Arthur, or "Artie", Saaf worked for many of the American comic book companies from the 1940s through the 1980s, working mainly on romance titles. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Saaf's ancestry was both Swedish and German. His first job was working as a message boy in Wall Street during the 1930s. A self-taught artist, he started working in comics through agencies in 1938. Saaf attended the Pratt Institute in 1941-42, where he majored in Pictorial Illustration. He also took courses at the School of Arts and Mechanics and the Art Students League.
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During World War II, he drew for companies like Wing Comics, McFadden Publishing and Fiction House, working with characters like 'Kaanga', 'Camilla', 'Fight' and 'Sheena'. After the War, Saaf went to work for Timely, Dell Comics (Believe it or not, Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, Twilight Zone), Better Publications (Adventures into Darkness, Danny Glover, Joe Yank, Kathy, romance titles), DC (Angel and the Ape, Lois Lane, Mad Mod Witch, Supergirl, Withing Hour) and Archie Comics, working on autobiographical comics.
From 1954, he was also active in television. He got a job at the Kudner Agency as assistant TV art director, creating storyboards for the commercials on the Jackie Gleason Show. In the late 1950s, Artie Saaf became a freelancer. Throughout the 1960s, he did work for the many agencies, doing many TV visual and storyboard assignmentst. Saaf also did comic works until the late 1980s, as well as illustrations for Highlights for Children magazine.
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