During my phone conversations with Ira Schnapp’s son Marty and his wife Pam, I told them about the Ira Schnapp exhibit by Arlen Schumer then running at the Type Director’s Club, and they wanted to see it. So did I, and I suggested we go together. Unfortunately, we all had busy schedules, and by the […]

Ira Schnapp in the National (DC) Comics offices, 1955. Photo by Martin Schnapp, used with permission. While Ira Schnapp was on staff at National Comics, now known as DC Comics, and probably at home as well, he produced a vast amount of lettering and design work, while remaining unknown to the comics fans he was […]

In January of 1935, the first issue of NEW FUN: THE BIG COMIC MAGAZINE, published by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, blazed a trail by becoming one of the first comic books to contain new material. Most previous efforts had simply reprinted newspaper comic strips. Nicholson was a former military man and world adventurer turned pulp writer, […]

By the early 1930s, Ira Schnapp was making a living as a freelance letterer and designer, doing show card lettering, as seen above, for movie theaters and probably other clients. There was actually lots of work then for a person skilled in lettering. “Show card” lettering, or large display lettering done on card stock, was […]

We left the family of Max Schnapp, Ira Schnapp’s father, in 1910 in Part 1 of this series, which you can find HERE. Recent research by Alex Jay has uncovered Ira’s high school yearbook, his photo and credits from that are above. Ira attended Stuyvesant High School on East 15th Street west of First Avenue, […]