Early career Schaffenberger was born on a farm in the
Thuringian Forest, Germany, where, as a boy, he ". . . tended geese, herded goats, and hoed potatoes." Emigrating to America as a 7-year-old, first to
Hartford, Connecticut, and then to New York City, While working for Binder's studio, which was located in
Englewood, New Jersey, Schaffenberger took over an apartment from the local high school football coach,
Vince Lombardi, who had yet to achieve success in the
National Football League. Schaffenberger served in the
U.S. military during
World War II, including a stint with the
Office of Strategic Services, Schaffenberger returned to the world of professional sequential art soon after war's end. He resumed his work for the Captain Marvel family of titles, and expanded his reach to an even more diverse group of publishing houses, including
EC Comics,
Gilberton, Premier Magazines,
American Comics Group, and
Marvel Comics. At Gilberton, Schaffenberger provided the interior art for
Classics Illustrated No. 119,
Soldiers of Fortune (May 1954).
DC Comics , from
The New Adventures of Superboy #1 (Jan. 1980). In 1957
Otto Binder recruited Schaffenberger to DC Comics to work on the
Superman family. He stayed at DC for the next 30 years, making an especially large contribution to the development of
Lois Lane. In this capacity, he was the lead artist on the ''
Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane'' series for the entirety of its first decade. Indeed, Schaffenberger's rendition of Lane became cited by many as the "definitive" version of the character, and Schaffenberger was often asked by DC editor
Mort Weisinger to redraw other artists' depictions of Lois Lane in other DC titles where she appeared. In issue #80 (Jan. 1968), Schaffenberger updated the character's fashions to a then-more contemporary look. He was essentially fired from DC in 1970 for helping to organize other artists to protest bad working conditions. He then briefly freelanced and worked for Marvel, but returned to DC in 1972. When, in the 1970s, DC acquired the rights to the
Marvel Family, Schaffenberger was one of the key players in the revival of those characters. The late 1970s saw him contribute outside the Superman family of titles, including work on titles such as
Wonder Woman and
Super Friends. the final, post-
Legion title for the original
Superboy. Somewhat metaphorically, the Superboy- and
Supergirl-less DC universe that followed the events of
Crisis on Infinite Earths turned out to be a mostly Schaffenberger-less one as well. He largely retired from comics soon after helping with the final pre-
Crisis Superman tale "
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" Schaffenberger was a special guest at the 1996
San Diego Comic-Con.
Personal life Schaffenberger and his wife, the former Dorothy Bates Watson, who married in
Englewood, New Jersey, on March 30, 1946, had two children, Susan and her three-years-younger brother, Karl. The family lived for four decades in the same house in
River Edge, New Jersey, before moving in 1989. ==Awards==