Early life and career '' #64 (Feb. 1965), Lazarus' sole public credit for hundreds of stories for
Marvel Comics and its predecessors. Art by
Carl Burgos &
Paul Reinman. The credit, "Written by Laughin' Leon Lazarus," contains an example of the
alliterative endearments common in Marvel credits of the time. Leon Lazarus was born in
The Bronx, New York City, the youngest among siblings Sid Lazarus (March 12, 1912 – circa 1973) and Harry Lazarus (born February 22, 1917), both of whom became
comic book artists. He was
drafted in the
U.S. Army in 1942, and did
World War II service in Italy, teaching the use of the then-new technology
radar for the
Signal Corps. in May 1946. Having written for the Signal Corps and wanting to write for comics, Lazarus after three weeks approached
Dave Berg, a staff editor, who purchased a teen-humor story from him. 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. When Berg, Rico and fellow editor
Ernie Hart moved on, later in the 1940s, Lazarus worked as an assistant to
Al Jaffee, who came in as editor of the teen-humor line. Among the writers with whom Lazarus worked as an editor was
Patricia Highsmith, the future novelist, whose early career included writing
romance comics for Timely/Atlas. Marjorie Lazarus in 1948 and 1949 separately contributed "44 or 45" two-page text-filler stories.
Magazine Management After leaving Timely, Lazarus freelanced for the company as it transitioned to being known as
Atlas Comics during the 1950s. Under editor-in-chief
Stan Lee, his work there, he recalled in a late-2000s interview, included the
Western comic books
Black Rider,
The Arizona Kid and
Kid Colt, Outlaw. Lazarus additionally wrote for
Ziff-Davis, under editor
Jerry Siegel, doing stories for
Kid Cowboy,
G.I. Joe (unrelated to the later
Hasbro action figures) and other comic books for about a year, and also did work for the writer/artist team of
Joe Simon and
Jack Kirby, and for
American Comics Group (AGC), under editor
Richard E. Hughes. Shortly after Atlas briefly suspended publishing in 1957, following the collapse of the company's newsstand distributor, Lazarus began writing for
Magazine Management, the parent company owned by publisher
Martin Goodman. Under editor
Noah Sarlett, Lazarus said, "I wrote 350 stories for their men's magazines, going into the 1960s. I also worked for [staff editor and future best-selling author]
Bruce Jay Friedman." When Lazarus himself was briefly employed as a staff editor there, he worked with such staff writers as
Mario Puzo, future author of
The Godfather. Lazarus had two public credits during the 1960s
Silver Age of comic books: the suspense-mystery story "Wes Wilson, Worry-Wart" in the
American Comics Group (AGC) comic
Unknown Worlds #6 (March 1961); and the
Giant-Man superhero story "When Attuma Strikes" in
Tales to Astonish #64 (Feb. 1965). His Marvel Comics credit, during the period in which the former Timely/Atlas began establishing itself as a significant force in popular culture, came about, Lazarus recalled, when publisher Goodman ==Family==