Paul Gustavson

Paul Gustavson
Born	Karl Paul Gustafson August 16, 1916 Åland, Finland
Died	April 29, 1977
Area(s)	Writer, Penciller, Inker

Paul Gustavson (née Karl Paul Gustafson August 16, 1916 – April 29, 1977) was an American-immigrant comic-book writer and artist. His most notable creations during the Golden Age of Comic Books were The Human Bomb for Quality Comics, and the Angel, who debuted in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939), the first publication of Marvel Comics forerunner Timely Comics. The Angel would star in more than 100 stories in the 1940s. The Human Bomb would later be acquired by DC Comics and make sporadic appearances as late as 2005.

Gustavson was born in Åland, Finland. Emigrating to the U.S. with his family at age five, Gustavson (who modified his name when he entered comics) graduated from Quentin High School in New York City, and studied civil engineering at Manhattan's Cooper Union. Seguing to art at about age 17, he spent two to three years apprenticing under cartoonist Frank Owen, the husband of one of Gustavson's childhood friends in Finland. Gustavson assisted on Owen's Collier's Magazine humor spot, "Filbert".

Gustavson began working in the studio of the quirkily named Harry "A" Chesler, a "packager" of comic books for publishers testing the waters of the emerging medium. "I started at $12 a week", he told historian Jim Steranko, who interviewed him in the early 1970s. "It wasn't much but in those days it was enough for me. I stayed with Chesler for about two years and, during that time, worked with people like Jack Cole, Mort Meskin, Gill Fox, Fred Guardineer, Charlie Biro, and Bob Wood".

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