Irwin Hasen

Irwin Hasen
Irwin Hasen at the Big Apple Summer Sizzler (June 13, 2009)
Born	(1918-07-08)July 8, 1918 Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Died	March 13, 2015(2015-03-13) (aged 96) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Penciller, inker
Notable works	Dondi

Irwin Hasen (July 8, 1918 – March 13, 2015) was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator (with Gus Edson) of the Dondi comic strip.

Irwin Hasen was born in Manhattan and raised in Brooklyn. His family later moved from Brooklyn to 110th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School. In 1939, he began his art training on the block where he lived, as he recalled:

Across the street was the National Academy of Design, a huge structure like a garage, an airplane hangar. One of the oldest art schools in America, one of the most prestigious. Classical art. I was always drawing. I was drawing... on the empty pages of books. So my mother, God bless her soul, took me across the street and enrolled me in a course of drawing... I was there for three years, every night during the week, drawing in charcoal all the statues of Michelangelo and all the Bernini and all the classics... During the day, I would hawk, sell, drawings of prizefighters down in New York. That was my first job—boxing cartoonist. I made a very small, very slight living. I was 19-20 years old. I sold my cartoons to the Madison Square Garden Corporation. They were printed all over New York in different newspapers. It was like public relations for the fights.

After study at National Academy of Design, Hasen went to the Art Students League and then entered the comic book field in 1940 with the Harry "A" Chesler shop, contributing to The Green Hornet, The Fox, Secret Agent Z-2, Bob Preston, Explorer, Cat-Man and The Flash. At this time, he created the feature Citizen Smith, Son of the Unknown Soldier. In 1941, he worked for Sheldon Mayer. His art during the 1940s also included Green Lantern and the creation of the National Comics/DC Comics character Wildcat. He also did occasional art work for Wonder Woman in 1943, particularly Sensation Comics #19.

During World War II, Hasen was stationed at Fort Dix and managed the Fort Dix Post newspaper: "I edited it, I published it, I took it to the printers, I learned how to set up type, I did the comic strip, I wrote the whole goddam thing, and I interviewed all the celebrities coming in from New York. I worked my ass off, and I wound up in the hospital. But that was my proudest time, editing that newspaper for a year and a half."