Warren Kremer was born June 26, 1921 in the Bronx, New York. His father, Robert E. Kremer, was born in 1872 in NYC of German ancestry. His mother, Anna S. Neidall, was born in 1899 in NYC. His parents married on November 30, 1916, at which time the father was forty-four and the mother was seventeen. They had two children. His older sister Anita was born in 1919. They lived at 507 East 145th Street in the Bronx. His father was a sign painter.
His father had been previously married, and had three children, but his first wife had died. She was Louise Rath, born in 1878 in NYC, where they had married on June 26, 1894. Their three children were, Robert Jr. (b.1896), Charles (b.1898), and Violet (b.1908). Louise Kremer died at the age of thirty-eight on February 14, 1916.
His father's second wife, Anna Kremer, helped to raise her three step-children along with Warren and Anita. The two eldest step-sons, Charles and Robert Jr., both grew up to be skilled piano makers.
Along with a natural talent for drawing, Warren Kremer also had a dexterous skill with mechanical things. His exceptional ability to fix broken household gadgets earned him the family nickname "Doc."
All the Kremer children attended NYC public schools.
In 1936 Warren Kremer began to attend the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, which had just opened at 135th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem. His classmates included Gloria Stoll and Aaron Shikler.
In 1937 he transferred to the High School of Industrial Arts at 257 West 40th Street in Manhattan. One of his teachers was an illustrator that worked for Ace Magazines.
In June of 1939 Warren Kremer graduated high school and was hired as a staff artist at Ace Magazines. They were located at 67 West 44th Street. The art director was Fred Gardener. The Editor and Publisher was A. A. Wyn, and the owner of the company was Warren Angel.
By 1941 Warren Kremer also drew free-lance illustrations for pulp magazines. His work appeared in Strange Stories, Western Aces, Western Trails, Ten Detective Aces, and 10-Story Detective. At first he signed most of his work with his initials "W.K." but also used the alias "Doc."
His style of drawing for pulp magazines was influenced by James E. Allen, who drew pen and ink illustrations, but only rarely signed his work with an obscure colophon composed of the overlapping letters "JEA." The estate of Warren Kremer had a number of J. E. Allen's original illustrations for Ace Magazines, which were apparently given to the young artist as instructional reference material by the art editor, Fred Gardener.
During WWII he registered with the draft board, but was exempt from military service because of a medical condition.
Warren Kremer also drew comic books for Ace Publications. By 1944 he was working at Harvey Comics, which was also located at 67 West 44th Street, where he met Grace Callori, who worked at Harvey Comics as a letterer. She was born in 1924 in Jersey City, New Jersey.
In 1947 Warren Kremer married Grace Callori.
In 1957 they moved to Bloomfield, New Jersey, where they raised four children, Richard, Maryanne, Peter, and Suzanne.
Warren Kremer worked at Harvey Comics for thirty-five years, where he created to Stumbo the Giant, Hot Stuff, Richie Rich, and contributed to Little Audrey, and Casper the Friendly Ghost.
During the 1980s he drew for the children's comic division of Marvel Comics, where he contributed to Top Dog, Ewoks, and Count Duckula.
Warren Kremer died at the age of eighty-two in a hospital in Glen Ridge, NJ, on July 24, 2003.
© David Saunders 2014 |
