Background
Gustavson was born in Åland, Finland.
Gustavson was born in Åland, Finland.
Emigrating to the United States. with his family at age five, Gustavson (who modified his name when he entered comics) graduated from Quentin High School in New York City, and studied civil engineering at Manhattan"s Cooper Union.
His most notable creations during the Golden Age of Comic Books were The Human Bomb for Quality Comics, and the Angel, who debuted in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939), the first publication of Marvel Comics forerunner Timely Comics. The Angel would star in more than 100 stories in the 1940s. The Human Bomb would later be acquired by District of Columbia Comics and make sporadic appearances as late as 2005.
Gustavson assisted on Owen"s Collier"s Magazine humor spot, "Filbert".
Gustavson began working in the studio of the quirkily named Harry "A" Chesler, a "packager" of comic books for publishers testing the waters of the emerging medium. "I started at $12 a week", he told historian Jim Steranko, who interviewed him in the early 1970s.
"lieutenant wasn"t much but in those days it was enough for medical I stayed with Chesler for about two years and, during that time, worked with people like Jack Cole, Mort Meskin, Gill Fox, Fred Guardineer, Charlie Biro, and Bob Wood"1.
After getting married and beginning a family, Gustavson began working for another comics packager, Funnies, Incorporated., which supplied publisher Martin Goodman with the contents of Marvel Comics #1.
The packager also supplied Centaur Publications, for which Gustavson created A-Manitoba, the The Arrow, Fantom of the Fair, and Manitoba of War. Other notable work includes humor features in five early issues of District of Columbia"s Action Comics, starting with issue #5 (October 1938), and the two-page humor piece "Major Bigsbee an" Botts" in the oft-reprinted Batman #1 (Spring 1940). He later joined Quality Comics, one of District of Columbia"s predecessors, where publisher "Busy" Arnold offered $25 a page.
There Gustavson created the Human Bomb (premiering in Police Comics #1, August 1941), aigning the earliest episodes with the pseudonym "Paul Carroll.
He wrote and drew the feature through September 1946. Gustavson also wrote/drew characters including Magno (premiering in Smash Comics #13, 1940).
The Spider (premiering in Crack Comics #1, 1940). The Jester (in Smash Comics).
And Rusty Ryan (in Feature Comics), whose uniform strongly evoked that of Captain America.
Gustavson, whose delicate, fine-line art resembles that of fellow Golden Age cartoonist Lou Fine, also worked on Blackhawk, Kid Eternity, Uncle Sam and other characters. From 1942 to 1945, Gustavson did his World World War II military service in the Air Technical Training Command, concurrently studying aerodynamics at Rutgers University. Later that decade, he left the field to become a surveyor and civil engineer for New York State.