Larchmont Times 8/10/1950
Wayne Douglas Boring was born on June 5, 1905, in Verdi, Minnesota, according to his World War II draft card. His middle name was recorded on Virginia marriage and divorce certificates, and in The Who’s Who of American Comic Books, Volume 1 (1973). His parents were John Harmon Boring and Lena Hansen who married on October 18, 1893 in Verdi. One of Boring’s pen names was Jack Harmon. Another was Val Rogers which may have been based on his older brother, Roger Valan Boring.
The 1910 United States Census said Boring was the youngest of four brothers. Their father was a retail general store merchant. The Borings were residents of Verdi. They were listed in the 1915 South Dakota state census. In the 1920 census, Boring, his parents and two brothers lived in Watertown, South Dakota, at 520 Maple Street.
In Amazing Heroes #41*, February 15, 1984, Richard Pachter said
Boring attended the Minneapolis Institute of Art after high school and studied anatomy at the Chicago Art Institute with J. Allen St. John, the illustrator of the original Tarzan stories.
Boring’s veteran’s file, at Ancestry.com, said he enlisted in the Marine Corps on July 19, 1924. His assignments were found in muster rolls at Fold3.com. Boring traveled to Parris Island, South Carolina. From July to September 1924, he was at the training station. In September and part of October, Private Boring was attached to the rifle range. Sometime in October and through December, he was court-martialed.
From January to May 1925, Boring was assigned to the field music detachment. In July and part of August, Boring was attached to the rifle range. Later in August, he was with the Naval Ordnance Plant in South Charleston, West Virginia. From September 1925 to February 1926, Corporal Boring was at the Naval Ammunition Depot in St. Julien’s Creek, Portsmouth, Virginia. For the rest of the year, he was at the Naval Ordnance Plant or Naval Ammunition Depot.
On November 3, 1926, Boring married Helen Saunders Lapetina in Norfolk, Virginia. The 1927 Norfolk city directory listed them at the Parkwood Court Apartments.
During the first four months of 1927, Boring was stationed at the Naval Ordnance Plant. In May his new assignment was the Eighty-Third Company, Third Battalion, Sixth Regiment Provisional Regiment, Third Brigade. In June Boring sailed across the Pacific and was part of Casual Company Number One, Marine Detachment, American Legation in Peking [Beijing], China. In November Boring was attached to the Fifth Company Engineers, Third Brigade, U.S. Marines in Tientsin [Tianjin], China. In December he transferred from Peking to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Fourth Regiment, Third Brigade, at 116 Sinza Road in Shanghai, China.
In early February 1928, Boring was aboard the USS Chaumont bound for San Francisco, California. From February to mid-March, he was at the Navy Yard in Mare Island, California. Boring was discharged on March 13, 1928.
According to the 1930 census, Boring and Helen lived with his in-laws in Norfolk, Virginia at 114 Church Street. Boring was a display man at a department store. The Norfolk city directories, from 1930 to 1934, listed Boring at 3719 Granby. His employer was the Virginia Electric & Power Company. In 1936 Boring’s address was 767 West Ocean View Avenue. The 1937 directory said he resided 3511 Omohundro Avenue and worked at the Virginia Pilot newspaper.
