Born: 1916 August 16 in Åland, Finland

Died: 1977 April 29 in New York, United States

Biography: Karl Paul Gustafson was born on the island of Åland, Finland. The family name was actually Gustafsson, with two 's', but his father Americanized it to Gustafson. He was active both as a screenwriter and cartoonist, and usually did all the work on his art, including lettering per his son Terry. In comics work, he was most often known as Paul Gustavson with a 'v'.
After high school, Gustavson studied engineering and surveying at Cooper Union in Manhattan. Beginning at the age of 17, Gustavson worked as an assistant to cartoonist Frank Owen on Little Philbert for Collier's Magazine, graduating to create his own cartoons for Collier's. He also did pen and ink work on the syndicated comics Jaspar in 1935 and Fantom of the Fair in 1939. He worked as a cartoonist for the Chesler Studio in 1937-38. Gustavson moved on to the Funnies Inc. studio from 1939-42, which supplied material to both Timely Comics and Centaur Publications. He eventually worked for many companies, including DC, Novelty Press, and Quality. For Quality, Gustavson created The Human Bomb under the pseudonym Paul Carroll.
In 1942-45, he was in military service but returned to Quality after World War II. After Quality sold out to National Comics, Gustavson worked for American Comics Group on both comics and as an advertising cartoonist. In the 1950s, he stopped working as a cartoonist and became a surveyor and civil engineer for the state of New York.

Notes: Photo provided by Terry P. Gustafson, son of Paul. Photo by Nils Gustavson, brother.

Additional biographical sources: "Great Comic Book Artists" 1986 (book).


Sample Scan:


Name:

    Paul Gustavson Type: Common Alternative Name

Other Names:

  1. Karl Paul Gustafson Type: Changed Name
    Given name: Karl Paul Family name: Gustafson
  2. Karl Paul Gustafsson Type: Name at Birth
    Given name: Karl Paul Family name: Gustafsson
  3. Gustavson Type: None
  4. P. Gustavson Type: Common Alternative Name
  5. Paul Carroll Type: Pen Name

Signatures:

  1. GP [interlocking letters] [generic]
  2. Gus [generic]
  3. Gustavson [generic]
  4. N. Viscardi [generic]
  5. Nick Cardy [generic]
  6. P. G. [generic]
  7. P. Gustavson [generic]
  8. Paul Carrol [generic]
  9. Paul Gustavson [generic]
  10. PG [generic]

Art Influences:

Paul Gustavson (b. 1916) stated influences by:
  1. Frank Owen (b. 1907)

Relations:

  1. Employee of - Chesler Studio (b. 1936)
    Notes: The artist did pencil and ink works for the studio from 1937 to circa 1938.
  2. Employee of - Funnies, Inc. (b. 1939)
    Notes: The artist did pencil and ink works for the studio from circa 1939 to circa 1942.
  3. Sibling - Nils Gustavson