In 1938,
Western Publishing hired him as an art director/managing editor to help launch its line of comic books, financed and distributed by Dell. Lebeck oversaw Western's New York editorial office. Notably he hired
Walt Kelly who became one of the star creators of the line, best known for originating
Pogo while there. Lebeck also selected
John Stanley to bring panel cartoon character
Little Lulu to comic books. Writer
Gaylord Du Bois described Lebeck as "a man of immense drive [who] had a way of developing the best ability and the fervent loyalty of the artists and writers who worked under him". Du Bois co-authored with Lebeck three adventure novels for children in 1941:
Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress;
Rex, King of the Deep; and
The Hurricane Kids on the Lost Islands. Although the latter at the end mentions a sequel (
The Hurricane Kids in the Canyon of Cliff Dwellers) it was never published. Artist/Writer Dan Noonan in a 1968 interview reminisced about his time working for Lebeck at Western Publishing in the 1940s: "Lebeck was a wonderful man to work for, and he was really the only comic book impresario that, in my opinion, ever deserved the name.... Lebeck had quite a flair for design; the
Bauhaus was still not so distant in people's minds that it wasn't acceptable, and I think that's where his work might have been influenced. He had a wide open mind for ideas; he initiated
Animal Comics, a fairy story comic book, and these
Raggedy Ann comics at the end of the war. And many other titles that were one-shots. Just about everything he did turned out rather well". Comic book historian
Michael Barrier has commented that the aforementioned fairy tale, nursery rhyme and similarly themed titles "represented an effort by Lebeck, who had written and drawn children's books in the 1930s, to bring to comic books some of the qualities of traditional children's books, especially through rich and rather old-fashioned illustrations". Similar high aspirations inform Lebeck's introduction for the short-lived
Famous Stories series with his hopes that its adaptation of classic novels "told through a new and vivid medium, will recommend itself to parents and teachers everywhere, as well as to the boys and girls for whom it was created". One interesting sidelight is that in many cases Lebeck held the copyright of the non-licensed titles Dell published in that era, an unusual practice in the comic book industry. When asked about this Noonan stated, "I'd imagine that it was some understanding they had – Oskar was responsible for bringing up the sales of their comic book division, and I think this might have been part of his reward; he held these copyrights. And if there was any re-use of the material, he'd receive royalties". ==Later life==