The Larchmont Times (New York), August 10, 1950, profiled Boring and said
... A native of Watertown, S. D., where his father was postmaster, he is a graduate of the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Chicago Art Institute where he studied illustration. He spent four years in the Marines in the Pacific from 1924 through 1928, and has worked as artist and layout man for the advertising department of the New Orleans Times-Picayune and for a department store in Norfolk, Va., switching later to the Virginia Electrical and Power Company as art director where he handled advertising brochures and newspaper advertisements. He then went to the Virginian Pilot and Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, doing layouts, headings and signatures.Ambitious to be a short story writer, he took a course at William and Mary but he’s been too busy to get around to it seriously.It was this urge to write, however, that was indirectly responsible for his drawing Superman. Intent on writing during his spare time, he would pour over Writers’ [Writer’s Digest] magazines in an attempt to learn a short-cut to success, and one day came across a “cartoonist wanted” advertisement. Boring answered the ad and contacted Jerry Siegel who had an idea to sell comics to a magazine. Siegel and his partner, Joe Shuster, had not yet dreamed up the Superman idea.“I think there was only one Comics Magazine on the market at that time in 1937 or 1938,” Boring muses. “And that was Action Comics.” [Superman appeared in Action Comics #1, June 1938.]In his spare time, Boring began to put Siegel’s stories into picture strip form. The first one they tried was “Slam Bradley” who was an ordinary fellow, goodlooking and strong and with a resemblance to Superman, but who wore civilian clothes—no uniform. Two pages per month were sold to “Action Comics.” After that came “Spy” and one called “Radio Squad,” each story running about two pages each month. Two or three other ideas flopped.Then one day Siegel from his home in Cleveland sent Boring a story about a fellow called “Superman.”“It was new and fresh as an idea then and it still is today,” Boring said, recalling Siegel’s enthusiasm for it.But it was hardly received with enthusiasm by the syndicates. Siegel and Shuster had quite a time selling it in the beginning. It looked crazy, they were told. A man who flew would be laughed right out of the market. Besides, the artists would run out of material in a week, it was said.Despite that, Siegel knew he had a good idea and took it to every syndicate at least three times. He finally sold a story to good old “Action Comics.” The results were electrifying. Kids began to ask for it by the thousands and circulation of the magazine jumped overnight, just how high no one seems to know. “Before long millions of kids were screaming for this big strong guy,” Boring recalls with a smile.In 1940 [sic] Siegel took it to Mclure [sic] Newspaper Syndicate and Boring quit his job in Virginia and moved to Cleveland to draw the syndicated strip for “Superman” at the resounding salary of $50 per week. ...
Boring probably saw the October 1936 issue of Writer’s Digest that published the following.
Publication Enterprises Co. is in immediate need of contacting artists to work upon comic and cartoon strips. While at this time our greatest need is for artists to work upon illustration story strips, we would also be pleased to consider the work of cartoonists.We work on a 50-50 basis, doing the continuity and selling ourself. Artists sending in samples of their work are asked to enclose envelope and return postage if they care to have their work returned.Publication Enterprises Co.,10622 Kimberly Avenue,Cleveland, Ohio.Jerome Siegel, President.
In Amazing Heroes, Boring said
“I carried the magazine in my back pocket for a couple of weeks until I dropped them a line. And I got an answer back. I sent some samples of my work.”
At the time, Boring had a full-time job. The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, November 10, 1938, printed a Sears, Roebuck and Co. advertisement that announced its contest winners. One of the three judges was Boring who worked at Rice’s Fashion Corner.
In American Newspaper Comics (2012), Alberto Becattini said Wayne Boring ghosted Toledo, Ohio artist Elmer Woggon’s Big Chief Wahoo around 1938. The Superman comic strip was distributed by the McClure Syndicate and debuted on January 16, 1939. Initially drawn by Joe Shuster, the strip was ghosted by Boring, Paul Cassidy, Paul Lauretta, Jack Burnley and others. Boring was credited as artist beginning July 1948 to May 1, 1966. During the series run a number of artists ghosted for Boring.
In The Funnies: 100 Years of American Comic Strips (1994), Ron Goulart said
The initial dailies look to be the work of Shuster himself, but a number of other artists drew the feature in the funnies. They included Paul Cassidy, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, and Wayne Boring. Boring would inherit the strip in the late 1940s when Siegel and Shuster were legally separated from their creation.
Boring has not yet been found in the 1940 census. His wife and eight-year-old son, Wayne Jr., were in Norfolk, Virginia at 3904 Holly Avenue.
Boring signed his World War II draft card on October 16, 1940. His address was 10609 Euclid Avenue, Room 306, and employed by Joe Shuster at the same address. Boring’s description was five feet seven-and-a-half inches, 140 pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair.
