radar for the Signal Corps.
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Leon Lazarus was honorably discharged in 1945, and married the future Marjorie Lazarus was born on March 21,1922 and in May 1946.
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Leon Lazarus then became an associate editor under Don Rico, another staff editor, earning $60 a week plus an additional $40 a week for his freelance writing at the company.
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When Berg, Rico and fellow editor Ernie Hart moved on, later in the 1940s, Leon Lazarus worked as an assistant to Al Jaffee, who came in as editor of the teen-humor line.
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Leon Lazarus was assigned these freelance pieces not by her husband, but by Joellen Murdock, a secretary who made those assignments.
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Leon Lazarus was let go from Timely, along with virtually all the staff save for editor-in-chief Stan Lee and secretary Murdock, on a Friday in January 1950.
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Shortly after Atlas briefly suspended publishing in 1957, following the collapse of the company's newsstand distributor, Leon Lazarus began writing for Magazine Management, the parent company owned by publisher Martin Goodman.
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Leon Lazarus wasn't sold on [the Marvel Method] of doing stories [in which writers would supply artists with a plot synopsis, rather than full script, allowing artists to tell the story's visual narrative with their own pacing and details].
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Leon Lazarus became concerned that Stan would have too much leverage over him, and he worried about what would happen if Stan ever decided to leave the company.
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Leon Lazarus was living in West Orange, New Jersey, at the time of his death at age 89.
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Leon and Marjorie Lazarus had two daughters: Rochelle, who as of January 2009 was press and communications director for the Tenafly, New Jersey, Jewish cultural center Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, and Sherry, an editor for an online art museum, the Art Renewal Center.