'The Heat Horror' (Superman #18, October 1942).
Leo Nowak was an American comic artist who worked as an assistant to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. He illustrated various 'Superman' stories, as well as the additional feature 'Robotman' (1942-1958), for the early 1940s comic books of National Periodicals (DC Comics). He is credited with making Superman's major antagonist Lex Luthor bald. Later in his career, he worked as an advertising illustrator and as a political cartoonist.
Life and career
Leonard "Leo" Nowak was born in 1907 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He studied art where two of his fellow students were Frank N. Wilcox and Henry Keller. After graduation he tried to make a living as a painter and musician. He had his own jazz orchestra, playing in a nightclub in Cleveland. In between gigs, he painted a mural in a New York nightclub, where a whiskey salesman noticed his work. He told him that there was a commercial art studio who happened to look for new artists...
Superman
In September 1940, Nowak applied at Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel's comic studio, where he was instantly hired. He replaced Paul Cassidy and remained at the studio until early 1943. Nowak is best remembered for making Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor bald, which was the result of a mistake. In previous stories, Luthor had red-orange hair. But Nowak had looked at a bald henchman of Luthor in Superman issue #4 and mistook this crony for being Luthor. Instead of correcting the mistake in later issues, it was decided to keep Luthor's head clean shaven, presumably because it made him stand out more. Other artists who worked in the "Shuster Shop" during this period were Wayne Boring, John Sikela and Ed Dobrotka. Interviewed by Michael Sangiacomo for The Plain Dealer (December 2013), Nowak explained that in 1943 he joined the U.S. Army to serve during World War II. Right before he left, he had drawn a story in which Clark Kent reveals to Lois Lane that he's Superman. It was never published and he lost the original artwork.
Robotman
In Shuster's studio, Nowak was the first artist to draw the long-running back page comic series 'Robotman' (Star Spangled Comics, issue #7, April 1942). Robotman is an android, built by Dr. Robert Crane and his assistant Chuck Grayson. His body is a machine, but he functions on a human brain, namely that of Dr. Crane himself, who was murdered by bandits who wanted to steal the robot. Thanks to Grayson, Crane's brain was posthumously planted inside the robot. Half human, half machine, Robotman devotes his existence to bringing criminals to justice. For reasons that are never quite explained, Robotman too feels the needs of guarding his "secret identity" and therefore pretends to be a real human, Paul Dennis, hiding his robot features behind a latex mask. Despite being a robot, Dennis still has emotions, including love, and therefore keeps in touch with his former girlfriend Joan Carter. The parallels with 'Superman' aren't that surprising, since Siegel wrote the very first story. Robotman later also received a robotic pet, Robotdog.
In 1948, 'Robotman' moved from Star Spangled Comics to Detective Comics, from issue #138 (August 1948) until #202 (December 1953). Through this period, his adventures were written by various scriptwriters and drawn by other artists in Siegel & Shuster's studio.
Advertising career
After serving as a battalion artist during World War II, Nowak returned to the U.S. after the war. Although he was more than welcome to return to Siegel and Shuster's studio to continue working on 'Superman', they had moved everything to New York. Nowak didn't want to live in New York and moved to California. In the aforementioned Plain Dealer interview, Nowak recalled meeting Hollywood comedy film producer Mack Sennett (of 'The Keystone Cops' fame): "He wanted me to write and draw a series on 'The Keystone Cops'. I gave him a half-dozen very early issues of Action with my work in them. Well, he never got back to me and I never got them back."
Nowak started a new career as an advertising illustrator and painter of western-themed murals. For 25 years, he was the chief illustrator for Stamps-Conheim Newspaper Advertising Service in Los Angeles. He additionally illustrated Howard R. Gares 'Uncle Wiggley's' children book series and also made a series of erotic paintings.
Political cartoons
Moving to the desert community of Inyokern in the mid-1970s, Nowak illustrated political cartoons for The Daily Independent in Ridgecrest for twelve years.
Final years and death
Leo Nowak spent the last decades of his life making paintings, most of which depicted western scenes. He was a member of the California Art Club. He passed away in 2001.
'Robotman' (Star Spangled Comics #12, September 1942).