It’s not clear how long Boring stayed in Cleveland. The 1941 and 1943 Norfolk, Virginia city directories were not available at Ancestry.com. The 1942 directory listed Boring’s wife at 3904 Holly Avenue. Commercial artist Boring had a listing in the 1944 directory at the same address.
The Larchmont Times said
In 1942 Boring with his wife Lois moved to Larchmont Acres where they have lived ever since.
Records at Ancestry.com said Boring and his first wife, Helen, divorced in 1947. He married Lois Frances Anderson in Staunton, Virginia on March 8, 1948.
In Superman: The Complete History, the Life and Times of the Man of Steel, Les Daniels said
By 1948, Wayne Boring had given the Man of Steel a new look ... Superman was drawn in a more detailed, realistic style of illustration. He also looked bigger and stronger. “Until then Superman had always seemed squat,” Boring said. “He was six heads high, a bit shorter than normal. I made him taller—nine heads high—but kept his massive chest.”
Alter Ego #142, September 2016
The 1950 census said Boring and Lois were residents of Mamaroneck, New York at 816A Richbell Road. His occupation was cartoonist. Boring’s ex-wife and son were at the same address in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1954 Wayne Jr. graduated from Virginia Military Institute and became a doctor.
Boring was one of eight cartoonists featured in Coronet, June 1954.
The Danbury News-Times (Connecticut), February 15, 1957, said
Mr. and Mrs. Wayne D. Boring moved here recently from Larchmont, N. Y. into the Thomas Stout house at Washington Park estates.
The 1958 through 1966 Ridgefield, Connecticut directories listed Boring at 10 Lincoln Lane. The Wilton Bulletin (Connecticut), September 21, 1960, said
Mr. Boring and his wife, Lois, (no relation to Lois Lane) have lived here since 1956, moving from Larchmont, N.Y. He does all his work at home, rarely traveling to the offices in New York.
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Wilton Bulletin 9/21/1960; reprinted in
In 1966 Superman editor Mort Weisenger fired Boring for unknown reasons.
In American Newspaper Comics, Alberto Becattini said Boring assisted on Rip Kirby from April to June 1966, and August 14 to September 2, 1967; produced art for August 7–12, 1967 and September 4–16, 1967. Vic Forsythe’s comic strip, Joe Jinks (retitled Davy Jones beginning June 12, 1961), was drawn by many artists including Boring who did the daily strips from March 31, 1969 to June 1971. On Prince Valiant, Becattini said Boring assisted from 1968 to 1971
The Danbury News-Times, April 19, 1969, profiled Prince Valiant artist, Harold Foster, and said
... Wayne Boring of Ridgefield inks in the background after the owner completes most of a strip. ...
In 1972 Boring drew a three issues of Marvel Comics’ Captain Marvel, #22, 23, and 24, and a story in Creatures on the Loose #19. He drew Thor #280 which was published in 1979.
At some point Boring moved to Pompano Beach, Florida and worked as a part-time security guard. In 1983, he was a guest at the OrlandoCon.
For DC Comics from 1984 to 1986, Boring contributed to All-Star Squadron Annual #3, Superman #402, Action Comics #561 and #572, Secret Origins #1, and All-Star Squadron #64.
Boring passed away on February 20, 1987, in Pompano Beach, Florida. Obituaries appeared in Amazing Heroes #119, June 15, 1987 and The Comics Journal #116, July 1987.
Boring’s father passed away on August 5, 1945; mother on April 5, 1957 (South Dakota Death Index); second wife Lois on November 10, 2001; and first wife Helen on November 23, 2001.
* Boring’s age was misstated as 66. He was 78.
Further Reading
Comics, Between the Panels (1998)
Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—The Creators of Superman (2013), pages 173 and 207
Comic Book Historians, Joe Shuster’s Favorite “Ghost”: Wayne Boring
The Larchmont Times article quoted here contains a few errors:
ReplyDeleteAction Comics was not the only comic book being published at the time;
Slam Bradley and Spy appeared in Detective Comics, and Radio Squad in More Fun Comics, all before the debut of Action Comics in 1938.